Slalom reviews

3.5

53% would recommend to a friend

(3,505 total reviews)
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Brad Jackson

46% approve of CEO

37% positive business outlook

Slalom has an employee rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars, based on 3,505 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Slalom employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Management & Consulting industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

4K reviews
1.0
Jan 20, 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Can rack up lots of air miles.

Cons

Early in my time at Slalom, I referred an Indian women to work on my team- she had with relevant skills and experience and impressive academic credentials. He refused to give her so much as a tech screen and then proceeded to hire a man with no relevant education/experience outside of a bootcamp, when I asked why, he referenced referred candidates race/gender and implied I was argumentative because I'm Jewish. This ended up going to HR and was the start of several years of retaliation. I was kept on the bench longer than my male peers, though I was an experienced hire, and put in situations where I said manager hoped I'd fail so that he could justify keeping me on the bench. After passing a difficult client interview and finally making it off the bench, I was heavily monitored/babysat compared to my male peers. My female direct report was also kept on the bench longer, given lower titles/pay despite my attempts to advocate for my team. The petty retaliation impacted my mental health: I had a ridiculously high rate of travel compared to others, department lead would do things like organize department the off-site (about 12 people) for when I was already on vacation... I could go on. I asked HR for an ADA accommodation and they refused to negotiate accomodations. I have a history of anxiety and offered documentation. There was definitely a shift from petty retaliation to actively trying to fire me after ADA request, and I ultimately had so many panic attacks I took FMLA and left. I would have left much sooner except this was the tough part of the pandemic and I didn't feel like I had a choice. Many higher level leaders were aware- please don't believe their PR hype about DEI. Leadership, especially in the ML space is incompetent. They were often so desperate to sell anything that they would make crazy promises and drastically under estimate work. This often meant long hours for consultants to pick up the pieces or lots of travel.

1.0
Sep 10, 2019

Not what was advertised

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Majority of people are friendly - A good culture - The snacks are top notch - Work/life balance (but because the work is not challenging at all)

Cons

The work is absolutely boring. Majority of the projects revolve around project/program management - so if you really want to dive deep into an industry and try to learn/understand nuances to it, the projects here won't allow it. Forget about any actual "strategy" projects that challenge you. The worst part is I was sold a different bill of goods - projects that are challenging, exciting, and trans-formative. Considering how much I've learned at my previous stops in my professional life, it's sad to say I have learned absolutely nothing of value at Slalom. Even when you try to engage those folks who are considered "experts" in an industry, you quickly realize the expertise is surface level - when you try to go a deeper level, it goes over their heads. Slalom is good at making you feel great upfront when you start, but you will quickly realize meaningful work is hard to come by. Also, don't expect leadership to provide any guidance - they seem pretty clueless on what's going on and always make false assurances.

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Slalom Response
6y
This is John Tobin. Our model and type of work continues to evolve as we mature and grow. I encourage you to speak up as to what you are seeing and regarding your specific engagements - Talk openly to your people manager, MDs or GM about this. Also, our cross-market communities are a great way (especially from an Industry-focus perspective to learn). If you want to share more directly with me, simply send me an email at johnt@slalom.com to connect. Alternatively, if you’d like to share more feedback anonymously, please consider doing so via this survey: http://slalom.ws/anonsurvey.
2.0
Nov 14, 2018

It's Just Consulting

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

•Good coworkers •Cool management team •Fun off-sites

Cons

•Promotion unclear. Yes - I understand that slalom is "unique" - that everyone climbs the ranks at a different speed, and that they don't want to set time frames to get to SA, for example, as this would be an oversimplification. I agree with this in principle. What I don't agree with - is really the lack of understanding and communication regarding promotion. Others may not agree with me, but I don't agree with the ITP process. If Slalom is going to continue to be "leaner" than other consulting firms, continue to be more "personable" - I don't think this archaic form of promotion works, and can create a feeling of opacity and confusion in those that want to get promoted. Additionally - it seems to me that the way that you really get promoted is by building partnerships with clients and selling more work - not really the delivery aspect. Which can be very disheartening for a consultant, in my perspective. You get rewarded and promoted for selling work (not saying this is bad), but it can be very hard to get recognition even if you are giving it your all and doing great work individually. •Pay structure. I understand that a lot of companies do this - but when I was brought on to the position, they told me that I was at the "maximum" of the range for the consultant level - that there was no flexibility at all. However, as soon as you talk about potentially leaving - they promise to put you on a fast track to whatever the next level or pay grade may be. It just seemed like a lot of smoke and mirrors to me, and this lack of clarity made me not want to stay. Also, in general, pay seems to be lower than industry standards. This would be fine if you are working less hours than your consulting competitors - however - see my next point. •Hours. Now I believe this depends on what practice you are in - but many, many people have to work the 50-60 hr weeks that contradict the "45 hour max" that Slalom swears by. Not a lot to comment on here regarding hours. •"Interesting work" - There's a promise that you will work on interesting work the majority of the time - that the team actually turns down work that seems too boring. This may be true, but you still see people working on work that they would not consider to be challenging or related to how they want to grow their career. •Summary - At the end of the day - Slalom wants to be the golden consulting company that is different from the rest - but ends up being identical to its Big 4 competitors. I think the people are truly great that I worked with, but people/culture can only go so far when you are dealing with clients and are measured on how much work you can help sell.

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Slalom Response
7y
This is John Tobin. I would love to talk to you more about your feedback. I think some of the items here are what you are experiencing in your market and perhaps messaging you have heard from your market vs. what is really company wide. This is still regrettable, but if I understand some of the context more, it may really help in discussing these challenges with your local market team. We continue to work on the role definitions, compensation and promotion processes - so I definitely am hearing your feedback there. Please send me an email at johnt@slalom.com to set up a time to speak live about these items. Alternatively, if you’d like to share more feedback anonymously (and at any time), please consider doing so via this survey: http://slalom.ws/anonsurvey.
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