Vault’s Verdict

A true boutique, Advancy offers an opportunity to do high-impact strategic work within a global firm with a friendly, collaborative culture.

From a career perspective, the firm provides consultants with the opportunity to make rapid progress, thanks to a mix of formal and on-the-job training—with the latter beginning almost immediately after hiring. While work-life balance can sometimes be a challenge, this is a firm where the hard work will almost certainly be noticed, and more than likely pay off in terms of early advancement.

Firm Culture

“An accelerator to master strategy and become a manager, based on a high number of very strategic projects and great company culture.”

“Clear cut choice of industries served (industry, retail, luxury) but strong expertise in each of these sectors, distinctive way of working (strongly quant-driven, attention to technical / scientific details).”

“Excellence in the work we deliver, and objectivity when it comes to performance and progress. People who work hard and deliver, are highly rewarded and are satisfied.”

“High number of very strategic jobs, with young consultants given early responsibilities and exposed to top client management and senior Advancy partners.”

“Super strong company culture, with very quant-driven problem solving, going into the technical / scientific details of each project.”

Quality of Life

“As always with consulting, there can be last minute requests which can be stressful and impact other parts of your life, but this is frankly the nature of the consulting beast. With good project management, this can be limited to just the principal / manager.

Travelling is not a huge requirement and you are able to organize planning according to what is best for you. Hours have improved a lot since 5 years ago, usually long hours are limited to right before major deadlines and overall the firm preaches efficiency to limit long hours. Weekends are sacred, and I have not worked weekends personally for the past 4 years at least. Before that there as maybe 1 or 2 instances per year.”

“Excellent relationship between consultants, events are being implemented to reinforce collaboration.”

“Great work culture, many events both corporate or not, work with other offices on regular basis.”

“Most of the partners, principals and managers do not have respect or do not care at all for personal life of employees, they demand for people to be 100% available even during late hours of the night.”

“Very limited travel requirements as a lot of work is due diligence. Generous benefits policies, with all meals and transportation paid. On the other hand, time off can be difficult to take outside of clearly delineated periods (Christmas and in August).”

Compensation

“Additional bonuses often through the year. Can add up easily to +10% of salary in addition.”

“Employees get equity as soon as Manager position, hence getting very substantial dividends on a regular basis on top of base salary and bonus.”

“Overall we are well matched to other leading firms in London; I know this as I was part of the benchmarking exercise. Plus the firm offers a weekly bonus if you are on a due diligence project (€150/week) or if you are travelling for 3 or more days in the week. Additionally, if you are a manager or higher, with 2 years tenure, you are eligible for share options which is an attractive perk above usual pay and bonus.”

“Rapid progression, updated twice per year.”

“Salaries at Advancy can be significant, but they follow a pay scale by grade.”

Career Development

“A lot of responsibility from day one, experienced consultants and managers always here to give advice.”

“Best aspects: mid-year promotion cycles enables fast progression in the company, internal training organized by offices for new joiners which is becoming more formalized.

Worst aspects: time for staff to prepare for and sometime attend internal training is not sufficiently allocated/ prioritized.”

“Best: very good promotion progress. 

Worst: limited exposure to different industries, and little choice as Junior on what kind of projects by industry or function you prefer to work on, even after initial exposure to all of them. Little choice in specialization.”

“Start up vibes with opportunities to grow rapidly in your own career thanks to great client exposure and being part of business development.”

“Training is available and quite comprehensive, but organised more ad-hoc for those that are starting off cycle. The firm, for many good reasons, advocates training on the actual projects, by watching, observing and shadowing others. This works well.

Regarding development, the firm does operate most of the time like a true meritocracy; good reviews and feedbacks lead to promotions and increased responsibility.”

“Very flexible promotion system ensuring true meritocracy: ultra-fast-track career paths possible with multiple examples, from junior consultant to manager in 3 years. A lot of responsibilities, including team management, handed to consultants as soon as they prove they are capable and willing to take them on.”

Community Engagement

“All consultants do have equal access to work and promotion opportunities, but more effort should be put in balancing the sex ratio in the company.”

“Not a key topic discussed given size of the company.”

“Same opportunities for everyone at the firm.”

“Very diverse employee base.”

“We constantly push to improve our D&I approach and have a very diverse workforce as a result.”

Business Outlook

“Advancy is a great strategic player in the consulting branch and has a high potential to grow. As in every firm you have some people which don't understand that team play attitude helps a lot to get faster to a better result. Conclusion: sure there is potential for Advancy's business outlook.”

“Approach is still very entrepreneurial, opening new offices, working with clients on new challenges: strong capacity of adaptation over the recent years to the state of the economy.”

“Best aspects: well positioned to keep growing thanks to strong technical knowledge and continuous development on new topics such as sustainability and digital.”

"Very strong position in France and Europe, especially on some niche industrial sectors (chemicals, life sciences, agriculture, building materials). Some flagship projects with large retail and luxury brands as well.”

“We have had exceptional growth, driven by several trends but primarily the 1) M&A market in the past 5 years including covid, 2) our specialized offering in chemicals, life sciences, and broader industrials, and 3) a more detailed approach to our delivery which has fundamentally challenged the 'major' consultancies who tend to be less detail orientated.”

Hiring Process

“3-4 rounds of interview, focus on problem solving and communication.”

“Efficient and smooth process typically with: one online test and 3-4 interview rounds. Ideal candidate: strong academic background, analytical skills, confidence.”

“Ideal candidate has strong analytical abilities, likes challenging strategic cases, willing to learn fast, and to brainstorm in teams, humble and with professional attitude with partners and clients.”

“Looking for talents with 2-year top preparatory class and Tier 1 Business (HEC, ESSEC, ESCP for France) or Engineer school (Polytechnique, Mines, Ponts for France), strong business sense, will to succeed, open-minded.”

“Standard strategy consulting interviewing process, with personality fit questions and case studies at each round, apart from 1st round being purely HR interview and online maths and logic tests.”

Interview Questions

“A stainless steel distributor in Italy, currently mostly addressing large companies, would like you to help them understand whether it would be interesting for them to also address smaller mom and pop companies.”

“Fitness studio market sizing in London for a new company considering entry.”

“Global beverages company market entry with regional comparison.”

“Pharma company opening to new market overseas.”

“Typical fit and motivation interview questions like Why consulting / Why Advancy?”