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Vault’s Verdict

New employees at Keystone often get to take the bull by the horns. Staffed in small, flat project teams backed by an egalitarian yet entrepreneurial culture, new employees often take on some of the firm’s most challenging analytical work while handling client interactions. The firm ensures they’re ready to meet these challenges through extensive training programs, and those who succeed don’t worry about having to compete against their peers to earn promotions.

Insiders also note that the firm offers an excellent quality of life, with mostly reasonable hours and lots of flexibility to work remotely. The firm also has a strong commitment to DEI, with strong representation at senior levels of the firm, although consistently recruiting classes of diverse employees has proven difficult.

In terms of business outlook, Keystone is accelerating its growth from a conservative pace to an aggressive one in light of several years of record-breaking performance. While its brand recognition may not be on par with some of its larger competitors and its generalist model may limit room for specialization, people who fit the firm’s culture rarely leave.

 

Employee Reviews

Firm Culture

“Keystone is committed to developing skills faster than you can anywhere else. At a small firm, there is an entrepreneurial spirit that allows you to take responsibility and make changes at the firm. That level of trust and ownership flows throughout the organization.”

“We have a very egalitarian culture where partners, mid-level and entry-level employees collaborate and engage in meaningful internal relationships. This not only helps us develop talent, but it greatly reduces any internal political tension and provides a dynamic team for clients.”

“Keystone does a great job emphasizing working hard but also living a full life. As with any firm, there are going to be times when the hours and demands can be more intense. Thankfully, I feel that Keystone does a great job managing the frequency and intensity of these times.”

“Our culture is truly a family, and you are supported in every step. This culture is driven from the top by our leadership team. They are incredible supportive and are there for you no matter what. Everyone cares for each other more than as a colleague, we care like a family. It is unlike any other place to work. We do things outside of work together because we genuinely like to be around each other.”

Quality of Life

“The flexible in-office and work-from-home structure is a big contributor to our work life balance. The emphasis on limiting travel only to when projects require it also means that we spend more nights at home with loved ones than on the road. This makes my career outlook at Keystone more long-term as I have more balance than when I first started in consulting.”

“The firm takes balance and quality of life very seriously and truly tries to make the best environment for the team. Travel has become much more intentional and deliberate rather than default. Vacations are respected and encouraged. Parental leave was recently expanded.”

“Our project work is often characterized by short bursts of hard effort, bookended with normal workloads. Some of our turnaround projects, or client crisis situations, often have periods of consistent effort, but the firm works hard to maintain work-life balance.”

“Considering the types of problems Keystone gets to solve, I think our work-life balance is incredible. This is absolutely not a nine-to-five job, but the firm works to make sure that Keystone is a place where you can build a career and a life (not sacrifice a life to build a career).”

Career Development

“Keystone's greatest career development strength is the sheer amount of responsibility given to young interns, analysts, and associates at the beginning of their careers. Everyone on the team makes a meaningful contribution to the project, and because our teams are very small (often two to four people), junior staff take on the bulk of the analytical work and manage relationships and interactions with the client regularly.”

“The company has an extensive selection of in-house training modules. These range from introductory to advanced concepts and can be applicable to junior analysts to mid-level employees trying to enhance or learn a new skill. The company also has a well-developed mentorship program where an individual has a coach and a mentor.”

“What I appreciate about our promotion policies is that Keystone benchmarks you against yourself and against a standard, not against other people. I really appreciate that I do not have to compete against my peers for a certain number of available promotion spots. Instead, you are promoted if they feel you are ready to move to the next level.”

“Keystone promotion process is very transparent, combining clear expectations by level and a commitment to the feedback and review process. In addition to informal feedback, which is encouraged on a weekly basis, each member of a project team is required to complete a formal review at the end of each project.”

Compensation

“I think the best thing about the salary progression is the longer you stay at the firm, and if you dedicate yourself to your work, the compensation will follow. The firm gives good opportunities to buy equity as early as five to six years into the job when you are at the principal level. You also receive a retention bonus for every year you stay at the firm.”

“General base salary packages are good, particularly the 5 percent company contribution to your 401(k) regardless of your contributions. The firm didn’t offer any sort of signing bonus upon hiring, and salary progression lacks transparency. There is, however, lots of transparency in the bonus payout that allows you to accurately anticipate the end of year payout.”

“Everyone at the firm receives the same percentage of their annual salary as a bonus, depending on firm performance. The ‘base’ bonus, which assumes we meet budget, is 10 percent of salary. If the firm beats budget (which it has every year for the past 3 years), then the budget is raised accordingly (in some cases, up to 20 percent of annual comp).”

“Keystone has 100 percent health insurance coverage for their employees. The firm also provides gym access to offices where there is a gym onsite. There is an annual company challenge to encourage health and wellness.”

Community Engagement/DEI

“As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, I have seen the firm's commitment to DEI. It's just a consistent part of the way they operate: Inclusion from moment one.  All consultants have the same access to work and promotions. Our managing partner is an ethnic minority, and the firm recently internally promoted a female partner. Our senior leadership team is comprised of a broad spectrum of backgrounds.”

“Keystone as a firm is filled with thoughtful individuals who care about inclusivity. We have audited our hiring and promotion policies to ensure we are being fair and unbiased. However, our results still leave room for improvement, specifically at the junior level.”

“I feel that Keystone is incredibly accepting and supportive of all DEI efforts. Although we are not as diverse as we would like to be in terms of ethnicity, we have grown in other areas. As a minority, I have never felt like I was not as valued as other members of the team, and I’ve always felt that I had equal opportunities for work and promotions.”

 

“Our firm has made a concerted effort to bring in underrepresented groups to the consulting world. We actively look for women in our recruiting efforts and require there to be equal representation in our recruiting rounds. We have also added HBCU's to our on-campus recruiting efforts.”

Business Outlook

“I think our firm is in a great position for growth, we have a lot of mid-level talent that is being cultivated for long-term leadership. Additionally, our current senior leaders are effective at generating business no matter the economic cycle.”

“Our diverse service offerings and generalist model enable us to thrive in any economic environment. We work with troubled businesses (turnaround), with healthy and growing businesses (strategy and M&A), and general operational improvement (ops).  We don't flex up and flex down our staffing by chasing economic cycles, unlike some larger or more specialized firms.”

“We've done a great job of innovation and development of the way we do our work, with muti-year efforts to standardize our project work. This ‘internal business’ method approach has expanded and improved our internal training and back-office functions as well.”

“While we are a small company, we're a relatively old company that has chosen to grow slowly over the years. However, we are coming into a period of much more aggressive growth due to our positive business outlook.”

Hiring Process

“We have a three-round interview process. The first round focuses on cultural fit and analytical questions. The second has 3 portions: another fit interview, followed by the case interview. Our case interview is split into 60 minutes of preparation, followed by 30 minutes of presentation. The final round of interviews is a visit to our Chicago office, which involves several discussions with partners, project overviews from analysts and associates, and going out to lunch or breakfast with a member of the firm. This round is focused primarily on cultural fit.”

“We have three rounds of interviews, all involving some level of analytical screening, which give the candidates a chance to speak with a wide array of folks at the firm.  We typically try to complete the process and all three rounds within two weeks from start-to-finish.”

“Keystone is looking for intellectually curious individuals that have an interest in drawing insights from data to make recommendations. We look for intellectual curiosity, analytical mindsets, problem solvers, strong communicators, drive and determination, adaptability, collaboration, and leadership. Keystone values the hard skills of a consultant, but balances this well with good culture fits.”

“We are looking for applicants that are driven, intellectually curious self-starters. The company culture is entrepreneurial, so while we have guidance and mentorship, it is imperative that a candidate looks to drive their own career development.”

Interview Questions

“For the case interview, candidates are given a brief situation and a limited data set in Excel. Then, they have 50 minutes to analyze the situation, make recommendations, and hand draw slides. They present this to the managing partner.”

“Keystone uses simplified prior client data to understand how someone combines their business knowledge and insights from data to make recommendations. We’re also always curious about what's most important to a candidate to make sure it's a mutual fit.”

“We also have a more in-depth take-home exercise for experienced hires that requires them to have strong excel and analytical capabilities. The dataset has more than 100,000 rows of data and we ask them to answer a series of 6 questions about the trends in the dataset and to segment the data into a few buckets.”

“The behavioral questions are focused around key traits for being successful at Keystone For example: Tell me about a time you displayed resiliency and overcame an obstacle?”

The Keystone Group

311 S. Wacker Dr.
Suite 5000
Chicago, IL 60606
Phone: (312) 960-3630

Firm Stats

Employer Type: Private
President and CEO: Amar Shah

Major Office Locations

Chicago, IL
Atlanta, GA
Los Angeles, CA

Major Departments & Practices

Profit and Cash Flow Improvement

Merger and Acquisition Integration

Profitable Growth Strategy

Operational Improvement