Pros
Excellent benefits package including top notch health insurance and free money into your retirement account. Additionally, compensation at BCG (and the rest of the consulting industry) isn't too shabby. . .although it is no ibanking, the money isn't bad. Additionally, the exit opportunities at BCG are pretty vast, especially out of undergrad. An associate (the entry-level position) can stay at the firm and be promoted, go to business school and have it paid for by the firm, transfer to an international office or explore opportunities in an entirely different industry with the BCG brand available to be leveraged into, at the very least, an interview.
Cons
The biggest problem with BCG is the misalignment between the recuriting message and the reality of the job. During recruiting, BCG is sold as a strategy shop in which associates will be dictating to CEOs of Fortune 500 companies and making decisions that affect the face of global commerce. In reality, there are a lot of problems at BCG that I think stem from the fact that it is a client services job. There is overscoping which leads to unneccesary work (and late nights). There is iteration after useless iteration on output and wordsmithing. There is the desire to constantly over-deliver to the client while properly messaging and avoiding telling the client what it doesn't want to hear. Overall, BCG is moving further and further away from strategy and closer and closer towards a process-based firm because, frankly, there is a lot more money in process work. That means more post-merger integrations, delayerings, cost reductions and implementation projects (which are boring, tedious and contentious) and less strategy projects in which we help define the path and future of organizations.
