Vault’s Verdict

If international mobility and financial upside drive what you’re looking for in a consulting career, Alvarez & Marsal’s EMEA offices should be near the top of your list. The firm’s merit-based compensation plan, which heavily emphasizes performance-based bonuses, sits near the top of the industry, helping incentivize the firm’s merit-based, entrepreneurial culture. Insiders describe the firm’s atmosphere as a good mix of competitive and collaborative, full of colleagues who are grounded yet highly driven to deliver successful results for clients and reap the rewards together.

The firm offers tremendous flexibility in how its consultants build their day-to-day routines and overall careers. Hours tend to be long, but consultants can work from home as much as they like, seek out projects with more or less travel, and often participate in cross-border projects. The firm’s flat hierarchy tends to create a steep learning curve, with newer consultants taking on big responsibilities quickly, but those who market themselves successfully can take on projects all over the world to grow their skills. The firm also provides extensive mentorship, job shadow opportunities, and formal training for those who seek out these opportunities.

Alvarez & Marsal has experienced rapid growth in the 2020s. Insiders say its size has doubled over the last four years, with the firm planning to double again over the next few years. If you want to participate in that growth, make sure to prepare for Excel cases, practice explaining how you fit with the firm’s culture, and get ready to answer questions about corporate finance.

Employee Reviews

Firm Culture

• “Working with great people, not only smart and also grounded. Competent but not arrogant. Client and team centric. No jerks. It’s a pleasure working at a firm that’s growing so fast. It creates opportunities for its people. And the compensation model is meritocratic, fair, and transparent.”
• “A&M is a place for people who are willing to try a bit harder, work a bit more, and when things turn out well, make more money.”
• “Well equipped and comfortable office with great support staff. Extensive and well stocked range of free snacks and drinks. Beautiful office location. Flexibility to plan own work. Great team ethos and culture. Mutually supportive team.”
• “Very entrepreneurial. Everyone is smart, and their goals are aligned (deliver successful outcomes to our clients and be rewarded for doing a good job). Work is very flexible and it’s generally an all-round great place to work. Working hours aren’t for everyone, and it does get tough at times, but we all recognize that and we wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t something we accepted.”

Quality of Life

• “You are allowed to work from home as much as you like, which gives flexibility. Worst aspect is the ups and downs in workload, as during a project you are expected to work very long days and travel a lot, while during non-project work there can be some very slow days.”
• “High flexibility in organizing work according to your individual needs (flexible working hours, flexible locations). High level of trust within the firm that employees are able to organize their work on their own.”
• “Travel requirements vary wildly between grade and project. However, a larger number of clients are not requiring us to be on site all the time. I have found A&M to be very flexible around work-life balance. You still have to plan how you want your work life balance to be, but I’ve always been able to go to appointments, finish earlier when needed, etc., as the team knows I put in the time when I’m needed.”
• “Global exposure when it comes to staffing. I have colleagues in London, Madrid, Dubai, New York, etc., and I interact with them on a daily basis. By doing so, I have the opportunity to be involved in international transactions. However, working hours can be tough, especially for certain type of transactions both sell- and buy-side. But this is more industry-specific, rather than A&M-specific.”

Career Development

• “Easy access to high-level colleagues, with a flat hierarchy during projects allowing for a steep learning curve. However, promotion is highly dependent on projects done during the year, which is very affected by market conditions and managing director capabilities of securing projects for the team.”
• “It’s a make-your-opportunity business. You have to be entrepreneurial about managing your career to go far. Currently in process of building formality.”
• “Technology enables the firm to staff projects all over the world. This opens up the talent pool to a much broader skillset and offers the ability to shift people to locations to fulfill their career potential.”
• “A&M is great for internal development and offers opportunities to shadow, choose mentors, or be matched with a mentor based on what you’d like to get out of the relationship. In terms of training, there’s a variety of formal courses you can pick and informal training. There are so many people willing to help others grow, plus lunch-and-learns, opportunities from the employee resource groups, and more.”

Compensation

• “Merit-based bonus scheme that can take total compensation to the highest end of the range for the industry. Managing directors can earn multiples of what partners would make in the Big Four firms. In my experience, people do not tend to leave A&M for compensation reasons, as it is very difficult to find similar levels of compensation elsewhere.”
• “The compensation structure is based on your own performance, so nobody is subsidizing seniors sitting around doing nothing. But it is also structured to encourage cooperation. Unlike many outside-in assumptions of A&M, it is not an eat-what-you-kill culture. We work well together.”
• “Very simple. You’re paid on cash collected in that year. If projects are collected, you are paid very well. Likewise, if they roll to the next year, you will lose out that year but gain it back in the following one.”
• “A&M has a counselling service you can access by phone and has plans in place for different types of mental health issues. They have a range of snacks and drinks in the office, ranging from fruit to cereal and chocolate bars. They are always trying out new initiatives to see what lands best with employees, such as an EMEA-wide guided meditation or access to the Calm app.”

Inclusion

• “We have a D&I committee. A growing number of minority networks that are highly active. Celebration of people’s individuality is much more extensive than it was in the past.”
• “We are diverse in terms of ethnic background and, at the junior level, also reasonably okay in term of gender. The more senior the rank, the fewer females we have. This appears, in part, to be an industry issue, but we have a way to go.”
• “We celebrate Pride Month. Pay, promotions, and quality work seem to be equally given. We have some events such as Women at A&M.”
• “My business unit has gender parity and is led by a female leader. Ethnic diversity is excellent, although it still needs to improve at the Managing Director level. Overall, A&M is a meritocracy and much more performance-based than other firms I have worked for.”

Business Outlook

• “We are good on deals, disruption, and distress, which fits well into the landscape. Our practice is additionally good in capital strategy, capital delivery, disputes, and asset management, and thus we are robust to cycles.”
• “Well-placed to take market share. Would need to ensure leadership is invested in people and empowers them to operate at their ability to retain key talent to service the clients.”
• “The firm has doubled in size over the last four years (since I joined). And we plan to double again. I don’t think there is any other consulting firm of that scale with this growth profile.”
• “Still lots of white space for the firm to allow for significant growth. Increased brand awareness over the past few years to further boost the pipeline. Economic situation makes it harder to achieve target (and relatively high) fees.”

Hiring Process

• “We have four interviews; the sequence may vary. HR and recruitment filter. Middle management interview with a case study. Upper management interview with a case study. Final partner/MD interview. For my team, which is healthcare, we’re ideally looking someone with consulting background, plus experience in finance in healthcare.”
• “Flexible process. Interview focus and interviewers customized toward the candidate’s specifics. Ideal candidate: consulting experience, pragmatic ways of working, still willing to work on their own with only limited levels of delegation, honest and bold personality, team player, and no consulting arrogance.”
• “The ideal candidate needs to be a good fit culturally, while showcasing high analytical skills and the ability to think in a logical and structured manner. Important to communicate complex ideas in a simple and clear way.”
• “Ideal candidate is a self-starter who is highly analytical and able to present well. Would be happy to take instructions, think innovatively, and work hard.”

Interview Questions

• “My case involved an Excel sheet showcasing a hospital’s financial information. It was three tabs full of nothing but financial info, and for each tab I was meant to find gaps and suggest possible corrections.”
• “We do business cases and make the participants to solve them. We also have an open conversation to understand the person’s culture, and we share our culture transparently.”
• “How would you prepare a direct cash flow Short-Term Cash Flow Forecast (STCFF)? What would you do if a company runs out of cash?”
• “You were provided with a list of data and precise info regarding the current state of this potential client. Please brief your MD on the client’s situation and give your point of view on key areas to focus on and how to deliver the project.”