Kearney folks, just starting interviews with the Strategy Operations Practice, how is it there? Culture? WLB?

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Imagine if LEK and Accenture had a baby together.

Its name would be A.T. Kearney.

And even though they were separated at birth and lived separate lives, Kearney would grow up always randomly reminding people that his long lost brother was McKinsey.

likefunny

Omg, “subscale” thinking

Great culture and the strategic operations practice is the best in the industry.

I enjoy working with them and they have real depth.

About as far away from Accenture culture or approach that you can find.

likefunnyhelpful

I’ve only worked with one, but they had difficulty selling new work with an established client in their expertise and just didn’t mesh well with the team. That’s my only personal example though.

I’ve heard selling and teams to be the main gripes. Which I suppose would be the main gripes…

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As someone primarily in the PE practice (U.S.-based) but occasionally doing work in SOP (including now), here's my perspective:

The culture is collaborative and supportive, though it varies by team, like anywhere. SOP work tends to focus more on cost-cutting and operational improvements (worked on big legacy tech or manufacturers projects), so it's less about growth strategy and tactical execution. I did have one long-term project that involved positive strategy work (growth, go-to-market, product cannibalization analysis, etc.) that involved SOP, but most can be found more in other practices. Client exposure is solid, but exec-level access is usually reserved for partners.

WLB has been good for me—working out regularly, taking breaks during the day when feasible, and even squeezing in social evenings by managing early/late work as needed. It depends on the boundaries you set, the notice you give, and how nice your managers are (I have peers who weren't as lucky).

Travel can be limited if you network for the right projects, which I've prioritized. Compensation is industry-standard for T2 (a bit below MBB), but I feel my WLB is better than my classmates at other firms, at least based on how they describe their work (but perhaps they are exaggerating).

I personally was never placed on a project I didn't want to be placed on, but others may have a different experience.

On a separate note, I find K1 comments more emotional and made in bad faith, but it is more than possible that people (and even a "leader" in the firm) are having such a terrible time. If that were me, I would have opted to leave as soon as possible.

likesmartfunny

1.5Y, Associate-level.

funny

Been here 5+ years

1. Culture is collaborative
2. WLB is worse than MBB / other T2
3. Most projects are Supply Chain, with procurement being ~70% of these
4. Growth is slower than MBB
5. Leadership is extremely risk averse. One major reason why the firm hasn’t grown as much as competitors.
6. Investments in people development are below industry standards. Most learning is expected to be on the job.

likehelpfulfunny

K5 - it’s a very fair point.

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If you want to work with some of the most narcissistic P&P and a broken clout based model to get on projects that will all be procurement with another name then Kearney is the place to be!

likesmart

The only reason to avoid it (if you do like them less) is that once you start hitting them in SOP, you’ll be tagged as someone who has done them, and then other procurement projects can potentially come after you HARD. I had a good number that I didn’t have much choice because of my experience and SOP Partner pull.

So even if something is coming up you want to do like manufacturing, logistics, etc. you may be pulled before you can get staffed. Since SOP doesn’t let experienced people sit on the beach too long.

If you like procurement, it’s fine. That also can be true of other types of projects, Ive just found breaking away from the procurement paradigm especially difficult.

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May the Lord have mercy on your soul

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That bad, huh?

Look, we’re adjusting to things being much busier than they were during COVID. Lots of folks joined and were used to things being a lot quieter, no travel, subsidies for working from home, beach time between engagements, etc.

Things have picked up in a meaningful way, with sustained double digit growth YoY. We’re decidedly not sinking. Unfortunately that does mean that WLB is worse than it was before, no point beating around the bush on that point, we’re completely sold out. It’s a good problem to have, but as we can see in some of the responses here, still very much a problem. We’re recruiting aggressively to help provide relief to our teams.

We’re known for our strategic operations chops and we’re the best in the industry for that - that’s end to end (source, make, deliver, etc). We are a full service firm though, so we do a lot of other stuff - I grew up at the firm and have been here for a decade, with procurement only making up a tiny part of my engagement experiences. Do we need to grow more in other areas? Of course we do, and those efforts have been turbocharged in recent years. But if you want to do strategic operations, there is nowhere better to do it - and your exit options will reflect that.

We’re a smaller, truly global firm with a smaller and very dedicated Partnership. It’s amazing to pick up the phone and call someone on the other side of the world and have a team there mobilized the following week to support a global client. Our structure and incentive systems encourage that, meaning lots of cross practice and region collaboration.

For the folks here that seem to be suffering, feel free to DM me and we can set up time to chat - I’ve been through crappy times and know that it’s not easy or fun, but there are things that can be done.

likehelpfulfunny

Agree with most of the above. One point of clarification though - we are at capacity not just because we are growing double digits, but because we OC’d a bunch of folks, including first year associates and BAs. Especially for the first years, we fell short of the values we claim as ours.

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I’m having a good time here. Work is interesting and WLB has been ok, at least for me, on both DDs and longer projects. Very flexible on work location, which for me is very important. Salary and benefits lag MBB, but are prob similar to other T2s. The job is in general quite unstructured (if you think of Bain operating model at the other end of the spectrum). Internal networking is very important. SOP is the core of Kearney, so you’ll be working on the best K has to offer. In SOP you’ll probably encounter procurement at some point or other, but if you’re not interested it’s very possible to keep involvement in procurement projects at a minimum (if there’s an area you don’t want to be staffed on, that will typically be taken into account)

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+1

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Left CIRP recently after being there for 5+ years. it is unfortunately a sinking ship with increasing difficulty to sell projects based on the firm's value proposition. Very little strategy work - mostly on operations/ procurement. Come here for a couple years if you have no other place to go, but exit opportunities are limited and not as good as other T2s. Culture is good ONLY when the firm is busy. P&Ps will not care about you when it comes to their comp.

helpfullike

Don’t bother

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We are a bit sold out. So gonna be a bit rough till we get capacity back.

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Yeah that’s what the recruiter said, they’re literally hiring to be able to fill capacity

Run while you can ❤️

likesmart

Ok I get the snarky responses, but just wondering if I can get any more details lol

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Did you end up appearing for an interview?

helpful

No, I got ghosted by the recruiters! No explanation after two initial promising conversations.

likehelpful

What’s the culture like in comparison to MBBs?

A bit nicer than McKinsey, generally more collaborative . Historically would say BCG is closest culturally but they’ve had a lot of culture dilution recently (not that we haven’t had our own issues)

Generally more down to earth, humble - big focus on client collaboration

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Wow, talk about the tale of two kinds of responses lol

Some regions got hit really bad and there were some big cuts, even to new joiners - you would find that in regions where this did not happen that people aren't so upset.
Personally, it's not a bad place. Nothing amazing, but generally a group of good people to work with at least below p&p and very collaborative. The current project I'm on is a major client, who has been with the firm for years. This client actually was using one of the MBBs, but hated them because they were very top-down prescriptive. I like that part of Kearney primarily. We tend not to have adversarial relationships with the clients and stuff recommended / done is more likely to actually be adopted in the long run.

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