Vault’s Verdict

For consultants who want a boutique experience centered on specific industries in Europe, and especially in France, Archery Strategy Consulting merits an application. The firm emphasizes rapid career growth, with a flexible promotion process that rewards innovative and entrepreneurial thinking. Partners, each an expert in their field, work closely alongside consultants, providing extensive mentorship. 

In general, the firm combines this sense of professional autonomy with a strong sense of personal autonomy. While work hours can stretch long at times, they’re generally lower than the industry as a whole, and partners consider their team’s extracurricular activities throughout the week, leaving time for sports, hobbies, and personal events. In general, the firm emphasizes meeting deadlines over time in the office, with insiders feeling like they have the freedom to organize their own days.

Compensation at Archery Strategy Consulting aligns with firms that share a similar market position, with the chance to progress quickly due to its promotion policies. Variable compensation makes up an important part of the package, with bonuses reaching up to 75 percent of base salaries. The firm also provides a profit-sharing plan, parental leave above national requirements, and extended holidays for tenured employees. Additional perks include on-site snacks, plus counselling and coaching from outside providers.

Employee Reviews

Firm Culture

• “Rapid development, good exposure, and a strong challenge.”
• “Great firm culture. Working hours are intense but not too crazy as you could see in other firms. Management tries to ensure a proper work-life balance.”
• “High flexibility to self-organize, attention paid to reasonable hours.”
• “It is possible to arrange to have a regular sport activity alongside day-to-day job.”

Quality of Life

• “Flexible. Long hours are not monitored or considered as promotion levers. Delivery is the key metric followed, so as long as you do a good job you are quite free to organize your work as you please.”
• “Work-life balance. Work hours are not extensive for consulting. Management keen to adapt.”
• “Working hours are those of consulting and depend on the project you are on. However, seniors (managers/partners) tend to take into consideration people’s activities outside of work during the week, so they don’t miss them (sports, trainings, etc.), which is valuable.”
• “Reasonable working hours for consulting, good level of autonomy, and a healthy corporate culture. Reasonable amount of travel.”

Career Development

• “Archery is great at promoting talents quickly; the process is very flexible. It is a boutique consultancy and therefore offers very limited options internationally.”
• “Mentoring is very important at Archery. Mentors can advise you on ways to develop specific skills and understand what’s expected from you depending on your role. A good mentor is key, and most of Archery's mentors play their full part. Onboarding sessions have gotten more formal and allow new consultants to better understand the firm’s culture, ways of working, their new role, and skills they need to master. International opportunities are limited if you want to move abroad. However, some projects take place abroad (mostly in Europe).”
• “Many forms of informal training and opportunities for fast-track or entrepreneurial initiatives.”
• “Promotion policies are very flexible. No time in grade. However, there are few international opportunities because we are a small firm with no international offices except a small one in Germany.”

Compensation

• “Packages in line with positioning, completed by profit sharing scheme and generous paternity and maternity leaves, plus an additional week of holidays for longstanding employees (five years).”
• “Good base salary, quick promoting policy. However, there are limited bonuses for juniors, especially given the complex French economical context.”
• “Large part of compensation is variable (bonus) but can be up to 75 percent of the fixed amount.”
• “The firm does provide counseling and coaching from external providers.”

Inclusion

• “Not a lot of women, but strong efforts are made to improve (dedicated events and formations). Inclusive working environment.”
• “Always difficult to recruit women in consulting but lot of efforts are deployed. No discrimination regarding ethnicity, disabilities, or sexual orientation. This is aligned with the firm culture.”
• “We organize events dedicated to women in consulting and in industry to attract them. We pay special attention in recruiting as well.”
• “The company makes effort at being inclusive, especially regarding women (organization of events dedicated to promote women in the industry).”

Business Outlook

• “The firm is well positioned on a few sectors that are currently booming. Partners know their sectors by heart and have a proven track record. However, the general business outlook (in the world and the consulting market) is quite challenging.”
• “A&D, Transportation, and Energy have good orientation for the years to come.”
• “Potential office opening. New partner coming in with new practice.”
• “Very agile and well-regarded for its know-how in industrial sectors.”

Hiring Process

• “Two- to three-round interview sequence. We are looking for rational people with good interpersonal skills. A sense of humor is a plus.”
• “The hiring process is very selective, as Archery recruits people from top universities in France. Due to the firm’s size, every individual is very important and every profile is selected with care.”
• “Rigorous, quick-solver, and proactive. Interested in Archery’s specialization sectors.”

Interview Questions

• “We have a special ‘game play’ in addition to standard cases. It enables to test candidates in real consultant life conditions.”
• “Classic business case plus situational test.”
• “Case study, role playing.”
• “Typical case interviews on our sectors.”

Uppers

• “Working conditions, friendly working environment, hours flexibility.”
• “Positioning of clients and projects, excellence of delivery, commitment of teams.”
• “Firm culture, sectors we work on, proximity with partners.”
• “Firm culture and relationships with colleagues as well as compensation and types of missions.”

Downers

• “You need a lot of agility and ability to adapt to change.”
• “Formal training is limited, but exposure to clients allows you to learn quickly.”
• “Recruitment and turnover.”
• “Salary package and benefits.”