Cirque Analytics

Vault’s Verdict

Insiders describe Cirque Analytics as an inviting firm that goes the extra mile to support employees’ wellbeing. From senior leaders encouraging consultants at its Jackson Hole headquarters to ski or hike before work (with trails just minutes from the office), flexible work schedules, and the freedom to occasionally work remote to a friendly, growth-focused environments, consultants have freedom and autonomy to do great work while living exciting personal lives.

Career development is strong, especially for consultants who actively seek it out. The firm’s directors and experts are happy to serve as mentors, and the firm allows employees to diversify their skillsets by working on a variety of projects, independent of their home office. The firm also offers a new onboarding process to help new hires get up to speed. 

Insiders say the firm’s salary and bonuses are above the industry as a whole, and they appreciate its profit-sharing plan and parental leave. Insiders are mixed about the firm requiring employees to contribute 20 percent of their salary to a special retirement plan called a SEP-IRA.

Although the firm can be subject to boom-bust cycles of the economy at large, insiders say its long-term growth prospects are positive. Most business is driven by referrals, and the firm attracts new business with little marketing. Consultants hoping to secure a spot should demonstrate strong economic and statistical knowledge, coding skills, and an eye for details.

Employee Reviews

Firm Culture

• “Projects are engaging and challenging, but the firm promotes work-life balance. Management strives to be flexible with deliverables and supports work-from-home days. Employees are encouraged to ski at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort (eight minutes from the office) before work in the winter or grab a bike ride or hike in the summer and fall. Staff are trusted as responsible adults to meet deadlines and manage their own work-life balance.”
• “The culture is amazing. A work-life balance is encouraged and easy to manage. You appreciate that your coworkers are also creating a balance.”
• “Most employees value fitness and outdoor activities. The firm supports physical and mental well-being by offering flexible work schedules, enabling staff to participate in a variety of pursuits—both before and after work—at our different offices, such as surfing, skiing, hiking, road biking, mountain biking, and mountain climbing. All employees and their partners were invited to the Ritz Carlton in Hawaii, where they were encouraged to experience the island and connect with colleagues from other locations.”
• “Analysts gain varied skills by working on different projects. Management supports growth with mentoring, training, and promotion opportunities. Nobody gets siloed. Focus is on personal and professional growth.”

Quality of Life

• “Working hours are flexible, and the firm easily accommodates for doctor’s appointments and other such things. It’s super easy to take time off as long as there are no major project deadlines at the time and time off given is generous. However, the workload can be inconsistent, and I sometimes find myself with either not much to do or too much at once.”
• “I like that there’s not a lot of required travel, despite this being a consulting firm with a wide variety of clients.”
• “Cirque fully backs up their ‘we want you to touch grass’ claim by trusting their employees to uphold their responsibilities with autonomy. I very much appreciate the work-life balance that Cirque provides, which includes flexibility to work from home on lighter days. The worst aspect of this, however, is the fact that Cirque doesn’t award traditional PTO and instead relies on a yearly-billed hours requirement when taking time off. Even though the hours requirement is relatively generous, you end up eating away days you can take off when you happen to be slow at work, which is a major downside.”
• “Generally, it is very flexible, which is great. It is easy enough to predict busier times in advance.”

Career Development

• “Cirque Analytics has policies in place that make working with teams across the country at other offices very easy to do. This can help to meet deadlines, where some offices come online earlier in the day versus others based on time zones. Promotions and formal reviews happen annually, but informal reviews and feedback can happen more often as needed.”
• “There is lots of opportunity to work on differing projects and take on different roles. The only downside is that coding languages and workflows are not standardized across the company. There is lots of informal training and mentoring when working with a new director/expert.”
• “The firm has established a more formal training process for new hires to get them up to speed on necessary skills and familiar with litigation consulting. This has made the onboarding process smoother, with supplemented mentoring and in-person training.”
• “Options are highly accessible for those who want career development, but those who don’t self-promote may struggle to find a path.”

Compensation

• “Salary and bonus exceed industry averages. Year-end bonuses include a profit-sharing component for associates and above, which can be very generous.”
• “Excellent salary and progression. Clear expectations. However, the bonus is based on the company success, which can be difficult to tell until the end of the year.”
• “20 percent of compensation paid to SEP-IRA is a major perk.”
• “Health coverage is excellent, parental leave is excellent and flexible, and the culture of flexible hours encourages exercise and movement throughout day.”

Inclusion

• “Cirque employs women at all levels, from new consultants to senior directors and partners. The company has a diverse workforce, including diversity in race, ethnicity, military service, and LGBTQ+ identities. Rather than explicit affinity groups, Cirque operates on a merit-based system, focusing on hiring, developing, and rewarding top talent, which contributes to its workforce diversity.”
• “We have a diverse and inclusive community. The hiring process is purely about qualifications. All consultants at our firm have the same access to work and opportunities, one of the benefits of a small boutique firm.”
• “We do not have formal inclusivity policies or directives. However, our hiring practices have resulted in a very diverse workforce, and individuals have received opportunities and promotions consistently regarding their ability and performance.”
• “The firm feels effortlessly inclusive.”

Business Outlook

• “Our leadership team is great and is trying to position the company for long-term success. We are currently expanding our expertise in AI to help with various projects.”
• “Cirque’s business is driven by referrals and existing clients, with no dedicated sales or marketing efforts. The company continues to grow steadily, securing new clients and projects each month, and maintains a strong outlook with a robust pipeline ahead.”
• “As a small company, I feel that our firm is very agile and able to easily take on a variety of tasks outside of the traditional expert framework. The ability to create our own data by scraping and standardizing public data has been very useful in a variety of projects.”
• “Excellent leadership and innovation. However, work can come in boom/bust cycles and can be dependent on economy.”

Hiring Process

• “Exceptional talent in applied statistics and economics, with strong programming and data analysis skills. Team players who thrive on tackling diverse projects.”
• “The interview process was relatively straightforward for me. I had one video call interview for an initial screening and then had an in-person interview where several team members from various levels of the company talked to me. I believe the ideal candidate the firm is seeking is a person with an economics, business, or data analytics background (degree or job experience) who has strong analytical skills and attention to detail.”
• “The interview and callback process was fairly positive for me. I didn’t have to wait too long for communication about my interview status. I believe the firm is seeking a candidate who is well-educated and able to find insights and details in data or reports.”
• “Cirque seeks strong, analytical thinkers, able to identify a problem and ways to solve it. Cirque highly values people who have strong programming abilities, too.”

Interview Questions

• “New hires are often asked to complete a programming exam to show their thought process and programming ability. It can be done in any programming language the candidate chooses.”
• “What languages can you code in? Can you replicate analysis by description and without the original code? What are ways to review and characterize a large dataset (over 1 million rows)?”
• “What is your experience with statistical coding software (Stata, SAS, R, etc.)? How would you approach finding an economic value to data for the purposes of calculating damages for a data breach lawsuit?”
• “How can you connect your educational/professional background with this industry? Discuss any data projects/problems you have worked on recently.”