The culture has been in a steady decline in the last few years, especially after the change in DC leadership and the too fast expansion of consultants. People seem to be valued more if they "play hard" rather than "work hard". I can see how this would be attractive to a younger hire, but for someone who is more interested in building a career, this culture is exhausting.
The promotion process makes zero sense, and it seems to solely rely on if you've been placed on a high profile client project (there are very very few of these), are friends with one of the senior directors, or took on an internal project that has no real impact. There is an increasing frustration in the office as low-performers get coveted promotions (sure, they left you to do all the actual client work, but their internal presentation about how they do all the client work was proof enough). All this has resulted in a competitive culture, rather than a coaching culture.
Speaking of coaching. (Every person is assigned to a coach who guides you through the annual review/promotion process and helps with career goals) Some coaches are amazing; most coaches seem to just be doing it because it's expected. If you get one of the coaches who don't care, your journey at CapTech will be difficult. I know people who've had half a dozen coaches in just a few years, and they still haven't found one who they mesh with. As result, they've struggled to get promotions or earn a positive perception in the office as their coach has no real incentive or drive to represent them fairly to upper management.
Backstabbing is pretty common now as the competition grows for promotions and better projects. Management tends to believe whoever complains the loudest versus taking the time to fully understand both sides of a situation, and we're seeing this play out over and over again across multiple accounts and teams.
There also aren't many interesting projects, and you'll likely be placed on something that doesn't perfectly match your skills or interests. While that's can be the nature of consulting, once you start to see how the promotional process is so heavily impacted by the kind of project you're placed on (and the managers you work under), being stuck on a "bad" project is frustrating and detrimental to your overall career as you can't control it.
