Pros
- Learning Data Analytics: At Beghou Consulting (BC) you will learn the technical skill set required for data manipulation and analysis. You will learn how to take raw data and use analytics tools (SAS, SQL, and data vis. tools) to turn the data into information for clients. This is a critical skill set that BC shines at teaching their analysts. Within the first few weeks of working, you'll have built a very valuable skill set that will be immediately put to use (reinforced) at client facing settings. Coming out of school, Beghou Consulting is an excellent place to learn the basics of analytics because the environment is very nurturing: smart people genuinely want to help you learn and improve. Data manipulation is not intuitive if you've never seen a line of code before and BC is a wonderful place to begin a career in data analytics or data science. By the end of your first year, you'll be an Excel wiz., know your way around SAS and some data vis tools (e.g. Tableau). You'll be able to quickly turn data into a client facing deliverable. You'll learn to take direction from the engagement manager and work collaboratively in a team setting. - Good People: The people at BC are for the most part really smart, friendly, and always happy help you out. The vast majority of folks are wonderful to work with. I can think of several occasions in my analyst year where senior people took large chunks of time out of their day to sit down and help me work through a problem. I also bonded with my class and made some life long friends at BC. The diversity of intelligence at BC is truly outstanding at every level. From the analyst to the partner levels, it's clear that the people are really sharp. You'll work with folks with undergrad and grad degrees (PhDs, MBAs) from top universities. - Work Life Balance: Most of my friends at other consulting firms averaged 70-80 hours a week during their analyst years. My class seemed to average 45-55, I can recall only a few weeks out of 2.5 years where I went north of 70. Beghou Consulting takes work life balance seriously which is rare at the analyst and associate level at many other consulting firms. PTO is also taken seriously and is easy to schedule. Generally no one will bother you while you're out. - (In your first two years) you get to solve interesting problems. During my time as analyst, I had the opportunity to create Excel tools and reports that were immediately used by big-pharma salesforces. I learned to own a project and its associated analytics. - Compensation is great. - Ownership is accessible and truly cares about their employees. - BC is a consulting firm and as with other firms, you'll be providing regular analysis to the client. The difference is that Beghou client teams are generally small and many times, you'll own a portion of the project and the corresponding analytics. As a result, you could be the the "lead" for senior members of the client's organization early in the engagement; this entails a lot of responsibility and learning. - Opportunity to learn how to manage others by directly managing analysts (as soon as after your first year) and/or working with members of the offshore team and coordinating their efforts. - All of the above made the first year a blast. I learned quite a lot of valuable skills, worked with a great group of peers, worked reasonable-ish hours, and earned great compensation for a college grad. I truly enjoyed coming to work for the first year. - All of the above also means if you work hard and take advantage of the available opportunities, you'll be able to exit well.
Cons
In my experience, working at Beghou Consulting had a 2 year half life: For my first year, it was a great place to work and I enjoyed coming to work. Gradually those feelings reversed and at the two year mark, working at BC only retained half its original value. Below are cons at the 2-2.5 year mark. Note: They aren't reflective of my experience at the one year mark or what it might of been past the three year mark. - Tedious Work: Most strategy consulting firms, data is turned into information which is then turned into insight. The product is the insight, the strategic recommendation the firm gives to the client to solve/optimize a business problem. At Beghou, the work stops at the information step. In my experience, there wasn't much opportunity for critical thinking or prescribing of real recommendations that would have significant bottom line impact. You will make fancy looking reports or decks which contain summed up sales numbers, but that's information NOT insight. I can count on one hand how many times I (and most of the analysts in my class) had to do any as complex as a linear regression. Such work, if required, was typically done by managers or above. Statistical analysis would entail we were getting at insights which was rarely the case. This leads to boring, process orientated work for lower level employees where you will crunch data, quality check it, and compile the aggregated data into an Excel report that a client's sales rep may or may not look at. There are definitely some problem solving elements, but those are related to the technical nature of aggregating data into a usable format for reporting or automating/solving bugs in code. If you want to work on top-line business strategy, then this probably isn't the place for you. BC does not do true advisory, stick to the big 3 for that. Without getting into details, the "reccs" at BC are niche at best. If you want to feel that your work as a sizable impact in pharma/life sciences/biotech, then this could be the place for you (if you're fortunate to get a cool project) but most likely you'll make mind crushing Excel reports. Hard pass. - Cyclical Work: Unlike most consulting firms where staffing is engagement driven (weeks), BC staffing sticks the same people to the same client for months, if not years. Analysts master a process and are stuck with it since no one else really knows how it works. This means you will get really good at one thing, own that thing, and at a certain point...stop growing because all you do is run 'that thing'. This happened to me and others in my class. I was on the same client for most of my time at Beghou (two years) and my attempts to grow by learning other tools or practice areas was swatted away by my manager. Which leads to the next con: - Management could benefit from learning people management: For the most part managers are great people, there aren't really any that are horrible or unreasonable. I had a great relationship with my direct managers for most of my time at BC, but this perception tends to change at the 2 year mark when the boredom sets in. In my experience, after quarter after quarter of the same client, things become routine: managers will create a Gantt work flow of a deliverable and assign work, and solely judge you on your ability to grind it out. They don't care much for your lack of development from doing the same thing over and over.. (with a few exceptions who do genuinely care). After spending two years on the same client, I (and others) were put on a holding pattern for the same work we had been doing. It got to a point where I volunteered to take on a additional client work onto of my full load just to have something different to work on. Any attempt to seek out a different project was shut down. Perhaps because my competence was established with the "main" client, it was in the engagement manager's interest to keep me on the same client. Even when a more interesting project came up, I was taken off maybe because the manager's incentive was to get quality work out for the client. I had deep experience in the work thus I was kept on the original client. I got the feeling that any comments about my 'lack of growth and desire to experience something new' were not taken seriously by management (it felt like I was being an annoyance for asking). I was told by the manager that my request was noted and to "Put my head down and work hard" in the interim. Others experienced the same dilemma and all of us left when it became apparent that our opportunity to grow was limited. - Culture could be better: It depends the office. On the whole, it sometimes feels like there's divisiveness between the lower ranks and middle management, perhaps due to the reasons mentioned above.