Vault’s Verdict

AlixPartners' business model, long dependent on the turnaround consulting for which it is best known, has been evolving in recent years to include services for healthy firms. As a result, the firm is positioned to take advantage of current market conditions the world over, whether times are good or bad. In Europe, where economic conditions are still somewhat in the doldrums, restructuring work continues to be in high demand, which bodes well for the firm, and accounts for the highly positive outlook shared by firm insiders. 

That demand does translate to longer hours at times, which are tempered by a high degree of interaction with senior members of client organizations (which in turn translates to good potential exit opportunities for AlixPartners consultant)s. Additionally, the firm offers plenty of international opportunities to employees. Taken together, then, this is a firm that will reward—both monetarily and in terms of career growth—those who are prepared to put in the time, and log the airmiles.

Firm Culture 

"Very good experience, very good learning, high responsibility, very friendly but also challenging environment--great place to be."

"Excellent work experience, challenging internal support network."

"Very talented colleagues to work with."

"The very best people with a unique DNA for challenging, urgent, critical situations."

"Interesting work and fun, dynamic working environment."

"Challenging operational consulting in first tier companies achieving tangible results."

"Fantastic opportunities for personal and professional development."

"Senior experienced people, sense of urgency, high impact work, fantastic reputation."

"Hands on approach to urgent and important business situations, enabled by seniority and multicultural attitude of consulting team."

"AlixPartners has developed an early focus on 100% operational roles—with strong involvement of our teams at the clients' office. AlixPartners also enjoys strong positions in turnaround and restructuring assignments (one of the most famous examples would be the restructuring of GM in the US)."

"High quality people with very impressive educational and work backgrounds."

"Team-based approach to marketing and delivery."

Quality of Life 

"Best: Flexibility when you are not staffed on a project. Worst: Sometimes five days away from the office. Very long time spent in data crunching/analytical work."

"Work-life balance has a large variability depending on the assignment. I spent some horrible months working above 80 hours per week. Overall however work-life balance is more than acceptable for a consulting company."

"Since most people are older on average and have families, the firm is very protective of people's personal space and commitments. Night and weekend work are the exception, although some restructuring projects are on a tight timeline. An MD will apologize if they ask you to do weekend work or stay too late. Also, 'extra work' on pitches over the weekend gets noticed and is reflected in positive reviews."

"Great flexibility to balance work and home life if you get the job done. Extended periods of travel (five days per week) can be wearing."

"Opportunities to interact with interesting clients on interesting assignments in interesting places; inability to commit to anything firmly in personal life because of possible need to travel."

"Very much individualized if necessary, working can be planned on an individual basis."

"Level of mentorship very much differs with regard to management."

Career Development 

"Small senior team with extremely high impact engagements."

"Worst: No training beyond basic skills. Best: Wide range of engagements."

"Very opaque in how to progress plus the existing projects are uninspiring."

"Best: Very fast and customer career path (no standard path based on tenure) Worst: career path 'rules' not transparent."

"Best: Highly international set up. Worst: Company brand is still a bit too unknown among some retail companies."

"The firm is not setup for fast risers and the meritocracy framework is extremely skewed to factor in 'age' as a criteria. Number of years of experience are more valuable than consulting ability, initiative, work ethic, commercial/selling prowess. It is an extremely frustrating place to work if you are used more to 'up or out.'" 

"Fantastic engagements with well-known companies in crisis situations make your CV stand out. Promotion to managing director is very slow. Managing directors in our firm are the equivalent of senior partners elsewhere."

"Plenty of opportunity for the right people, but a somewhat obscure process for getting there."

Compensation 

"The annual rises are consistently below inflation. Joining salary is very competitive."

"Best: Very fast growth opportunities. Very competitive salary. Worst: No clear ranges/metrics for compensation and bonus linked to the role."

"Transparency about salary bands and expectations would be appreciated."

"It is not in line with McKinsey, BCG or Bain for the VP or Jr. Director level i.e. Project leader, Manager or Engagement Manager or Associate Principal. The hours at time tend to be like banking hours, yet the bonus is only about 30% of a banking bonus."

"Relatively high basic compared to other firms. Few other perks."

"Levels of pension, life insurance etc. well below what I had in industry."

"Best: Very competitive compensation. Worst: Highly dependent on individual contribution, so it is important to be informed going into a negotiation."

"Compensation is generous, but the weighting seems to be (from my perspective) more weighted by the firm's performance than your own."

Outlook 

"Diversified offering/several communities. Strong leadership."

"Best people, but fees are too high (managing discounts vs. full fees is much more difficult than manage reasonable standard prices)."

"Hands on, pragmatic, concrete, results driven."

"Best: Restructuring is hot. Worst: Inability to diversify away from core practices and core sectors."

"The firm's model is great for making money and for engaging the clients it works with. We have quite a few blue-chip clients, but the majority of them are a bit mediocre and need a lot of help. The firm is great with engaging and serving them. Fees tend to be high, and delivery costs are low. The firm is innovative about adding new practices, bringing on new talent where needed and investing in growth. There is a strong commitment to best-practice and intellectual capital development. It's hard to fault the firm's business model. The only thing is that sometimes the firm is not as quick to learn from failures with clients or to refine approach to suit extremely sophisticated clients. Also, there is a tendency to not be a self-aware and informed about the broader world outside of the firm—especially in terms of new opportunities. But net-net, it is a successful business model."

"We have the best people and as a result have a great outlook. We are slow to invest in new areas/offices."

"Great ethos which it is easy to sell to clients and excellent people. Sometimes price ourselves out of the market."

"Best: The quality of our people leads us to success in most off our objectives. Worst: The firm can be too conservative and is slow to lead or innovate in developing trends."

Hiring Process 

"Prior experience [is a] must. Languages [are a] bonus. Financial understanding [is] important. Self-motivator.""Strongly committed to hire the very best people. Individual follow up for exceptional, must-hire people. Ideal candidate: from 30 to 35-40 to over 45 talents, with exceptional track record, natural leadership, natural attitude to exceed expectations and overachievement. Self-conscious and psychologically strong people."

"Intelligent and driven individuals."

"Process is strict and requires a significant time, but is key to hire the right people. The ideal candidate has 4-5 Y of experience in some other consulting company (Bain, BCG, McK, Alvarez) and ideally also some experience in the industry."

"Older people with a mix of consulting and industry experience."

"We are highly selective. Very few people get through. The ideal candidate is highly intelligent, personable, articulate and speaks at least two languages."

"Seeking extremely intelligent yet practical people with a wealth of business experience but also the basic consulting skill-sets."

Interview Tips and Questions 

"Often disguised real cases of financial and operational turnarounds, financial distress, performance improvement, strategy development of healthy, challenged and distressed companies." 

"Have to do multiple rounds of interviews and extensive testing, both technical ability and psychometric."

"Cash flow statement analysis. Understanding causes of underperformance in a retailer

Produce a cash flow statement from the attached balance sheet and P&L. What kind of business is it? What issues do you see the company facing? What questions would you ask management?" 

Diversity and Social Responsibility

"Social responsibility is a core value."

"Background does not hold you back—we are rewarded on merit. There's no obvious diversity policy and little recognition that the diversity of our workforce starts with the recruiting process and the general messages in the market place about who we are."

"The gender balance is very male and changing only slowly."