Pros
All views below come from my perspective as a Professional Services Consultant. I have no insight into compensation structure outside of my group. Leadership: Senior management appears to care about employee happiness in the San Francisco office (headquarters). Leadership is able to leverage the size of its customer base to force potential partners into standardized solutions. Career: There is great learning potential for job seekers with no experience within Advent's core operating space (financial, software). Advent aims to give everyone an equal chance at joining the company, as long as they demonstrate some basic aptitude. A recent grad with an English major or a high school dropout stand an equal chance with an experienced professional with a CS/Economics background in terms of joining their new hire ranks supporting their software or on the consulting front. Non-monetary Benefits: Advent Software adopts many forward-thinking policies benefits-wise, such as health insurance for pets. Compensation/Salary: (Before I comment on pros, I want to break down how compensation is handled in consulting. Salary is divided into a base salary (below average) and a “utilization schedule,” which is essentially a watermark-style bonus. A maximum bonus probably gives a slightly above average salary.) If you are willing to play the game in a relatively non-meritocratic structure to earn bonuses, success can be achieved. When projects are few and far between, the base salary is quite adequate for the work done. Culture: Many departments in the San Francisco office have a happy atmosphere. The San Francisco office is pet-friendly, and there is often a playful atmosphere in many departments. The consulting culture is vastly different, with constant threats of layoffs from superiors.
Cons
Leadership: Mid-level leadership is concerned primarily with self-preservation and image/perception. To illustrate, a manager has openly stated that, “you should be less concerned about whether you’re doing a good job at the client and worry more about keeping your Advent contacts happy.” As a consulting/services group, it is simply unacceptable to have consultants prioritize internal perception over client project success. Senior leadership has demonstrated poor business judgment by allowing mid-level management to perpetuate poor business tactics, including a revenue-first approach to their business units. The internal mantra is to generate consulting or product revenue whether or not it is in the client’s best interest. This often results in deceiving clients into more consulting or into products that it needs, which is unacceptable at a business level. Career: As a mid-20s professional (with only few years of experience) coming in with a financial and software background, there was little to learn from both a technical standpoint and a financial standpoint. Career growth options are limited to lateral movements into project management or sales consulting. Additionally, career improvement is based more on internal perception than on resulting client success, leadership, or team chemistry. Mid-level management looks more favorably on those raising their hands to agree with superiors (such as agreeing to deceive clients) rather than those constructing arguments for more ethically sound revenue streams. Benefits: The overall benefits package is fair. From the consulting group, the inability to control your vacation days is a struggle. There have been instances where vacation has been requested and approved months in advance of the vacation, and then denied closer to the vacation date. Compensation/Salary: The base salary is a bit below average. Achieving success in utilization-based bonuses requires constant posturing and requires being able to prioritize internal perception and company revenue over client success. (If a project can be done in one week, and a client has allocated two weeks of money for it, then you must be able to extract all two weeks of money from the client even if it means idling at the client for a week.) Culture: As stated above, there is a very negative atmosphere in consulting, with constant threats of layoffs from superiors. Based on discussions with other consultants, I estimate that, at best, 20% of consultants are happy with their job situation, with maybe another 30% that are simply satisfied with their jobs. Additionally, the prioritization of revenue at all costs over client success and happiness will challenge those from consulting/services organizations where client satisfaction drives team/career success.