Epsilon Economics and Epsilon Life Sciences

Vault’s Verdict

Epsilon Economics and Life Sciences’ strong reputation and deep commitment to work-life balance makes it an intriguing proposition for anyone considering a career at the intersection of life sciences and economics. Insiders value their firm’s intellectual culture and opportunities to work with premier clients—benefits of working at a smaller firm that are offset to some degree by limited support structures and the pressure of time-sensitive engagements.

The firm prides itself on its collegial atmosphere, fair and performance-based compensation, and a progressive approach to work-life balance, exemplified by its unlimited paid time off policy. 

Firm Culture

• “Ensure that you are interested in the Life Sciences field. The work is fantastic if that is what you would like to do. Creating the desire to work in the field after starting at the firm would be very difficult.”
• “If you are at the highest level of economics analysis in the world - you should be considering Epsilon Economics.”
• “Lots of opportunity to learn in a friendly, collegial environment filled with honest and hard-working people who love to debate ideas.”
• “The firm is full of incredibly intelligent and dedicated employees who are willing to teach you. The compensation and benefits are great.”
• “While life sciences is a key industry we focus on, we have capabilities and expertise across disputes, compliance, investigations, economics, privacy and cyber that are applied across a coast range of industries. We have a dynamic, entrepreneurial and accountable environment that allows for great team and personal success.”

Quality of Life

• “Best aspect: Unlimited paid time off policy, to be used responsibly and consciously of deadlines and project pipelines, is very good at allowing for breaks when necessary to come back and work harder. Managers are almost always extremely personable and understanding, which leads to a good transparent dialogue about how to most efficiently complete work without imposing upon personal life.
  
  Worst aspect: Clients can often have huge last-minute changes to drafts of prepared expert reports, which is quite capable of throwing off plans (not much the firm can do about this). Very occasionally, managers can demand too much time outside of regular working hours.”
• “Epsilon is extremely understanding when it comes to putting family first.”
• “Our firm offers a great deal of flexibility and allows employees to flex their schedule depending on their workload. In addition, we offer unlimited Paid Time Off. However, there are still fairly aggressive utilization targets for junior staff.” 
• “We can do virtually all of our work from our home office or remotely. Our consultants rarely have to travel, and when they do, they are usually day trips or two days. We also have a flexible vacation policy and people can take time off as they need, and the firm understands that people's time off needs may vary from year to year depending on life events. We also have a six month fully paid parental leave policy for primary caretakers and two month fully paid leave for secondary caretakers and have flexibility upon return to office for mom and dads to be away as needed for their kids.”
• “When there is a deadline, everyone is expected to put in the hours necessary to meet it. When there isn't an immediate deadline, employees have flexibility to take longer lunches, go to an appointment, pick up kids from school, etc. As a working parent, this type of flexibility is extremely valuable.”

Compensation

• “Compensation is driven by financial contribution.”
• “Firm is very conscious of making sure there are no differences in salaries for men and women at the same level. Firm conducts equity audits to ensure that people are being paid the same if they are at the same level and have the same experience.”
• “I am satisfied with the compensation package. Raises are based on industry trends and performance, which incentivize hard work. It's also nice everyone in the Firm is given equity.”
• “Pay is strong but does not include standard perks like cellphones.”
• “We benchmark across gold standard firms in our industry and always try to remain in the top salary and bonus brackets. Salary progression rises steadily as you advance, and everyone can participate in our commission program if you bring consulting engagements to the firm. You don't have to be the most senior titles to be compensated for work you bring to the firm. We also have a cool feature for our Analysts to take advantage of: they can be eligible for year-end bonuses and also monthly bonuses for working overtime at time and half of their bill rates to incentivize short-term compensation. All men and women with the same level of experience are paid exactly the same, and we don't have gender disparity in our ranks. Everyone in our firm receives equity—no matter how junior or senior you are in the firm—and is an owner of the firm.”

Career Development

• “As soon as you are ready for more responsibility - you can have it - no arbitrary timelines.”
• “Direct shadow opportunities on selling with partners from a very junior level, partners who really care about career development.”
• “Epsilon has many opportunities for career development and advancement, especially for a small firm. The firm emphasizes building relationships with managers and owning one's work, which helps in these areas. The promotion timelines are respected and adhered to for the most part, and leadership is transparent with timing and performance (good and bad). The firm also sponsors training and certifications and has a continuing education reimbursement program.” 
• “Strong mentorship from senior partners and executives. Many women in leadership positions, thereby opening opportunities for mentorship from women leaders. Career progression is entirely dependent on individual performance, no lock step promotion.”
• “While it is a small firm, there is quite a variety of areas of specialization that employees can explore and are encouraged to develop.”

Community Engagement

• “26 weeks for maternity leave for women primary caretakers, half of the board is women, focus on LGBTQ+ individuals and philanthropy.”
• “For such a small company there is a tremendous amount of diversity in the team and an overt embracing for inclusion. There is an active I&D committee spearheading educational and recruitment efforts.”
• “Half of our management committee and executive committee is women. The firm takes great pride in developing and advancing women and has been very successful at it.  For being a firm of just under 50, we have an impressive representation of diverse colleagues in race, age, sexual orientation, religion, education and training, political beliefs, and more. All consultants have equal access to leadership opportunities and interesting work, and it shows by just looking at our leadership teams and seeing how diverse they are. Diversity is a value that is set at the top and penetrates all the way to our most junior folks. “
• “Very open and receptive culture. Strong formal and informal support for LGBTQ issues. Firm has gone out of the way to accommodate needs of orthodox Muslim employees (such as not serving alcohol at firm events in their presence, prayer rooms).”
• “We are a small firm and as an out gay man, I feel very accepted and included. We could focus more on hiring people of color.”

Business Outlook

• “Being a small company, everyone gets a voice. As a result, sometimes visions differ and goals change. However, our team is great with communication. Leadership does a great job with messaging and connecting with the entire Firm on a weekly and monthly basis. I am comfortable in my position at the firm and know my colleagues are doing great work.” 
• “Best aspect: An extremely solid reputation and great connections to clients (both law firms and litigation parties) for incoming work and projects. Worst aspect: Unsure about how A.I. will affect some aspects of our work.”
• “Great growth, increased profitability, lots of external interest in the company.”
• “High employee morale and world-renowned experts that are rainmakers.”
• “The best part is that the privacy portion of the firm is growing quickly. The worst part is that the compliance portion of the practice is sticking to the same clients they have had for years and pitching the same types of projects.”

Hiring Process

• “An initial screen with our operations manager and then an onsite interview speaking with folks from various levels and parts of the business. Then references are checked and final offer is presented. We also set up additional meetings for people as they wish to meet with others in the firm, especially their peer group. The ideal candidate is someone who is intellectually curious and passionate about what they do.”
• “Recruitment process is solid, as evidenced by the firm culture. All the analysts are very smart and get along very well. The ideal candidate is someone who is broadly an apt question asker and problem solver, irrespective of educational background.”
• “The firm seeks curious individuals who love solving complex problems and are passionate about their work.”
• “The ideal candidate both has the educational background and interest in the type of work we do as well as interest in serving in a client-facing role.”
• “We are seeking intellectually curious and analytical people; no specific background is required.” 

Interview Questions

• “A live case example that candidates need to think through on the spot to show critical thinking and economic intuition. We also provide a writing prompt so we can see how their written communication skills are.”
• “Example interview questions depend on the round. Typical behavioral interview questions are those designed to gauge an applicant's fit, both for the industry and our firm. The next round presents an open-ended question that highlights the applicant's qualitative and quantitative decision-making skills, i.e., questions that focus more on the ‘how’ and ‘why’ as opposed to arriving at an answer.”
• “Series of interviews about culture, educational background, career path.”
• “We ask potential interviewees to walk through a mock case and think through problems with the interviewer.”
• “We tend to focus on education and background applicability to our work, ability to interact as it shows the ability to interact with clients, which is crucial, and do give them a case ahead of time to prepare, which shows their preparation skills, critical thinking skills, and presentation skills.”