Vault’s Verdict

Across the firm’s European, Middle Eastern, and African offices, insiders often describe themselves as entrepreneurs operating insider a larger firm. Operating in a flat hierarchy that provides access to leaders and mentors, consultants take on major project roles early in their careers and have room to drive their own careers. This can include international transfers, academic sponsorship, and secondments. The firm offers vast training opportunities, and promotions can occur quickly for high performers. Of course, all this autonomy means the firm is an especially good fit for self-starters, while people who need more direction may struggle.

From a cultural perspective, OW offers an authentic, friendly environment. Leaders and junior-level staff connect seamlessly, and the firm focuses on collaboration and constructive criticism rather than internal competition. Consultants have the ability to limit travel or expand it as their career preference dictates, and the firm offers flexibility over working from home and work schedules. Partners monitor work-life balance and burnout through formal processes, such as weekly reports on consultants’ job satisfaction.

Consultants’ satisfaction with their compensation varies by market but is generally high. The firm tends to offer high base salaries for the markets it hires in, has recently revamped its bonuses to account for above-and-beyond contributions, and provides a company car or mobility stipend in some markets. The firm has a recent history of strong growth, regardless of macroeconomic conditions, and insiders approve of its efforts to scale its AI offerings.

Employee Reviews

Firm Culture

• “Incredibly entrepreneurial and meritocratic. The firm encourages you to be your authentic self rather than fix you in a mold. The firm also encourages you to take your work seriously, not yourself, a great ethos in this current climate.”
• “The smaller office sizes mean a great connection with people from your office. Super tight culture, and people are not competing with each other day-to-day. It is fun and enjoyable to come to work every day. Time off is relatively easy to get, provided you notify on time and align with your team. Hours are long, but relative to the industry they are quite okay.”
• “The best aspect is the friendly environment and flat company culture. This fosters new joiners’ involvement from day one and helps keep high levels of engagement. One negative aspect could be the relatively low variety of projects and industries covered by my office, which are mainly focused on the financial sector.”
• “Amazing culture with possibility to speak with all leaders in the organization. Very friendly atmosphere. Lots of learning opportunities with seniors dedicating lots of time to development of the team. Possibility to be entrepreneurial vs other companies. Possibility to wear casual in the office.”

Quality of Life

• “OW offers a lot of great flex options in case colleagues have special requirements or travel restrictions. We also have well established work-life balance routines on projects and weekly reporting for every project, so that managers/partners are always aware of individual needs as well as project WLB performance.”
• “The firm has been a leader in promoting a sustainable work-life balance and has implemented various initiatives in this regard, such as establishing an internal wellbeing champion role and institutionalizing weekly reports on consultants' satisfaction, among others.”
• “Working hours are intense, but that’s true for most consulting firms. But time off is respected and adhered to, like vacations and weekends”
• “The flexibility of work including working from home, working around personal commitments, and the relative ease of taking time off are among the best aspects. The worse aspects include limited control over project choice.”

Career Development

• “You have the opportunity to learn really quickly and are able to pick up useful skills across lots of industries. The people and the work is satisfying. Given the size of the firm, it is also possible to do secondments and years in an office abroad, which increases the opportunities available.”
• “Extremely tailored career advice with many buddies and mentors. Training options are vast and tailored as well (including onboarding sessions to familiarize with the company, tools, and culture).”
• “Everything is possible based on your drive to find a solution with the people to support it (e.g., international transfers and academic sponsorship, such as MBA or PhD).”
• “The promotion process is very time dependent. However, the steps and compensation structures are made clear, so you know where you are. International opportunities are plentiful, with specialization encouraged even during early years if you know what you want your career to look like. Informal mentoring does take a few weeks to set up though, meaning you go through a very formal training process with less informal support.”

Compensation

• “The best part of our package is our base salary, with a clear bonus structure too. Promotions are made clear, with the pension match (4 percent contribution matched at 12 percent firm-contribution) really making our salary higher in real terms.”
• “Bonus structure has recently been changed; it now also accounts for our ‘outside of job’ contributions (building firm activities, leading initiatives, etc.) and times we’ve gone beyond the average on projects. I think this is a nice idea, but the execution of it is still to be seen (seems quite subjective).”
• “The best part for me is the mobility package. It is either a company car or you get paid an extra salary component every month for mobility expenses such as public transportation subscription.”
• “We have ClassPass credits given to us for exercise, we have a well-being committee that organizes events, etc., and we have well-being reports read out by partners on an office level monthly. There is a lot of space for burn-out related illness, and there are structures in place to prevent burnout or working too many hours for an extended period of time.”

Inclusion

• “We just finished a one-week Inclusion & Diversity festival, with 20+ events organized online and in offices. There is a lot of attention on Inclusion & Diversity by our CEO.”
• “We are given extensive training, extensive reminders, and extensive signs about how important diversity is. It is made very clear that Oliver Wyman accepts, and supports, everyone’s differences.”
• “We are 70+ nationalities in our region—extreme diversity fueled by truly diverse life backgrounds!”
• “The firm has placed several women in high positions, and female partners and principals are becoming more and more prevalent. The firm promotes cultural inclusion, as well as LGBTQ+ inclusion through dedicated events (this is also reflected in the firms recruitment efforts).”

Business Outlook

• “The firm’s headcount has been growing, revenue has been growing, and a lot of people are getting promotions. It looks like we will catch up to the Big 3 at some point (we have a lot of confidence that we will).”
• “Project pipeline is quite strong, with employee morale good to support the execution of these projects. We are also increasing recruitment efforts to get more talent to support.”
• “Solid pipeline, with team fully staffed across practices. Strong growth in the previous years, despite flat consulting market.”
• “Of course, the economy is not doing great at the moment and we see certain industry sectors really struggling, but overall, I am convinced we are investing in the right aspects. For example, we have a huge global AI initiative internally that is working on transforming our operating model and launching amazing technology.”

Hiring Process

• “The interview process is quite long and complex. For full-time positions, it requires five to six interviews. The ideal candidate must be smart, with an analytical mind and excellent communication skills, but also a genuine person.”
• “CV screening. Quantitative/numerical test screening. First-round round interview with Associate/EM). Second/third-round partner interview. Offer. Ideal candidate is analytically strong and able to balance that with strong communication skills and an ability to think on the spot. Personality-wise, candidates should not be too arrogant or looking for prestige, and instead a little more down-to-earth and amicable.”
• “Each interviewee receive feedback following the interview. Ideal candidate structures well problems adopting a mutually exclusively and collectively exhaustive approach, explains ideas with clarity and confidence, ask politely the right questions, performs calculations rapidly and correctly, has previous experience with other internships during universities, achieved top grades at school, and can speak fluently English.”
• “Top business university, three relevant internships, good grade along all academic levels (HS, BS,MS), and fluency in English paired with experience abroad. Or strong in science like math, physics, maybe a PhD.”

Interview Questions

• “Case Interview: Pricing of a drug, study of banking profitability, decrease airline compensation costs, robbing a bank, and estimating department store revenue. Behavioral Interview: What are you least proud of, what are you most proud of, what makes you happy, and which value do you most/least identity with?”
• “For example, an interviewer finds a major road/motorway/highway near where you are from and asks how much money you would pay for that road. Interviewee should consider factors which drive road profitability and return a ballpark answer with iteration with the interviewer.”
• “What are your key strengths? What will you bring to this company?”
• “What’s the price of a forever toothbrush?”

Uppers

• “Young-at-heart culture, entrepreneurial spirit, strong ethical standards, growth opportunities.”
• “Culture, early responsibility, compensation.”
• “International opportunities with a common payroll for all European employees (sense of belonging to the wider European region).”
• “C-suite clients, diversity of projects, impactful outcomes.”

Downers

• “With Oliver Wyman being an organized partnership, it’s sometimes difficult to implement top-down decisions.”
• “Brand prestige compared to MBB.”
• “We are in a lot of pain from our growth, with many processes that are not as mature yet as they should be given our size.”
• “As with the whole consulting industry, work-life balance is challenging.”