- Your work is your life:
Going in I knew to expect long, grueling hours with tight project deadlines. However, reality far exceeded expectations (and not in a good way!). I'd average close to 70 hours a week for months on end, being put on back-to-back projects constantly while not being given a chance to catch my breath (more on this later). Whenever I tried to leave the office 'early' - meaning 5:30 - I would get dirty looks from managers for daring to leave while the sun was still up. I'd request to leave 'early' in advance (to give them an appropriate heads up) to attend dinner plans or other life stuff and was constantly belittled and told "client expectations come first". Forgive me for daring to have a personal life outside of my laptop!
Funnily enough towards the end of my 22 month stint there, I had enough and would leave on time every day for the last few weeks before my notice (knowing I didn't want to be there any longer) and was then pulled into a meeting with HR accusing me of not working hard enough (bare in mind all my work was completed for the day - pretty sure they expected me to beg people for more work just to keep me in the office longer), nevermind the fact I had spent the prior 20 or so months working all-nighters, weekends and public holidays. Working 70 hours? Yeah good job. Working your contracted 40 hours? Not working hard enough. You simply cannot win with these people.
Won't delve into the abysmal pay (I knew what I signed up for) but on a dollar per hour basis, it's pretty pathetic.
- Inept and rude managers:
Having worked there two years, I've come across maybe 2 or 3 decent managers that talked to me respectfully and like a professional, while being gifted enough to deliver solid results to clients. Unfortunately, for every decent manager I was given, I'd have to endure 5 completely inept and rude managers (and funnily enough all the decent managers have now left the firm - go figure). They would talk down to me, make inappropriate comments (later claiming it's OK because we're friends - umm no it's not OK to make inappropriate jokes to someone you don't know outside of work) and would allow their ineptitude to delay deadlines while shifting blame unto the seniors / consultants / grads. I get that they have their own pressures such as managing unrealistic budgets that clueless partners set, in addition to performing a chunk of the work themselves, but that doesn't excuse you from being a decent human and being a professional.
- Promises made, not kept:
This one by far hurts the most and was the catalyst for my eventual departure. Was promised plenty of development opportunities, career progression, client engagement, 'rest days' (time off in lieu for working late hours on a project) and 'flexible working'.
Development opportunities: it's hard to develop skills when you're stuck doing data cleansing and reconciliations for 70 hours that the partner should have asked the client from Day 1 to do for us as a prerequisite (never really figured out why partners were too scared to ask the client for the right data). Mindless and robotic work takes up the vast majority of your time and you're left with no time to focus on all these excellent learning resources the firm has on offer.
Career progression: was thorough, methodical and analytical with my work and rarely made mistakes yet had promotion opportunities slide right past me. With the fear of sounding entitled, I do believe I was worthy of a promotion, made even more evident by leaving the firm and moving to a client with a 50% pay rise and immediate promotion.
Client engagement: was not trusted by managers to directly liaise with clients. Suppose they wanted to do it all themselves thinking it would make them look good for their own career advancement. On the rare occasion I was asked to sit in, I was delegated to be a scribe (can't complain since I would take notes regardless whether asked to or not, but the request always came in a condescending tone).
Rest days/flexible working: for a firm that preaches flexible working, they do a really poor job at it. Asked numerous times to work from home once a week, or to leave the office at 5 and continue working from home for the rest of the evening. Was refused nearly every single time. Was also promised rest leave after each long project but nothing ever happened - knowing all too well it was all just talk to get me to continue working those ridiculous hours. I later inquired about it and was told verbatim "our team doesn't really do that".
