Vault’s Verdict

OC&C Strategy Consultants is known for its vibrant culture, with a friendly vibe that insiders love and a commitment to building an environment that fosters a strong work-life balance. Employees appreciate the firm’s high standards and intellectually stimulating work, and they say those who meet the challenge can climb the ranks quickly. The firm loves adding home-grown partners.

OC&C’s narrow focus on strategy gives it a strong name in the consulting market, and insiders say this has helped the firm maintain a strong project pipeline even in a few slow years for the industry at large. However, the firm’s commitment to its niche might be a drawback if you’re looking for a greater variety of work.

Firm Culture

“Weekend work is very rare, and travel tends to be for specific meetings rather than being offsite for whole weeks at a time. There has been increased focus on flexible working, and we can now protect one night each week.”

“It’s a nice and friendly work environment, and even though the standard hours are long, you’re able to have days where you finish early with no pressure to work late.”

“We do high-quality strategy consulting with great minds while ensuring everyone is lovely to work with.”

“The firm has strong support networks and invests in fun, alongside the challenging and interesting work.”

Quality of Life

“The organization has a happiness charter, which is a system to monitor and ensure strong work-life balance. It includes weekly surveys, forced ‘life nights,’ [and] traffic light systems.”

“The firm is increasing its efforts to improve work life balance, including protected evenings during the week. I have never had to work a weekend.”

“There is lots of flexibility when it comes to taking PTO as well as unpaid leave. The working hours, like everywhere in consulting, are a lot, but you can take time off when needed, which helps tremendously.”

“The low travel model allows you to live in the city you choose full-time.”

Career Development

“Everyone is assigned a mentor to oversee their professional development. They will never work directly with this person on a project, but your mentor is there to offer advice and guidance and oversee appraisals.”

“The work is hard, and the standard is high, but the job is intellectually stimulating, and you will learn lots from very smart senior team members. There is lots of exposure to the smart and engaged partner team.”

“The firm organizes large-scale, off-site trainings at least once a year, while smaller on-site trainings are offered throughout the year. I’ve had a very good experience with this.”

“The firm has a focus on continuous improvement. There are consistent opportunities to improve and stretch yourself. There’s the opportunity to move quickly up the ladder for those that want and merit it.”

Compensation

“Strong salary progression in early years.”

“My salary increased by about 90 percent two years after being promoted, plus my bonus rose from 10 percent to 20 percent of my base salary.”

“We have very transparent pay, bonuses, and progression. However, compensation does have a bit of a plateau in the middle ranks of the firm.”

“We have market-leading maternity and paternity policies, plus return-to-work support for new parents.”

Community Engagement/DEI

“The firm’s leadership is making a strong effort to strengthen DEI. I’ve seen notable improvement while I’ve been at the firm.”

“OC&C has extensive DEI networks that are actually empowered to affect change. This is driving ongoing policy improvements and firm performance alike.”

“We have lots of DEI groups that hold regular events, which are inclusive and welcoming. Hiring also seems to be quite diverse.”

“We have a health and wellness subsidy of £500 per year. The firm also offers free tickets to the theater sometimes, plus ‘away weekends’ where the whole company goes away to relax.”

Business Outlook

“Our workflow flow is very strong. While other big firms have been struggling for projects, we have been continuously busy.”

“We are very focused on key types of missions, which limits the range of industries where we can compete. However, I’m convinced this gives us credibility and strength.”

“We are excellent at home-growing high-quality partners, which ultimately drives long-term growth. We are also attracting back many ‘boomerang’ partners, who were tempted by consulting elsewhere but have realized the error of their ways.”

“We have strong potential to convert our pipeline into projects. We have a great recent track record with high-quality projects, which in turn, leads to more projects.”

Hiring Process

“We use business cases and fit interviews at each level, with high expectations and room for open discussion, which usually relates to our day-to-day work.”

“After CV screening and pre-interview tests, we invite candidates for two first-round interviews, followed by two final interviews with partners. The firm is looking for bright people who can devise creative, tailor-made solutions rather than candidates who have overprepared and just learned a bunch of frameworks by heart.”

“We are looking for someone with good aptitude, especially quantitatively, as a base. From there, they’re looking for clear and direct communicators who speak well and can provide innovative and creative solutions to problems.”

“We’re looking for someone smart, curious, and humble. Demonstrating genuine intellectual curiosity will go a long way.”

Interview Questions

“Expect to see typical strategy case studies that cover market sizing, customer segmentation, profit and loss assessments, and so on.”

“Size X market. Company X is thinking about entering market Y. Should they?”

“Size the Dutch toys market.”

“How would you increase the profitability of a gym franchise? How would you explore new distribution channels for a magazine? Size the oil market in 50 years’ time.”

Uppers

“The diverse group of people and the opportunities available to spend time with them shaping the future.”

“Salary, exit opportunities, culture, learning curve, the progression, and no travel”

“The culture, friendliness, and commitment to excellence in strategy.”

“Interesting and clever people to work with, a good leave allowance, and good compensation.”

Downers

“Work is intense, but not worse than other firms.”

“The growing pains of scaling.”

“Forward visibility.”

“Work-life balance can be sometimes difficult to manage because the hours fluctuate week to week.”