Vault’s Verdict

Emerton insiders are generally a happy bunch, who express a high degree of satisfaction with their firm’s friendly, supportive culture. And no wonder: Emerton offers skill-based growth opportunities and direct client interaction from day one. Work-life balance varies depending on the project, with some projects requiring long hours—a common theme throughout the industry.

On the compensation front, base pay is in line with comparable consulting firms, but insiders point to a lack of additional perks and communication around bonuses. Career development is a mix of personal mentoring and on-case trainings, with variable timelines for promotions and raises. The best aspect of career development is the flexibility to work on projects of interest and transfer to different offices, with international opportunities there for the taking.

Firm Culture

• “A real elite strategy consulting boutique with an enticing culture & work/life balance.”
• “Be ready to do a lot of infrastructure and energy projects in the NYC office. Be able to work independently.”
• “This firm has a very good work environment. People are friendly, very capable in their abilities and backgrounds, and are always willing to help and collaborate with each other. Leadership is strong and close. Opportunity to work directly with the client from day one. Diverse portfolio of challenging and interesting projects, in different themes and sectors. Short projects, so hardly the same project after 3 months.
  Medium size (40-50 people in Paris) allows for lots of flexibility and personal relations. Flexibility also comes with lack of formal processes to most things, so some foundation is still being build and formalized.”

Quality of Life

• “Excellent work-life balance. Could be challenging when staffed on a transaction support project on very large deals.”
• “Partners pay particular attention to work-life balance issues: working on weekend is rare and 'boil-the-ocean' analyses are not the way issues are solved at Emerton. Projects are all very interesting and very different from one to the next. We constantly learn something new. Finally, consultants are put in front of the client early on and get to hone their client interaction skills as their careers are being built.”
• “Some peaks from time to time, but overall reasonable hours. Great flexibility in the work from home / work from the office policy.”
• “Very flexible (home office, period of time with less work). Sometimes very long hours (specific projects, phase of a project).”

Compensation

• “Emerton's strength when it comes to the compensation package is the base salary. It does not compare with the 'top' consulting firms, but it is a healthy amount of money. The worst aspect of the firm's compensation package is the lack of 401K matching.”
• “Pay is in line with comparable strategy consulting firms.”
• “Very competitive package, in line with best-in class consulting firm.”

Career Development

• “Best aspect - Mid-size firm creates steep learning curve with great diversity in work opportunities with projects spanning a wide variety of industries and problem areas.”
• “Expectations are stated clearly. You then get promoted as soon as you are ready for the next role. Very good mix between on-case trainings and dedicated training sessions, organized internally or with external partners.”
• “Members of the consulting staff, from Consultant to Associate Partner, get a chance to spend several months in another office and get to know the consultants and culture there.”
• “The best part of Emerton's career development is the fact that it can be what you make of it. As a relatively small firm, they still provide great flexibility to work on projects of interest and even transfer to different offices in different countries.”

Community Engagement

• “D&I is front and center at Emerton. There are a dozen citizenships among the staff, and they make for a very interesting set of colleagues with whom to interact.”
• “Everyone at the firm is treated equally and valued based on their work output, not based on the color of their skin, gender, sexual orientation, etc.”
• “Management is receptive to all diversity subjects, and hires a wide range of ethnic minorities, along with a significant number of LGBTQ+ individuals. However, the firm has a low quantity of women when compared with number of total employees, and has not yet managed to achieve parity, although efforts are being made.”
• “We have a D&I committee to improve diversity with regard to women, in a first step, and minority groups in a second step. We are very culturally diverse, with employees from several different countries.”

Business Outlook

• “Emerton holds all employees to a high standard. As a result, the products produced by Emerton provide major value-add services to clients. Recurring clients and a strong reputation put Emerton in a strong position to maintain current business while expanding to more industries. The biggest potential downside to Emerton is employee attrition, which is normal in the consulting industry.”
• “One of the most innovative consulting firm in Europe. Entrepreneurial spirit. Launch of innovative products and services. Already a couple of new start-ups at our studio Kaukana ventures launched at the beginning of 2022 (kaukana-ventures.com).”
• “The firm is growing very fast. In particular, they just added a start-up incubator to the consulting and data offering.”
• “Very strong positioning within the sector, high employee morale, almost always we are ~90-100% staffed on projects, strong leadership with good flow of projects and clients engagement, ethical firm, strong pricing.”

Hiring Process

• “Candidates are usually very analytical and structured, with a good business sense. But they are also very pleasant individuals to interact with. It's really part of the culture.”
• “Ideal candidate fits with the culture and has proven highly proficient in the typical strategy consultant ‘qualities’ (analytical, rigorous, human interaction, team spirit, etc.).”
• “Multiple rounds of interviews (like 6+). Speak to partners at the U.S., Paris, and Munich offices. Seeking a candidate with good business acumen. Can identify the most important levers in a problem and what needs to be done independently.”
• “Numerous interview rounds with case studies, and a mix of case studies and technical tests (coding, data science) for data science dual track positions.”
• “The Emerton interview process [for an Associate Consultant] starts with a ~30-minute phone call with a consultant. This serves as a 'pre-screen.' Following that interview, a challenging 20-question multiple choice analytic test is administered. If candidates pass this test, candidates begin to interview with principals/partners completing several rounds of behavioral and case interviews. The ideal candidate for Emerton is intellectually curious, meticulous, and accountable.”

Interview Questions

• “Case study on a CPG company's supply chain.”
• “For example, during a case, I had a part around market sizing, after I finished, the interviewer told me to suppose I’m working at Emerton and cannot estimate but need to find percentages, so I have access to Google, how will I find them.”
• “Questions are standard case & interview questions.”
• “Several oral case studies based on real projects or real business situations. Also, a written case study at the end of the process, with a 2-hour preparation based on a set of documents.”
• “Specific questions [for Emerton Data candidates] are confidential, but areas include data strategy, data science technical cases, and hybrids.”