Vault’s Verdict

Coherent Economics insiders appreciate the firm’s strong culture, which encourages every team membership to take ownership of their projects and manage their time independently. They say the firm trusts them to deliver excellent work while honoring the firm’s values, and consistently delivering excellent work while maintaining a lighthearted and approachable environment.

The firm’s small size provides excellent professional development opportunities. Employees say that, even early in their careers, they find themselves working alongside leadership on high-visibility cases, with leadership and managers taking personal accountability for the team’s career growth. The firm also provides structured onboarding for entry-level and experienced hires alike, although some employees have expressed a desire for more clarity about the promotion process as they progress within the firm. 

The firm also has a strong commitment to DEI, especially in its hiring process. Staff say that it uses completely blind processes to review applications and written tests, with standardized interview questions to reduce bias. The firm sees diversity as a strength of its culture, seeing unique perspectives as a way of driving innovation.

According to insiders, the firm has grown quickly over the last three years. And while this has brought some natural growing pains, staff say it hasn’t taken anything away from company culture. The firm’s business outlook remains strong for the foreseeable future, although employees do say that a small group of experts play a key role in driving much of its success.

Firm Culture

“Coherent encourages every team member to engage in an ownership mentality and to participate in the work product at the most advanced level possible.”

“The culture here is thoughtful, supportive, and considerate, with no micromanagement. Managers and executives provide flexibility, allowing employees to work independently and manage their own time.”

“The culture expects team members to behave within the norms and values of the firm and to be treated like adults: We expect that team members will adjust their schedules to accommodate client deadlines, while taking advantage of the less busy times. It is a trade-off that works very well for dedicated, reliable team members.”

“Colleagues are serious about their work but don't take themselves too seriously.”

Quality of Life

“Coherent is extremely respectful of work-life balance while demanding excellent outcomes.  There is stress and pressure from deadlines (especially fire drills created by our clients!) but we work together collaboratively as a team, and no one is left to carry the load. It makes for an energizing yet balanced worn environment with high morale.”

“Culture is one of Coherent's strongest points. The level of excellence, teamwork, and support makes working at Coherent enjoyable even during challenging assignments. Compared to the industry as a whole, Coherent has less demanding hours and more flexible working arrangements than most firms. Taking time off is also easy, and the company is committed to letting people unplug whenever possible.”

“Coherent understands work-life balance and ensures that team members can create balance in their lives. The expectation is that deadlines are treated with utmost seriousness and reliability, but less pressing periods allow team members to take time off and not simply clock in hours to show face.”

“Coherent offers an open PTO policy to ensure work life balance. There are no set amount days employees can take off; we are free to take time off when we require it.”

Career Development

“Coherent invests a lot of time to training their employees, from entry-level all the way up to senior managers. They support and celebrate career advancement within the company, and their diversity efforts ensure everyone has equal opportunity.”

“Coherent Economics has a strong formal training program for all new hires, both at entry and more experienced levels. There are also formalized continuing training opportunities at all levels. As a small company with a diverse mix of clients and projects, it is also easy for team members to work in different areas of the firm and gain experience in a wide range of areas.”

“Coherent is committed to ensuring that everyone receives fast, actionable feedback to ensure continued personal growth and professional development.”

“Personnel managers provide support, coaching, and mentorship. They will also sponsor you to get Coherent to pay for advanced degrees in elite part-time graduate programs. There is no glass ceiling or limit to what ambitions are possible.”

Compensation

“Compensation is at market rates, highly competitive, and accounts for contributions to the firm beyond billable hours.”

“Coherent has competitive compensation across the board. This year, Coherent introduced an equity compensation plan that is applicable to the majority of the firm, so everyone is an active participant in the firm's success.”

“Coherent analyzes similar positions and salaries yearly to ensuring its compensation packages are competitive and in-line with market rates. Salary progression is generous, and they ensure everyone has an equitable opportunity to progress in salary and position by assessing staff based on their position description, experience, education, and performance.”

“Coherent deeply cares about employee wellbeing. They pay for on-site gym memberships in all of our offices, multiple options for employee assistance programs, and a virtual health solution that includes counseling for general medical issues, nutrition, mental health, neck and back pain, and so on. The firm also provides free membership to headspace meditation and covers a large portion of the healthcare premiums. Coherent supports and celebrates new parents with generous paid maternity and paternity leave.”

Community Engagement/DEI

“Coherent acknowledges and values the unique experiences, perspectives, and talents that everyone brings to our team. In the hiring process, they actively seek out unique information on resumes, recognizing that these elements contribute to the firm’s collective strength and innovation. This inclusive stance reflects their dedication to building a workforce that mirrors the vibrant diversity of the clients we serve and empowers every member to thrive and contribute their best.”

“Coherent is a woman-led firm and has several initiatives to support the professional development of women in our field. In addition, the company works very hard to foster a diverse and inclusive environment, including blind resume reviews and blind subject matter testing for job applicants to ensure a bias-free interview process. The team itself is very diverse and that continues to promote further diversity.”

“Our company is fairly small, so it's hard to get a great sample size for some protected classes. That said, I've never seen any exclusionary action towards any historically underserved groups.”

“Coherent has rolled out a formal DEI initiative that aligns with the firm's core values.”

Business Outlook

“The firm has grown immensely over the past few years but has still made sure that it maintained its excellent culture, quality of work, and commitments to clients and employees during this period. The firm is well suited to continue its strong growth.”

“The firm is in a growth period, and this creates additional opportunities for its existing professionals and the addition of new teams and office locations. Overall, this has created a strong employee morale, even as there have been natural shifts with some people leaving the firm who don't fit the culture.  Overall, the leadership team is very optimistic about Coherent's future.”

“Firm leadership is really committed to Coherent's values and makes decisions based on those values. The company has grown a lot in the past few years, but leadership has been willing to make difficult decisions to preserve what makes Coherent special. Leadership is also willing to experiment and be innovators in areas like technology and AI and is building proprietary tools to improve accuracy and service delivery.”

“The firm has done well over the last three years, growing through hiring and establishing affiliations with new external experts. There has also been a bit of turnover, with a couple of experts leaving to pursue other opportunities. This created some uncertainty about the future, given the relatively small size of the firm. However, management quickly addressed these concerns by reiterating its commitment to the company's employees.”

Hiring Process

“We review all applications and grade them on a rubric. We select the top candidates for a first-round interview and respond to applicants in about a week. The top candidates from that interview move on to the final interview (which is usually about two weeks after the first round).”

“Candidates resumes are redacted to remove all identifying information and then reviewed by multiple independent reviewers, which ensures a diverse and merit-based candidate pool proceeds to interviews. Interviews are also structured, with every candidate asked the same questions, which reduces room for bias to impact the flow of the interview. Finally, the written test, which is also redacted before it is reviewed, evaluates how candidates perform on the job, which is the best possible evaluation. Candidates are notified quickly via an automated system of where they are in our evaluation process.”

“The interview process was well organized, efficient, and (dare I say it?) fun. The in-person interviews were two-on-one, which I found enjoyable as it kept the conversations moving.
The firm is seeking candidates who are intellectually curious, driven to do their best work on every single project, and supportive of one another.”

“We are looking for individuals who can convey a coherent story, demonstrate a passion for economics and finance, and align well with our company culture.”

Interview Questions

“There is a written, skills-based test administered to every candidate who advances in the interview process. It tests candidates' ability to think critically and apply economic concepts to novel situations. It also tests their programming skills, which can't be done in a typical interview format. Questions on the written test include a case question using economics, plus a programming question that tests logic and reasoning skills.”

“We focus on behavioral questions in the first round of interviews to try and judge a candidate’s fit. The second round is more technical- and analysis-focused. Behavioral questions tend to ask about how you acted in a past situation. Technical questions usually give a scenario and ask how you would approach answering questions about it.”

“Coherent asks basic knowledge-based questions and behavior questions in the interviews for junior analysts. Some prior questions have included explaining a regression or defining the elasticity of supply. These questions help tease out whether the candidates have truly absorbed the fundamental theories that they will apply with Coherent.”

“Consider the following scenario: A U.S. employee at a soft drink company steals the secret recipe their signature drink, flees to Canada, and begins selling an identical beverage (in the Canadian market only) for 10% less. They get away with this for a year before the company finds out and sues them. In two sentences or less, provide a summary of the framework you would use to determine the harm caused to the company. Describe the calculations you would perform and the information you would need to know in order to arrive at the most precise estimate possible.”

Uppers

“The best thing about the firm is the chance for young professionals to have real responsibilities on interesting and (sometimes) high-profile cases.”

“The best thing about working at Coherent is the team. It is an extremely bright, talented group of people who genuinely care about and support each other. There's no better group.”

“The teamwork and flexibility.”

“Strong relationships among employees at all levels of responsibility.”

Downers

“Being a small firm means more unevenness in the workflow, which can be hard to manage.”

“Compensation changes and bonus calculations are vague.”

“Given the firm’s small size, there’s a lot of risk if key employees leave.”

“The peak periods when we are swamped with work prior to a deadline.”