Pros
Young company. As a result, everyone at the Consultant level is eager to learn and take on new challenges and absorb whatever they can about clients, industries, business practices, etc. Co-workers and people who reported to me were always unlikely to turn down an assignment, or do half-baked effort on it. Flat Management structure. I always felt that the MDs were there to listen to me if I had a concern or a question, because they understand that keeping their people happy is the foundation of their business. I feel that the company is headed in the right direction. My perception of this, is that they are trying to break out of being known for more niche-type work (Internal Audit & Risk Assurance). They understand that to get to that point, the tools & resources, business model, and employee skillset all have to evolve with the organization. I felt that they understood that and paid lip-service to it, but it was slow to be executed on and implemented. For not being a household name (Big 4), the client portfolio is high-profile and we competed directly with bigger companies to win projects at Fortune-500 companies in key industries.
Cons
As others have reflected, the work can be a bit narrow-focused and you can often feel that you're being pigeonholed to work in Internal Audit for the rest of your career. This was probably the biggest challenge that I dealt with on a daily basis, just trying to reconcile the experience I was gaining with what I actually wanted to move on and do. If you listen to your clients and develop your skills in new directions when the opportunities arise, this won't be an issue. Also, I think some offices have vastly different cultures and expectations. I completed the "Pros" section above with respect to my home office, but wouldn't say the same for other offices that I traveled to. Some projects are tough and long - I completely understand that. In my home office, I was happy to work for our managers on those type of products because they actively included us in the higher areas of the project, explaining and showing us what our work was accomplishing for our clients and how it was paying off against our individual goals as professionals. But in other offices, I never felt it was worth it because Protiviti just felt like another regimented, over budget-and-pressured, accounting firm. The top-down "listening" structure from management was not at all present, and the project teams from those offices honestly felt like body shops.