Pros
ClearView is a great place to work if you want to accelerate your career and if you’re willing to work hard. Since it’s consulting, the job isn’t perfect, but there are a lot of pros along with the cons.
Great people and culture – As all the other reviews say, ClearViewers are great. Almost every single person I worked with in my 3+ years at the firm was smart, motivated, and committed to putting together a great output on each project. Most ClearViewers are great socially as well. I honestly had a great time at company events or even just chit-chatting in the office (pre-COVID), and I made an amazing group of friends at ClearView.
Opportunities for advancement – ClearView truly is a meritocracy, and strong performers can get promoted really quickly. To put it bluntly, there are very few places where there's abundant opportunity to make a six-figure salary within a year or two of finishing your undergrad in biology. Yes, advancing quickly requires hard work, but it’s doable for those who want it.
Compensation and benefits – The compensation package is pretty strong, especially once you’re a couple years in at the firm. Obviously the salary doesn’t match MBB, but this is a small company with a different business model (no travel, no up or out policy, etc.). The benefits are decent (e.g., good health insurance, moderate 401k match, bonus was essentially guaranteed), and the company provides a lot of perks like free dinners, fun events, etc. The parental leave policy is fairly generous, and there’s flexibility if you ever face a personal or family emergency.
Business outlook and job security – The firm is doing great, even now in the midst of COVID, and the business has consistently grown year-over-year. Even after leaving, I have a lot of faith in the company as a whole, the leadership, and ClearView's work.
And couple "neutral" things:
Manipulated reviews – I’m shocked by some of the claims on here that the positive reviews are fake. I can say with 100% honestly that, in my 3+ years at ClearView, I was never asked to leave a review, let alone a dishonest review.
Leadership reaction to feedback – I think ClearView’s leadership actually makes a good faith effort to implement feedback from the staff, but it’s just a very slow process. For example, a year or two ago, people were stressed about not having a break between projects, so the company instituted a policy where As/Cs get at least one day off between each project. People complained about lingering work, so now projects are extended much more frequently and more easily. People complained about salaries, so we had a company-wide salary adjustment in late 2019. People wanted a greater commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, so the firm developed an action plan that spans recruiting, professional development, retention, etc. The organization definitely isn’t perfect here and the large-scale changes are somewhat slow, but there is definitely a commitment to improvement.
Cons
Hours can be long – At all levels, you will semi-regularly work late nights. Even on a “normal” project, there are some late nights throughout the project, and then there are “bad” projects where you end up burning (usually due to poor scoping or especially demanding clients). I’m not going to lie, high-burn projects can really suck. That said, it’s temporary; all projects end. Of note, weekend work was pretty rare in my experience.
Need for a quick ramp – The first 6 – 12 months in consulting are hard for everyone. It takes some time to learn how to do this job, and there’s really no getting around that. If you’re thinking about starting a job in consulting, you should EXPECT a steep learning curve before you become competent at your job. For most people, once you’ve been here for 9 – 12 months, things get a lot easier and work-life balance gets better. A small subset of people can’t hack it and never reach the point where it gets easier, but those folks tend to move on to other jobs (which may explain some of the complaints in other reviews).
Client service can be annoying – In my experience, >90% of clients are totally reasonable, but there are some clients who are exceptionally awful to work with. Sometimes I wish that ClearView leadership would be a little more selective – i.e., if someone is a truly terrible client, stop selling projects to them.
