Work-life balance is nonexistent. Management touts “flexibility” in workload, but this flexibility is only meant to provide you with more work- very seldom are you encouraged to rest during periods of less work. As an analyst, you will be expected to work at a moment’s notice during nights, weekends, and holidays. Making personal plans and sticking to any kind of schedule is very difficult.
Day-to-day experiences will vary wildly by project, and especially by project manager. Some project managers are organized, communicative, and considerate. Some are the polar opposite. You are expected to perform consistently across all of these projects- very little (if any) responsibility is placed on poor project managers.
The overall culture at CRA is broken. Despite putting in the majority of the work, analysts don’t get to experience any ownership of the projects- they forfeit all successes and shoulder the mistakes. Even the best project managers are pushed to their breaking point by the tremendous pressures that upper management puts on them to take on more projects and promise faster deadlines. The generous amount of PTO given to employees is hardly ever utilized. Working in this type of atmosphere, the general dissatisfaction is apparent to everyone, but verbally recognized by no one (for fear of seeming unmotivated or lagging behind). Many of the junior staff learn to accept this “churn-and-burn” type of culture, which is truly unfortunate.
