Vault’s Verdict

Eagle Hill celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2023, and it shows no signs of slowing down as a business—or of moderating its unconventional approach to operating within the consulting industry. And why should it? The firm is consistently rated highly by its employees as a place to build and maintain a meaningful, rewarding career, with a focus on work-life balance that certainly fits that “unconventional” tag—especially compared to the rest of the industry.

In a tough year for many firms, insiders note that Eagle Hill’s strong focus on the federal government saw it through unscathed—although firm leaders will no doubt be watching the threats and promises made throughout the upcoming Presidential election with interest.

After two decades of continued growth and success, there’s really not much we can add to the years of positive reviews we’ve received from insiders at the firm. With that in mind, we encourage you to check out the selected comments from this year’s survey—not to decide whether it’s a good place to work (spoiler: it is), but simply to get a feel for what a firm with a healthy, positive culture looks like.

Employee Reviews

Firm Culture

• “300+ employees but still feels like a small firm. We still treat every problem uniquely and value every person for their contributions to their project and to the firm.”
• “Employees are given opportunities right away to take on responsibility and are shown that their previous experience—particularly non-consulting experience—is valued. The company does a great job of empowering each project team to take chances and be creative in their project delivery, which makes the work more exciting and interesting.”
• “There's a shared understanding at this firm that people matter and have lives in and outside of work. Even though there are many hardworking people here—and I work more hours than I'd like—I feel heard if I'm unhappy or facing a challenge. Leadership is engaged and caring and that trickles down to all employees.”
• “You will be valued, treated fairly, and always encouraged to grow. This is not a toxic workplace. It may seem strange that so many people are so completely satisfied with their jobs, but it is real and Eagle Hill does care.”

Quality of Life

• “A lot of the work-life balance simply depends on the contract you are assigned to. I will say even during hard clients, the firm tries to find avenues to provide surge support and bring the work/life balance back to an equilibrium. Sometimes it is just easier said than done but the firm tries.”
• “EHC encourages you to take your PTO and not to work long hours, with a few exceptions. Those exceptions are typically predictable and involve voluntary BD work or surges in project work. The WFH policy is flexible. They also have an excellent parental leave policy. No complaints on work-life balance.”
• “My firm promotes and follows through on work-life balance policies. I am not expected to work while on vacation and I am encouraged to take PTO.”
• “Remote work is a plus, however, the downside is that offers are dependent on relocation to the DMV area regardless of whether one's project/contract is fully remote. Taking time off is easy; there is absolutely no jumping through hoops to put in PTO.”
• “The best aspect of Eagle Hill Consulting's quality of life is the emphasis they place on work/life balance whether that is setting the expectation that taking time off truly means no disruptions or being able to flex time when necessary."

Career Development

• “A mid-sized, boutique firm that provides autonomy and a high level of responsibility to all levels of the firm fosters rapid career growth in ways that larger consulting firms cannot. Nothing more important than hands-on experience and exposure across industries and solution areas."
• “Best aspect is the willingness of key leaders or other influential people to actively listen to employee advancement concerns and to collaboratively find or recommend solutions that put them on a track for success.”
• “Eagle Hill has a very inclusive culture with many opportunities to grow and be involved.  The promotion process is fair and clearly understood, there are regular training sessions on a range of topics, and there are core teams to join to be further involved and make an impact to the culture all with DE&I woven in.  Worst aspect is the minimal international opportunities.”
• “Promotion processes are ill-defined leading to extreme subjectivity.  A bad manager can make or break someone. Formal training opportunities are limited, and some managers discourage training as it takes away from ‘project’ work.”
• “The promotion process can be tricky to navigate but there are a lot of resources out there to support people through the process. We have a Career Advisee program, a new Manager Mentor program, internal trainings, an L&D budget, Smart60/lunch-n-learns, a DEI curriculum, a BD curriculum, service line specific trainings, leave-behinds, and more!”

Compensation

• “100% Medical Coverage for you and your family is great, compensation is fair and has recently been adjusted to be competitive in the market.”
• “Best: Each job level has a similar salary band, so it ensures pay equity regarding job leveling.
  Worst: Since you must wait 2 years from Associate to Senior Associate, by the time you reach Senior Associate, you may be drastically underpaid compared to other consulting/strategy roles you can have outside of the firm, especially if you have prior years of experience.”
• “My work experience outside of consulting was not considered in my compensation package. I make an entry level salary even though I am a midcareer professional. Bonuses are fairly low for the field.”
• “Salary is a little lower than I'd like, but given the emphasis placed on work-life balance, I'm OK making that trade-off. It's not bad by any means, but larger firms are able to offer more."
• "I do really respect the company for being 100% transparent about salary bands - at other similarly sized companies I've worked at, compensation has been very much driven by how much senior leadership likes you. The 401(k) match isn't great, but the full health coverage is really excellent. As a young, healthy person I wouldn't mind those being switched, but it's still pretty good.”
• “We are a boutique firm, so we do a relatively good job of competing in the market given our size. Pay raises and bonuses are considerable.”

Community Engagement

• “As a woman-owned company, I definitely feel the company is inclusive towards women and executive leadership consists mostly of women. I do not interact with many colleagues of color but I do see the  firm has been actively in the DEIB space for a long time and we have firm-wide mandatory training on DEIB.”
• “Eagle Hill prioritizes inclusivity and belonging and has made substantial steps to follow through on this. Between courses, events, staff spotlights, and our diversity and inclusion team, Eagle Hill is taking action to support individuals in historically marginalized groups.”
• “Hired a dedicated DEI leader to drive forward initiatives. Strong gender diversity, supportive environment as a woman-owned business.”
• “Made a lot of advancements and put time and efforts into advancing LGBTQ+ initiatives in past several years, including hiring an internal position to lead and advocate for initiatives.”
• “Women seem to do well and occupy most of the leadership positions. There is a lack of racial/ethnic diversity in leadership positions, but there are efforts to address that.”

Business Outlook

• “As we grow, we are trying to figure out how to compete in the market more effectively. We are people-centric which I believe adds a lot of value, but we are trying to think outside the box and innovate to provide meaningful solutions to our clients.”
• “Best: Many of our contracts are stable, multi-year contracts.
  Worst: Our firm relies heavily on Federal contracts, so if the government shuts down, for example, that can highly impact our runway.”
• “Eagle Hill is organized and well-prepared when it comes to business outlook. Eagle Hill believes in 'unconventional consulting' and works to provide innovative and creative solutions to client needs. Eagle Hill stays up to date on industry news by utilizing and creating blogs, research-based insights, podcasts, and testing new ideas and practices in Living Labs.”
• “Our firm delivers excellent work and has a great reputation with clients. Our challenge has to do with the fact that as we grow so too does our competition.”
• “The company is primarily federal consulting, so contracts are usually longer and guaranteed. The commercial business is nascent and has a few clients, but work tends to be smaller and not as long term.”

Hiring Process

• “A percentage of applicants reach the interview process, which currently means an interview with two current firm members (a combination of a manager-level or higher and one other person, either an associate-level employee or a peer). The interviews have been updated over the past few years to take less time, offer more breaks, and put less pressure on the candidates by asking a large number of questions. Post-interview, there might be a follow-up interview with another person at the firm at the firm's request, OR the candidate might be on the fence once receiving an offer and can request having a ‘peer call’ with someone at the firm who can answer their questions. I believe the firm's ideal candidate is someone who can critically think through and solve problems regardless of educational and professional background; someone who has emotional intelligence and can work in teams and independently; and someone who is flexible and adaptable within the firm and with clients. Also, the firm has a familiar, friendly, and collaborative environment, so the firm expects its employees to be inclusive and supportive of colleagues and clients.”
• “Eagle Hill looks for people who are curious and passionate about consulting. As a smaller firm, they seek out experienced hires from larger firms and their junior hires usually come from outside consulting.”
• “If you make it through the initial screening, you have a dual interview with two staff members which is a long interview but a great way for the interviewers to learn about the candidate and the interviewee to learn about the company. The ideal candidate is someone with at least two years of professional experience in any field and open to learning.”
• “… [Applicants can expect an initial] a phone screen interview. If someone moves forward, they are interviewed by 2 EHC employees (similar to the phone interview questions) and if the interview goes well they will be offered employment. If there are any other questions around someone's competency, they will be interviewed one more time to explore those competency gaps. The whole process usually takes 3 weeks. The ideal candidate is someone who scores high on the competency matrix. There are some competencies that are vital and others that are weighted less because they can easily be taught over time.”
• “Very consistent communication. I was in the recruitment and hiring process for less than one month.”

Interview Questions

• “Describe a challenge you faced in your most recent job and how you found a solution to overcome it. What would you say about your previous manager? What would they say about you?”
• “Eagle Hill had us talk about each of our work experiences to date, what they taught us/how we grew through them, and questions related to feedback, strengths, and approaches to challenging situations.”
• “No case interviews, interviews try to make sure you fit the culture as much as they are typical consulting interviews. This helps since the firm hires a lot of people from other industries.”
• “They use a [competency-based] interview process which digs deeply into your employment experience and educational history for roughly two hours.”
• “We ask people to highlight successes and mistakes. The desired response is a person being able to recognize their own strengths and weaknesses while providing a positive spin on what they learned and/or how they handled mistakes to make personal improvement.”