Above-average consulting firm - Anonymous employee Lab49 Employee Review

5.0
Feb 15, 2016
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The hiring process is rigorous, so most colleagues who get in the door are smart and motivated. Engineering expertise is cutting edge and company’s reputation with clients is good enough in most cases to prescribe modern tech stacks (there are exceptions of course). Good in-house domain knowledge, very finance-focused. Management is very interested in maintaining Lab as a premium brand with clients; therefore most projects are not boring (again, there are exceptions of course) and the work is more challenging than your average consulting shop.

Cons

Limited to finance industry, therefore not as many potential clients as a general consultancy would have. If you’re client-facing you have to represent the firm well; it’s too small of a firm for someone to hide if they’re not on their game. Most of the time your own manager will be busy on projects, won’t have much time to manage, so if you need a lot of guidance it might not be the best fit. Communication from senior management can be spotty at times.

Explore other reviews about Lab49

5.0
Sep 16, 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Working groups around Blockchain, AI, and other interesting topics - Book Club - Open and transparent leadership team

Cons

- Uncertainty around what you will be working - Can do a great job on a project, and still be left on the bench when it is finished

2
4.0
May 26, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Hiring is well-gated, so you'll work with smart people. Projects are exclusively in finance so it's a great place to gain exposure in that industry. You operate with a good amount of autonomy.

Cons

It's a consulting company, so engineers are only valuable if they're billable. That means your success is tied to someone else's ability to secure a pipeline of work for you, or your own ability to upsell at your engagement - which may or may not be up to you no matter what you do. There isn't a dedicated sales team at Lab, so this can get spotty. Upper management's presence is felt in seasons - non-existant for months at a time, all over everything the next. They were nowhere to be found as AI got rolled out massively in 2026 and we got caught without a strategy and action plan - either for leveraging internally or for pivoting our model.

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