Vault’s Verdict

A&M has been on something of a tear recently—a reward for a years-long repositioning effort to build out growth- and strategy-oriented capabilities. With a potential economic downturn on the horizon, however, few firms are as well-positioned to continue to thrive as this one, with turnaround and restructuring work encoded into its DNA. 

As such, the company is in something of a win-win position—a fact reflected by the high degree of satisfaction and positive sentiments around business outlook expressed by its consultants in our annual survey. With an “eat-what-you-kill” compensation model and few additional perks, this isn’t a firm that will appeal to anyone seeking a gradual introduction to the consulting lifestyle. But for those willing to put in the hours—particularly if you’re already a seasoned professional—the rewards on offer are on par with the best in the industry.

Firm Culture

“Although globally we are large, we are still operating on a small scale and there is so much untapped opportunity that it is exciting.”

“Entrepreneurial approach to building teams and opportunities. The firm hires great people who are technically brilliant / subject matter experts, but who are - for the vast majority - also very nice and genuine people who care about what they do and are willing to support you even if there is no immediate upside or direct benefit to them.”

“It is a good starting point in your career as fresh graduate, as well as a good place to enter as top management. If you are looking for a place to grow in your late 20s and 30s in middle management positions, probably I would recommend somewhere else.”

“The small scale relative to Big 4 means we can have genuine interaction with wider teams outside of our own Business Unit. This is a serious market differentiator considering competitors cannot either offer a combined effort because of internal barriers or lack of specialism. The only thing we need to be wary of is that we can start to develop these internal barriers when everyone focuses on their own business units / cost centres.”

“Work here if you want a mix of traditional consulting and operational work. As strategy houses reinvent themselves and the Big Four carve out different business units, we are one of the leading firms offering an integrated value proposition to both clients and our own people.”

Quality of Life

“Best: Lots of flexibility at more senior levels to determine how you spend your time (and directly influence compensation / remuneration).

Worst: I haven't been with the firm for long but I can see that the nature of some of the core work (i.e. diligence projects) demands a lot more hours from all employees, juniors in particular.”

“Flexibility in working from home is great and fairly easy to take time off. However, company holidays are (a little) more limited than what I have seen with other companies.”

“I have a very good quality of life, partly because of my role and partly because of boundaries I have set myself. I think this may be unusual to an extent. I don't really work outside of work, I only travel occasionally, and I've never had an issue taking time off. But I am very dedicated for the time I am in the office, so I don't usually have work to do outside of office hours.”

“M&A is deadline driven and fast paced. Not for all but if you work in this area the interesting engagements and good remuneration offsets the work life balance trade off.”

“While hours can be long during key inflection points of client engagements, senior colleagues do make an effort to give the team downtime whenever possible, both through team dinners / drinks events and personal time. Post-COVID, the travel requirements have become a lot more flexible. We used to do the usual 4 days per week at the client site. Now we have a hybrid, bespoke model that varies by client. In general, the flexibility has been great.”

Compensation

“Base salary is higher as there are not many additional compensation (e.g. company car, gym reimbursements, etc.). Also, the bonus payments are a lot higher than at other companies.”

“Experience is not recognised in base pay, anyone joining at X level is paid the same as anyone else recruited for a similar role, regardless the level of experience. This means a graduate is paid the same amount as someone with 20 years' experience, although expectations would vary in terms of performance.”

“For highly utilized consultants, the variable compensation can be phenomenal (e.g. 80% bonus). This also ties in with the meritocratic culture because the top performers tend to get the highest bonuses. On the flip side, bonuses are driven by collections, not simply hours worked. Therefore, if a client doesn't pay on time, it can seriously damage an individual's earnings for that calendar year.”

“Our comp packages are definitely meant to be mostly cash, which I appreciate. Salaries are good compared to other companies and apparently bonuses are good too (but I haven't been here long enough to get one). We have good PMI, which I really appreciate, but it would be nice to have travel insurance that covered personal travel as well. We really need better parental leave. We have 18 weeks’ mat leave at full pay but this is not particularly competitive with the market (my last firm was 26 weeks at full pay).”

“Your take home part is larger than with big 4 that I have worked for. At A&M you can choose what ancillary services you would like to pay for.”

Career Development

“A&M is very meritocratic. If a member of the team consistently delivers high quality work, there aren't many obstacles between that individual and a promotion. For non-Partner promotions, there doesn't appear to be any politics or painful lobbying required. If you do good work, you are rewarded.”

“Career opportunities and progression is not determined by time in grade but on performance. The firm is very entrepreneurial. However, this is probably not the place to come if you want to be spoon fed and you expect things to come to you on their own.”

“Personally, the growth target for my service line is tough but there has been a clear message to various teams to support each other and it is exciting the potential opportunity we can tap into to achieve the growth target.”

“The A&M team brings a highly diverse and exceptionally talented team together. It has a fixation on solving client problems and creating value through every engagement. The heritage of the firm is in restructuring, and although this is only part of the business today, the action orientation and 'roll your sleeve up' attitude is evident at every level. Fluffy, this is not.”

“The opportunities are there for people who want to seek them out. If you are willing to take the initiative to develop your own career, that will be rewarded. The flipside is that career development can be a bit difficult when you are starting from a low level, and because there are few formal processes you have to invest a lot of time and effort into cultivating the right relationships to make your development go quickly. This has equity implications and also can mean you spend more time on internal politics rather than doing the actual work.”

Community Engagement

“All consultants at the firm definitely have equal access to high quality work and growth opportunities. I have never witnessed or heard of any discrimination. We were always a very ethnically diverse office and in recent years our gender ratio has improved a lot.”

“Consulting firms need to up their game to make the environment better for all diverse groups. At A&M there are actions that are happening, but this needs to be accelerated in most areas. Not prioritising one group over another but gender diversity needs to continue to be a focus. We need to lead here, not follow. 

“Inclusive Diversity is one of our core values - but it is in the context of a meritocracy (i.e. allowing everyone to reach their true potential) vs a box ticking exercise in virtue signalling.” 

“Since I have joined, the firm has made significant improvements around its approach to D&I, establishing various groups and running awareness events and supporting relevant activities and related charities. We have also worked with a number of UK universities to support hiring and work experience for individuals from different D&I backgrounds including socially disadvantaged students.”

“We have groups for LGBT+ individuals and BAME but we still do not have a lot of diversity in the workplace. We regularly receive emails where the company advises that this is a top priority but our department is not very diverse.” 

Business Outlook

“A&M need to totally rethink the way they operate as it is not sustainable. What could work OK when headcount was small is not working anymore. The ways of working are dysfunctional, with no strategy and little focus on people and their well-being.”

“Executive leadership needs to be more visible and more vocal. There is a need to communicate the vision, promoting / driving cross unit working and fuelling the next phase of growth. The growth to date has been stelar but future growth requires a change of gear and a change of mindset, yesterday's business was a bit siloed. Tomorrow's business will be fuelled by a different operating model.”

“The nature of the firm's core business activities means that we do well when in an expanding and contracting market, with scope for using staff from different business units when there are peaks and throughs. The firm has grown significantly in Europe since I joined and there is a strong focus on building new markets and innovation.”

“We are well positioned for economic downturn, operational challenges and overall transformation need. Brand is getting stronger, accounts larger and access to new accounts better.”

“We have grown rapidly in the region through a mix of organic and inorganic growth. Our value proposition is differentiated (hybrid consultant-practitioner teams, results-oriented approach) and clients can see that. We regularly compete with both strategy houses and Big Four and our differentiator is that we operate at the intersection of those two types of firms with a higher sense of urgency, given our restructuring heritage.”

Hiring Process

“Actively looking for people from the industry with management experience; being female is definitely a plus.”

“Candidates are screened based on the quality and rigor of their academic institution(s) as well as their past experiences. A number of my colleagues were in top 5 undergraduate and MBA programs. We seek to continue this legacy in our recruiting efforts.”

“Interview process was way too long, but thorough. The firm is looking for talented, experienced and hard-working individuals who are good people and nice to spend time with.”

“Recruitment is done at pace, without taking the time to thoroughly screen and assess candidates. The aim seems to be bums on seats as quickly as possible, which is resulting in a high attrition rate, both voluntary and involuntary.”

“Very personal and human. The TA function do a great job of articulating what possible at A&M.”

Interview Questions

“It is a very commercial oriented interview process. It looks for people that can add something. Not run as a traditional HR function, much more of a business development function. Reminds me of a big 4 business of 20 years ago, really hungry and focused on talent that can thrive in the A&M environment.”

“Mainly cultural fit questions and real-life restructuring business cases.”

“Market sizing, profitability, M&A.”

“Problem solving skills - How many ties are bought daily at Heathrow airport?”

“The recruitment process in A&M is not standardized, no methodologies or formalized processes exist. So, the recruitment process varies from the office to the office. Even the number of recruitment steps varies.”