Over promised, under delivered, and incredibly disorganized
Pros
- Meaningful work in the DoD/IC world - Pay is a little better than straight federal service - Opportunity to move around and try out different projects or practice areas - Has a pretty decent reputation and gets lumped in as a top-tier consulting firm in some people's minds
Cons
- Company is focused on short term bottom line over everything else - Little to no bench time, if you're not billable, you get cut - Management loves to sing praises of the firm, its values, how great it is, but the follow through is non-existent and they really don't care about the employees - HR and Recruiting are terrible, under staffed probably (not their fault) but overall just disorganized - took 3+ months to get an offer letter when it was supossed to be done in 1-2 weeks - Sketchy recruiting practices, recruiters deceive you to get you to sign an offer, then shy away from promises a few months later - If you're on client site, its hard to really get to know others in the firm - Hoteling is awkward and done just to save costs - It is definitely not a top-tier consulting firm - it used to be, but now its just one of the many federal defense sector contractors that provide contract services - Generous benefit plans have been cut significantly - Pay is pretty close to par with what the fed gov pays, and probably is right on the line once you factor in the better benefits on the fed side - Carlyle (the owners of the majority of the firm) could sell it at any minute, with unclear effects or they could continue loading it up with debt and taking dividends out Bottom Line: Look elsewhere! Find a place that actually values its employees and doesn't jerk them around. Go the federal gov route or a contractor with a better reputation and working environment. If you join BAH you'll likely be worried about your job every time you cycle off a project, and you'll see the slow decline in the firm overall right around you.