Vault’s Verdict

If you want to work at the intersection of economics, litigation, and consulting, NERA is an excellent choice. Insiders appreciate the firm’s collaborative culture, which emphasizes working together to maintain work-life balance and clearly communicating timelines and expectations. Staff can work remotely two days per week, and project work tends to be cyclical: late nights and weekends can be part of the job around deadlines, but otherwise hours follow a more traditional schedule.

The firm’s internal expectation is that every employee who joins advances through the ranks, supported by its clearly defined career paths, formal trainings in skills needed as a senior employee, and a mentoring culture where partners and senior staff are happy to share their experience. However, insiders do note that candidates who either have or wish to pursue advanced degrees will have an advantage at the firm, as the careers of people with only bachelor’s degrees may hit a ceiling. 

Salary progression is fast during the first few years at the firm, and insiders say that their pay, when calculated on a per-hour basis, is among the highest in the industry. Bonuses become a large part of compensation after your second year on the job, and signing bonuses are also available, although the method for calculating bonuses can be opaque. 

Employee Reviews

Firm Culture

• “There's a culture of expecting everyone to advance and move up the ranks, which allows for great opportunities leading project work.”
• “Absolutely no complaints about quality of life. The firm respects the free time of their employees and encourages very healthy balance that prioritizes having a life.”
• “When big cases are due, the hours are extremely long but predictable. The people are extremely intelligent and very willing to help. The company culture is very collaborative.”
• “They promote work/life balance by planning social events. My seniors always check up on to make sure I am not working too much, and it is extremely easy to take time off.”

Quality of Life

• “NERA’s hourly requirements tend to be cyclical. When a case deadline is coming up, research associates and analysts should be prepared to work later on weekdays and on weekends. However, when deadlines are further away, work hours follow a more traditional schedule. Expectations have always been communicated clearly, which makes them manageable.”
• “I think hours are about what is to be expected in the industry. When projects are busy, there are more hours required. At other times, you can expect to come in at 9 and leave by 5. If you plan ahead, it’s quite easy to take time off.”
• “I am happy with the ability to work from my home office several days a week.”
• “Quality of life fluctuates based on level of work required. During busy periods there is less free time, but during periods of stable work there is more free time. Partners are generally accommodating to requests for time off or for travel.”

Career Development

• “NERA Economic Consulting holds regular internal trainings for its employees. These are helpful for developing skills we use each day on the job. Many of these trainings cover higher level topic areas that are relevant to the work seniors do, which is nice for those considering higher education. NERA has a robust informal mentoring culture, where seniors are more than happy to meet with juniors to walk through complex economic topics that figure into the work we do.”
• “There is a very well-defined career path for bachelor’s degree holders. It is difficult to move to a higher level without a graduate degree.”
• “Career progression is very transparent. Training is comprehensive and lots of opportunities to continue training.”
• “Informal training has been excellent. I've had great mentors which have made me a better employee. However, there are not many international opportunities.”

Compensation

• “Top level pay without extreme schedules; at NERA your pay per hour is probably in the top quartile or decile.”
• “Quick salary progression at first that plateaus after three to four years. Once you hit the end of year two, bonus can become a large portion of your comp, which is nice. However, zero transparency from the firm in terms of how the bonus is calculated/chosen (for example, directors will refuse to share collections on time billed to clients, etc.).”
• “Generous salary, great sign-on bonus, and opportunities for performance bonuses.”
• “NERA consistently holds workshops to promote wellness and offers good medical benefits that include an EAP program for mental health.”

Inclusion

• “Inclusion efforts are great at NERA. I have met people of many races and ethnicities, people part of the LGBTQ+ community, individuals with disabilities, and appreciate the effort to include and give women equal opportunity and respect in the workplace.”
• “The firm has a strong track record of hiring from the international student pool, which leads to a culture of inclusion with respect to ethnicity. However, very little diversity when it comes to socio-economic background.”
• “I’ve never known or heard of any employees who felt like they weren’t included in every facet of work. There are designated programs for women, and many firm leaders are women.”
• “The spectrum of people in high-level roles is vast. I have never felt any sense of exclusion in the workplace.”

Business Outlook

• “Employee morale is high, leadership is excellent. We have adopted new AI technology that will really help with efficiency and should give us a leg-up.”
• “There is some uncertainty due to larger political factors and there will likely be changes in the kinds of work we get, but it still seems like a sure thing that we will continue to get work.”
• “The leadership is very optimistic when talking to us, which improves our confidence in them and the outlook of the firm.”
• “New players are entering the market, but I am confident in NERA’s ability to stand out among its peers.”

Hiring Process

• “One to two interviews plus a virtual Super Day (four interviews) assessing communication plus technical skills. 60/40 weight towards quantitative abilities (some combination of coding, economics, math, statistics).”
• “Campus recruiting staff is great. From resume submission to offer was less than three weeks. Firm mostly seeks economics majors from liberal arts schools with some experience in academic research and statistical programming (R, Stata, Python, etc.).”
• “They communicated well throughout the interview process. The ideal candidate is someone with a very strong microeconomics/econometrics background, strong communication skills, and experience working with messy data. This person needs to have strong enough knowledge that they can explain complex topics in simple terms.”
• “NERA’s responses were open and timely. I found it quite pleasant to communicate with HR. NERA is seeking somebody who is teachable, hardworking, good at working with data, and good at writing. The ideal candidate should be incredibly strong both qualitatively (academic/research writing, proofreading, legal writing) and quantitatively (Stata, R, SAS, Python, etc.).”

Interview Questions

• “Walk us through a time that you worked with data to answer a question. What programs did you use, how did you approach the question, and how did you know your results were robust (if this was the case)? (Likely to reference an experience listed on your resume to kick off this question).”
• “What research experience do you have and can you expand on a project you’ve done? What data have you worked with? What coding experience do you have?”
• “Imagine in the car tire market there are only two main firms supplying the tires. One is a firm that only makes car tires, and the other makes car tires and car engines. What are some potential anticompetitive behaviors that one of the firms could use to gain an advantage in the car tire market? What actions could they take? How would this impact consumers, both in the short term and the long run?”
• “Give me a full breakdown of an economics paper you wrote. What was the question you asked? Why is it important? Why did you select the data/variables/models you used? What were your results? What are the weaknesses in your approach/how could it be critiqued? What are your responses to those critiques?”