Vault’s Verdict

Situated in an interesting niche serving the mortgage finance industry, Potomac Point Partners is an exciting firm for consultants who enjoy operations strategy, process improvement, program and change management, and business analysis. Insiders say the firm has an excellent business outlook, with lots of repeat clients.

From a cultural standpoint, Potomac Point Group insiders say the firm offers an excellent quality of life. All the firm’s contracts are remote, and PTO is unlimited and encouraged. However, this doesn’t come at the cost of potential. The firm is highly entrepreneurial and, while formal training is limited, access to senior leadership and clear promotion criteria make it an excellent place to build a career. 

The last highlight of Potomac Point Group is its compensation. Insiders say the base compensation and benefits are solid, but they absolutely love the uncapped bonus structure. While some wish the bonus weren’t paid out over three years—a company decision to incentivize staying long-term—basically all of them agree that it has the potential to drive a good portion of their income. All in all, this firm is definitely a solid option to consider—especially if you’d like to live in the DC area.

Employee Reviews

Firm Culture

• “The small firm size lends itself to open communication and frequent opportunities to talk with coworkers that may have experience in aspects of the consulting space that you want to break into.”
• “Our hours are fairly set, and our unlimited PTO policy is amazing. Our team provides great coverage for each other when time off is required (sick leave, parental leave) and encourages folks to take time to recharge.”
• “We have a shared sense of work-life balance and helping each other achieve that balance so we can be truly offline when we take time off.”
• “We have a culture that values and respects all people, perspectives, and unique contributions to our firm and clients.”

Quality of Life

• “PTO is unlimited, and leadership consistently encourages staff to take time off, not just once a year, but whenever people feel like they need to. The work hours are very manageable, and leadership will facilitate discussions with clients when hours need to be cut back.”
• “Work-life balance is one PPG's strong points. All our contracts are remote, and the partners hold true to that. PPG was also very supportive of me when my second child was born and gave me as much time off as I needed.”
• “The firm has a flexible PTO policy that allows employees to oversee their own time off and manage client responsibilities. Leadership encourages taking time off to relax, recharge, and travel, and even calls employees out when they are taking too little. The company even implemented a sabbatical policy that allows employees to take four weeks of PTO after five years of employment.”
• “We provide a better quality of life than most top consulting firms. That said, as a small firm with limited capacity, there are times when we all must put in extra effort to get things done.”

Career Development

• “The company has a people model that makes it clear what skills each employee has to build and demonstrate at each level in order to advance to the next level. We have regular calibration sessions that make it clear where the employee is performing in each category.”
• “There is great access to more senior members of the firm due to its size. However, also due to its size there are not many formal trainings.”
• “The best aspects of the PPG's firm career development are that leadership and mentors let you guide what development you want to access. They do not silo you into a particular role or function; it's completely up to you. If you want support to upskill or change your role, they will do their best to provide that to you.”
• “We are excellent at mentoring and are dedicating a lot of time and effort right now to developing more formal training. As a small firm with limited capacity, sometimes it takes a long time to build up formal training materials, though.”

Compensation

• “For a small firm, we are quite competitive on salary. We have a very generous and uncapped bonus program, plus a full range of medical, disability, wellness, and education benefits. We are occasionally limited a bit by our size, though, with limited options for health insurance and less maternity and paternity benefits than large firms.”
• “The company's salaries are competitive, but the company's bonus program is really the best aspect of compensation. The bonus is uncapped and rewards employees who perform and contribute by sharing in the individual and company profit. In most years, it drives a good portion of an employee's income.”
• “Our bonus structure is very liberal and gets paid out over the course of three years, so it encourages longevity with the firm. We have established more clear pay ranges, and pay equality is pretty consistent.”
• “Our medical benefits package is paid for entirely by the company (the lowest package), and they also pay for a OneMedical subscription for each employee every year. In addition, we are given a stipend of $1,000 for any additional wellness activities that we choose, with very liberal definitions on what that stipend can be used for.”

Community Engagement

• “The firm seems to be about 50/50 between men and women, and its values include the philosophy that diversity of all sorts makes the business stronger.”
• “The firm values diversity and treats all candidates and employees equally. It’s a diverse company for its size.”
• “We are a diverse firm and place an emphasis on inclusion.”
• “While I feel we all have equal access within the firm, a larger concern for me is the lack of diversity in the financial consulting industry at large.”

Business Outlook

• “We continue to win contracts for longer-term work, and our clients have good opinions of us, and they ask us back. Employee morale is relatively high and there's a general sense of satisfaction with the work that we are winning.”
• “Our firm has established great relationships with Fortune 500 companies. I look forward to diversifying our client base beyond our two main clients.”
• “The firm has fantastic clients and even better people, making work projects relatively easy to find. Recent publicity through industry events has put the company in the spotlight as a firm to watch in the housing finance industry. The firm currently has more demand than supply and intends to grow and hire.”
• “We’re extremely nimble and able to change our strategy as needed to quickly react to industry changes, but our partners can lean towards being risk averse.”

Hiring Process

• “We have a multi-step interview process that includes case interviews and panel interviews. We do not progress many candidates to the final stage. This has limited our recruiting, but for good reason. The firm is very competitive.”
• “The hiring process starts with an HR phone screen. Then comes an informal coffee chat interview with a consultant, followed by a straightforward case interview regarding a business decision to maximize profits. The last stage is a panel interview with the partners involving a resume walkthrough.”
• “Our firm has a longer interview process than comparable consulting firms, but we are careful about finding the right fit. We prize those who are intellectually curious and entrepreneurial.”
• “We go through multiple rounds of interviews to test for cultural fit as well as capability. We seek candidates who possess integrity, leadership potential, intellectual curiosity, and the ability to deal with and lead clients through ambiguous problems—as well as hard skills such as analytics and communication.”

Interview Questions

• “Expect to see market sizing and profit-and-loss questions, plus behavioral situations.”
• “The case questions have some basic math and also evaluate your qualitative process.”
• “A firm is contemplating a new investment. Walk them through your financial analysis of this investment, give them an expected ROI, and then talk through the change management efforts that would be involved in making this investment.”
• “Who has been your most influential mentor in your career so far?"