Forrester Asia

Vault’s Verdict

A well-known brand thanks to its parent company’s research capabilities, Forrester’s consulting division is quietly expanding headcount and footprint around the globe. With a boutique feel, the firm offers a unique opportunity to consultants, and provides both interesting work and the ability to achieve a strong level of control over work life balance. Insiders note that support for continuing education, along with the ability to transfer internationally and/or to different functions within the firm are key perks of life at Forrester.

Firm Culture

• “Forrester is a company that truly walks what it preaches There is high flexibility in terms of the work arrangements. Colleagues and mentors are really supportive too, which helps to foster a really positive working environment to work in.”
• “Forrester is really a great firm with awesome culture and nice people! They make you feel that you are welcomed to the organization, provide you with the necessary support and training to help you ace in both personal and professional growth.”
• “It's a very small firm in APAC, so culture could be different from larger companies. It's quite international and diverse.”
• “Research based (from primary research that we generate).”
• “We are not a typical consulting firm. If your primary objective is to be incredibly well paid, look elsewhere. However, if you want a place where you get amazing opportunities to work with a range of clients, have access to some of the best research in the industry and work with great people that genuinely care about each other and their clients - then look here!”

Quality of Life

• “Amazing quality of life - it is one of the key aspects of what makes this a great place to work. Yes, people are committed and work hard - but we recognize and value that work is not the be all and end all.”
• “I think long hours for consulting is a norm, but I have not been doing over-time very often at Forrester.”
• “Forrester has an ‘Anywhere work’ policy, and we are flexible on working hours and location as long as work can be done in time. Taking time off is easy, just need to make sure we inform the team.”
• “They have very flexible working policies which suit our needs.”

Compensation

• “Benefits vary by region - no stock options offered in my region, but it is available to colleagues in North America.”
• “Generally our compensation package is just ‘OK’ - however you must balance this with the work we get to do, the quality of life / work life balance and the great culture.”
• “The market compensation is on par with the market rate.”

Career Development

• “Best: research resources to back up consulting delivery; work life balance.  
• Worst: small market presence and limited reputation in China.”
• “Forrester encourages learning, there is tuition fee allowance every year to assist us continue upskilling ourselves. There are a lot of training resources available on the intranet for self-directed and self-paced learning. The company also makes internal mobility possible; I have seen quite a few colleagues move across functions and departments and regions.”
• “We have an opportunity to work with a wide range of clients across multiple industries and the nature of our core business (business research) means we have access to some of the best thought leadership and Market / Business Analysts around the world - so every day offers amazing learning opportunities.
• “Promotion is very merit-based - we have no concept of ‘time at level’ OR ‘up or out’  so people can move at their own pace and direct their career as they want. I have been very fortunate that my progression has been very fast. “
• “We provide great support for people who wish to move locations (people have moved from APAC to Europe and NA and vice versa) as well as moving into other areas of our business (such as Research or Sales).”

Community Engagement

• “Indeed, I could see the effort that our firm is putting on the D&I by organizing talks and developing courses on it.”
• “There are formal DE&I trainings and sharing sessions to raise awareness and share best practices. Everyone has equal access to interesting/high-quality work and promotion opportunities. Managers also will check in with juniors regularly to make sure everyone is coping well.”
• “We have a formal D&I program that helps to educate and raise awareness. Working across cultures, this is very important as what is ok in one cultural norm is not in another. We as a firm rise above this and have a set of standards we believe all employees must live.”
• Business Outlook
• “Brand less known in APAC, but I have confidence in the Forrester's product and services could bring value to the businesses. The topics we research on are all very innovative and ahead of the market.”
• “We have a unique value proposition (research based consulting) that is powerful. Our challenge is being able to communicate this clearly to the market.”

Hiring Process

• “Very efficient. Callback/reply are usually within a day or two. The entire interview process only took two weeks, including two rounds of interview and one case presentation.”
• “Very transparent and frequent communication/updates.”
• “We try to move as fast through the process as possible. Typically it will involve 3 interviews (after initial screening) and 1 case study round. We offer candidates the opportunity to work with the recruiting manager to refine their case study presentation - to demonstrate to them the collaborative working style we have.”
• “Ideal candidate should be:

1. Curious
2. Engaging
3. Fun loving
4. Collaborative.”

Interview Questions

• “Case study prepared in collaboration with a leader, and presented to a panel.”
• “Senior Consultant Case Study example: 
• Scenario: IT Management Transformation 
• Bill Montgomery is the Vice President of Infrastructure and Operations at Northwind Financial, a global financial Institution.  He is responsible for managing, operating, and maintaining all business services, applications, and infrastructure components for the company.  The company has about 22,000 servers running 2500 global applications; about 35% of these applications are mission critical.  He has asked Forrester to assist him in laying the foundation for a transformation of his IT management environment; he believes the team is currently too reactive and lacks the ability to proactively detect issues and anticipate threats before there are service impacts to the lines of business.  He wants to ensure that his management strategy, tools, integration, and approach adhere to best practices, and would like to get a perspective on how other companies similar in size and complexity approach these issues.  Bill has indicated that he wants to start with an initial engagement but that he hopes it will lead to additional projects with Forrester.  He has encouraged you to describe any follow-on projects that you see as logical extensions of this first project.”