Vault’s Verdict

Within federal contracting—and consulting in general—Censeo is a top choice for consultants who prioritize professional growth and a great work-life balance. Employees regularly meet with their project leads to have conversations specific to their professional development, they rarely work more than 45 hours a week, and the firm offers generous remote and hybrid flexibilities.

While some firms do offer higher total compensation, most Censeo employees don’t seem to mind. When considering their hours worked and work-life balance, most believe they are actually compensated as much or more than their peers at other top-tier firms on an hourly basis. Insiders also love the benefits package.

In terms of business outlook, Censeo offers a blend of growth and stability. Government contracting is as close to recession-proof as you can get, and insiders say the firm has hit its growth targets for several years running. Altogether, this makes the firm a pretty compelling option for consultants who want to do stimulating work while maintaining a robust personal life.

Employee Reviews

Firm Culture

• “Coaching and on the job training are foundational pieces of the culture and I believe are key contributors to high employee retention rates at Cesneo.”
• “Censeo also recognizes us as humans, meaning they understand if an employee is having challenges on the personal level, they can work with their managers to balance personal needs with their work. I've seen this multiple times when folks had significant things happen in their lives.”
• “The firm was founded by consultants from top-tier consultancies who believed that they could build a company where you can do good work and have a high quality of life at the same time. I think they achieved this goal. Our work is challenging and complex, but the environment makes it reasonable. You rarely work more than a standard 40-hour week or travel to a client site.”
• “I have autonomy and I'm respected. I have colleagues who I find interesting. They actively want to do better.”

Quality of Life

• “Censeo places a high value on forming connections among coworkers both at work and at the multitude of events organized within the firm. There are weekly and monthly company-wide socialization opportunities at the office, in addition to generous policies for team activities. The firm makes an effort to be inclusive of remote employees for these events as well.”
• “Censeo is unlike other consulting firms in that we are not expected to work more than 40-45 hours a week. Censeo was founded on the principle of work-life balance and wellness first. I feel very comfortable taking advantage of our unlimited sick leave or time off when needed, without feeling guilty or worried about my billable hours.”
• “As someone with young kids, I am grateful to have flexibility in terms of my work schedule, when I come into the office vs. work remotely, unlimited sick leave, and generous PTO policies.”
• “The firm has a very flexible hybrid policy and takes work-life balance seriously. They go above and beyond to make sure not to burn you out. It would be nice if we accrued more PTO than we normally do, but we do have an unlimited sick time policy which is nice to have.”

Career Development

• “All managers are expected to attend regular professional development meetings with the direct and skip-level reports on their projects. These meetings are intentionally framed to avoid discussing current activities. Instead, they’re a place for reflection on the individual's strengths and focus areas, recognizing their progress and coaching them on focus areas.”
• “We have internal training for core consulting skills, plus an annual professional development fund for certifications and training to help us advance our careers. Our competency matrix is built around progression rather than performance. In other words, it tracks how well you are performing and moving towards the next level.”
• “We have a standardized mid-year and annual review cycle which allows employees to be promoted mid-year, and employees do not need to "advocate" for themselves beyond doing a great job in their day-to-day activities. This means that there is a reduction for risk of favoritism or that only those who can build up the confidence to ask for a promotion will receive one.”
• “Our career development process is rigorous, fair, and completely transparent. We do not have arbitrary, time-based, up or out policies. We respect each individual's growth trajectory, promoting staff when they are demonstrably ready to succeed at the next level.”

Compensation

• “In the past few years, Censeo has shifted the compensation model to put more into base pay and less into bonus, which is an improvement. Our talent team reviews salary progression and compensation for equity, and they have adjusted people’s compensation based on that review.”
• “Our compensation is at the top end of Federal Government—focused consulting firms. We are among the very top among small businesses and probably better than large consultancies on an hourly wage basis.”
• “Both our base salaries and bonus levels are highly competitive. Plus, since I was promoted to Associate Partner, I have been granted stock options and additional profit sharing, without having to take on the financial risk of purchasing an equity stake.”
• “Our generous health coverage includes mental and physical health. The firm also has a wellness stipend available to subsidize gym memberships and other health and wellness expenses, and it gives us a complimentary Headspace account. The office has complimentary healthy snacks and beverages.”

Community Engagement

• “Censeo has become much more diverse in the past five years. We recently added demographics to our engagement survey so that we could get a better sense of how different groups are experiencing the firm. We also did gender equity roundtables this year, where we had focus groups to discuss elements of gender equity in the firm.”
• “I am part of the firm’s DEI group, which has 10 people. The group is a little light on people at the leadership level. Even still, senior leadership has proven to be dedicated to our initiatives.”
• “We have a mindset of continuous improvement when it comes to DEI. We regularly gather feedback about it from staff via employee engagement surveys, cohort discussions, gender equity roundtables, and employee exit surveys. We also regularly review our demographic data, pay equity metrics, and promotion data to identify opportunities for improvement.”
• “We have a monthly reimbursement for health and wellness, and it's fairly flexible covering things from sports leagues to massages. The firm also helps organize sports team leagues for extra fitness and employee engagement.”

Business Outlook

• “Employee morale is high. We have beat our financial targets for the past three to four years and continue to win new work. It seems like we are gaining three or four people every week, which is a lot for a firm our size. It seems like we're doing all the right things!”
• “The firm shifted strategy about five years ago, refocusing on federal work after a foray into higher ed and nonprofit space.  As a result, we have more, larger, and longer contracts than ever before, which is unlocking a lot of long-term growth opportunities.”
• “The firm seems to be growing within the goals that leadership has set. The greatest risk to the firm is likely due to any drastic restructuring of the federal government.”
• “Our portfolio is balanced across a variety of accounts and contracts, which helps limit our risk at any given point in time that if one deal falls through, we will have a downturn in our overall business.”

Hiring Process

• “The process starts with a screening call with HR. Then you have four interviews, starting with lower-level employees and ending with partners. The ideal candidate, at least for entry-level positions, does not need to have a certain background or level of experience. They just need to be smart, learn quickly, and have the right skills like problem solving.”
• “The company is very comfortable bringing on people with nontraditional backgrounds. You don’t need to have an MBA or come from another firm. The main thing is capability and cultural fit.”
• “The ideal candidate is a smart, hard-working, creative, problem solver who works well on a team.”
• “Someone who’s a good cultural fit is friendly, socially minded, analytical, and has a good sense of humor.”

Interview Questions

• “We tailor each interview, but typically have a mix of basic questions to get to understand people's experience, plus behavioral questions, business cases, and subject-matter specific assessments (when hiring specialists or subject matter experts).”
• “How many hair stylists do you believe there are in Washington, D.C. and how would you go about finding this number?”
• “Our case studies typically use a public sector setting and ask the candidate to make recommendations and do simple arithmetic.”
• “Look at these equipment rates for hypothetical shipping companies. Compare and contrast them.”