Vault’s Verdict

Insiders at EY-Parthenon cannot say enough good things about life at their firm. Employees rave about the culture at the company, which many contribute to the firm’s focus on hiring “smart, nice, and driven” people. Employees feel well looked after, with competitive compensation and benefits, a strong focus on diversity and inclusion, and an uncommonly transparent promotion process. The quality of work on offer at EY-Parthenon is top notch, and employees are continuously impressed with the level of training and mentorship available. Employees also agree that the firm is well positioned for the future, with the general takeaway being optimistic. In short, they certainly seem to be doing something right over at EY-Parthenon.

Firm Culture

• “DE&I is highly embedded into the firm's culture, which allows one to be themselves when they come into work.”
• “Every year at EY has shown me that the firm is really behind putting our people first - something that my last two firms only paid lip service to.”
• “EY-Parthenon is a top consulting organization in the industry in terms of prestige but unlike its competitors, I feel EY-Parthenon focuses intensely on fostering a culture of inclusion, well-being, and commitment to employees. I feel like they care about who I am as person while also challenging and supporting me to excel and do my best work.”
• “Our partners are easy to access and open to mentoring the lower levels. I've had multiple mentors at the Partner level who have invested in my career over the years. This is unheard of at some consulting firms.”
• “The people. Period, full stop. The culture of no ego, supportive mentorship, and colleagues who truly care about you as a person while operating at an incredibly high level of performance is unmatched. Every day I feel challenged by my work, learn from my teams, feel personally fulfilled by providing mentorship to others, receive mentorship myself, and operate in a group of people I truly consider to be my friends and not just my colleagues. That is the reason I have been here for nearly 20 years.”

Quality of Life

• “Best is partners actively protect their case teams and find ways to build downtime in for team sustainability, even when the firm is ‘sold out.’ Worst is that PE work can only be so sustainable, and as you get more senior, there seems to be less of a concern about sustainability (almost a mentality of ‘if you made it this far, you’re not leaving, so sustainability is less of our concern’).”
• “EYP has taken a few steps over the past year to help improve quality of life. Project leads are encouraged to work with teams to define norms, honor team members’ individual needs, and align on when it is appropriate/best for the team to be travelling. Overall, Mon-Thurs travel is gone and has created more sustainability in the job.”
• “EY-Parthenon encourages an office culture with amenities, events, and meals at the office without creating explicit requirements to be in the office, allowing for maximum flexibility. Most people come to the office once or twice a week to socialize or co-locate with their team. Travel is client dependent. Hours are roughly 45-55 depending on client industry, transaction phase or project type. Taking time off is very easy—teams often set working norms and establish an OOO calendar at the start of each project. … Working hours for private equity clients and diligence efforts are usually longer hours (roughly 60 hours on average) since project deliverables are usually expected for 2-3 weeks. The firm has started to deploy teams in ‘pods’ to allow for faster and easier iterations of the diligence process."
• “One of the best aspects of my firm's quality of life is our extremely unique, comprehensive, and company-wide benefits program. Employees receive [flexible] PTO, a $1,000 stipend for personal wellbeing, and extensive maternity/paternity leave. There is great flexibility for working remote and travel cost for work is covered.”
• “The firm values work-life balance and wellness, but this profession can come with difficult hours. There is a lot of attention paid to hours worked and efforts to provide relief between projects. The requirements to be back in office or traveling are quite flexible and fair. There is [flexible] vacation, but it can feel difficult to take time off if you don't plan ahead.”

Compensation

• “All feels pretty standard. Worst is we always seem to match [other top strategy firms] like a year after they raise salaries, then they raise them again and we’re back to being paid below them.”
• “EYP has demonstrated a continued commitment to growing its compensation and competing head-to-head with other top strategy consulting firms. In the past few years, EYP has meaningfully increased its compensation package every year, now offering both a high base salary AND high variable comp / bonus structure, whereas historically EYP had leaned more heavily into its high base salary only.”
• “EY-Parthenon has made significant changes to the compensation package to align with the consulting industry standard. We now have a very competitive base salary with a larger portion of variable comp. Total compensation has been benchmarked to the industry and aligns with our position as a top-tier strategy house. Variable pay is based on performance and allows us to differentially reward high performers.”
• “Salary progression is transparent and high performers can move up the ladder quickly. Performance-based bonuses are paid out to top performers as well, and they are consistently 20%+, providing options for significant end-of-year gains for employees. My favorite perks are the EY Way of Working fund that [reimburses] travel to and from the office, [meals associated with mentorship sessions], and funds for wellness-related activities.”
• “We have cohort pay where everyone at the same level and tenure has the same base pay - performance is rewarded through our bonuses. This model helps to reduce some of the bias that can come into play with compensation and corrects issues that come from needing to negotiate and play a game with salary. We have generous wellness benefits - we even have a program where you can get airfare and lodging for vacations covered to encourage people to actually take a break. We have two [week-long holiday breaks per year].”

Career Development

• “A lot of emphasis on training at onboarding and at promotion. Less time available for optional training in-between. They are adding more training opportunities and unique ones are available but may be less easy to locate.”
• “Best: Mentorship, networking opportunities, rotation opportunities (although these are competitive and hard to come by for most people). Worst: Promotion process for those at the Associate level (1-2 years out of undergrad) is pretty set in stone. Even if you are a top performer … EYP doesn't really give you much opportunity to be promoted early at that level.”
• “Extreme investment in professional and personal growth at the firm. Beyond the mandatory formal training required by the firm (min 40 hours/year), there are weekly trainings in a classroom format, access to [online learning platforms], extensive custom course library, etc. In addition, the apprenticeship model is very real at EY-P with industry knowledge transmitted on the job continuously. Promotion policies remain rigid, however, due to following the broader EY promotion protocol / timeline.”
• “Our people come to the firm under the EY-Parthenon hiring philosophy of being ‘smart, nice, and driven’, which translates into how we train and mentor each other. Consulting is an apprenticeship business, and at EYP we all work with ‘smart, nice, and driven’ people who are eager to invest in your development through informal mentorship, building formal training programs, or being an advocate and sponsor as you work towards a promotion.”
• “The promotion process is well-documented, and the timing of promotions becomes more variable as you move up the ranks. That is, at the lower ranks the vast majority of individuals will get promoted after the same amount of time has elapsed, whereas at the higher ranks the amount of time between promotions is far more variable. At these ranks, there is greater emphasis on performance differentiation in order to receive a promotion. I very much appreciate the fact that the promotion timeline is very transparent, and the firm does a great job communicating this to everyone. They also clearly set expectations as to what individuals at certain ranks need to achieve in order to receive a promotion.”

Community Engagement

• “A lot of great initiatives and efforts in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI). This is a huge focus for EY-Parthenon and we are embedding DEI in everything we do so that we can build a sense of belonging. This is visible in many different ways e.g. recruiting, community building programs, professional networks, and local office initiatives.” 
• “Extensive focus on DEI within the firm and professional networks focusing on Black, Latinx, pan-Asian, women, LGBTQ+, veteran, international, family, and neurodiversity/accessibility. Overarching DEI committees also hold events and create strategy around combined efforts and each professional network operates at the national and office-level for higher level strategic initiatives as well as office events. As a member of multiple DEI communities, I feel that I have had strong consideration for projects, internal initiatives, and promotion opportunities and have had mentors and sponsors at the firm.”
• “Really great efforts to value DEI in hiring, making it a core part of the recruitment effort. Open working environment where respect is part of the culture. Where there are any areas for improvement the firm is open to discussion and making changes.”
• “The firm has a number of ways to promote projects within so that interesting and high-quality projects are available to all rather than purely through networking. The firm also has professional networks and groups to help both practitioners internally and support recruiting efforts.”
• “We have diversity efforts at multiple levels within the firm and have frank conversations about where we are strong and where we have more opportunities to improve. We bake DEI representation into every step of the hiring and performance management process. In particular as a gay man, I am also encouraged by the number of out leaders at the firm—multiple practice leaders and more senior leaders are out and visible.”

Business Outlook

• “I think we have very high morale, great positioning, and an upward trajectory as a firm.”
• “EYP is redefining the industry with its ability to both execute on strategy work as well as implementation. EYP competes head-to-head as a top strategy consulting firm but is also supported by a broader EY consulting practice that is massive and has broad expertise. The market is rewarding EYP's innovative combination of strategy consulting and implementation abilities.”
• “The firm has continued to perform strongly year after year as a recognized and trusted brand name in the industry.”
• “The practice is diverse and there are a variety of projects sold across all sectors. Where one area slows down as a reaction to the market, others thrive. We continue to be busy and have the right sized population that we don't have excess people so it's a good place to work and be productive. We consistently discuss our performance against plan and are realistic about market and industry trends.”
• “EY-Parthenon is in a position of tremendous strength in the industry, with rapid growth across the firm, exciting areas of investment, and compelling opportunities for our people.”

Hiring Process

• “EY-Parthenon seeks out candidates that are smart, nice, and driven. These are qualities that are important to the firm and qualities that have helped to build out a culture of kindness, collaboration, and constant learning.”
• “From SuperDay interview to offer is typically 3-4 business days. Our ideal candidate is someone with a diverse background that hits our Smart, Driven, Nice pillars (usually see this through a structured case approach with comfort in the quantitative section and a very well-rounded behavioral interview covering off on academic success, leadership on campus/community, and community involvement).”
• “New this year is the pivot to one Superday of 3 interviews rather than two rounds. There are multiple waves and the goal is to make decisions quickly and deliver the results to students as quickly as possible. The firm is very clear in what they're looking for in campus presentations, coffee chats, case prep, the job description, etc.”
• “The firm has a strong on-campus hiring pipeline with a close second experienced hire pipeline. The ideal candidate is one who has strong analytical and interpersonal skills and shows the potential to be a great consultant.”
• “We want candidates that are smart, nice, driven. We have an interview “SuperDay” process where we have 1 round of 3 interviews. Reducing to 1 round of interviews means there are less folks selected for interview slots overall though so competition is tougher in a way during recruiting season.”

Interview Questions

• “Asked to estimate or size market for pet food in a major city and develop options to improve a food business.”
• “Our firm's recruiting process is rigorous and very thorough, and candidates can expect to complete multiple interviews consisting of both case and behavioral components.”
• “Typical behavioral interviews with questions designed to test resume and interpersonal skills. Case interviews are typical with straightforward questions and calculations. These cases test business knowledge, analytical skills and communication. There's nothing tricky about the cases, they're straight-forward and allow students to demonstrate their abilities.”
• “Typical profit, revenue growth case with additional elements that are focused on teaming, collaboration, and inclusiveness.”
• “We usually have three 45-minute interviews (1 behavioral case, 2 business cases).”