In short, Booz Allen mischaracterizes itself as a strategy consulting firm. The firm has an identify crisis and is struggling to define its direction and client base. In the meantime, it is a US government contractor largely dependent on work for the US Department of Defense. If you are interested in consultancies such as Booz & Co., McKinsey, or Boston Consulting Group, Booz Allen Hamilton is not the place to look.
Many of the firms's differentiators departed when Booz Allen spun off its commercial and international consultancy, Booz & Co.- a collegial environment which fosters creative thinking, work which requires critical thinking and concrete analysis, and exposure to a variety of business models, clients, and projects. Expect your exposure to be limited to one US government department. Your transferable skills may lead you to working for the US government or the public sector practices of other Washington DC based contractors, integrators, and large commercial consulting firms that absorbed public sector work.
The pay is notoriously low and the the layers of bureaucracy have increased sharply in the past 5 years. As an example, expect to report to 3 or 4 managers, some of whom you may never meet and who live and work in a different state. In addition, the firm's culture has shifted significantly, encouraging order takers rather than self-governing, proactive professionals.
The shift left many employees in awkward positions. Employees who began work that commercial consultancies- strategy projects for commercial companies or foreign governments- were reassigned to contract administration in a cubical in a US government office building. Employees MBAs or doctorates found themselves doing work that a sharp intern can accomplish. The result has been the consistent departure of people with those skills and credentials, or a "punch the clock mentality" for employees who want to finish up their MBAs and look for employment elsewhere.
In fact, degrees in business are less valued than certifications in US defense systems acquisition, project management, and project planning. Other skills are (1) operational knowledge of a single weapons system, such as a 20 year non-commissioned officer who can pinpoint the exact number spare parts needed for one model of a ship, plane, or missile launcher (2) back office skills such as contract administration, billing, and event planning (3) hyper-specialized skills, such as computer programming, advanced knowledge of Microsoft Project, and (4) high-level clearances complimented by hyper-specialized skills.
