Pros
Good place to start after university, if you are willing to work long and hard. Many opportunities for new analysts to pick up valuable skills and gain worthwhile experience with FTSE 100 clients which will open doors in the future. Really good place to start your career, whether or not you stay to become partner. Generally you feel that your are working with bright capable people and that nothing is impossible.
Kontras
Long hours, unsociable hours, constant weekends. Forget your family. From the late 90s until around 2002, the salary and package was unbeatable in the UK along with the 10k GBP golden hello. Since then its been steadily trimmed back and the salaries and benefits are now quite unremarkable. There was a pay freeze for many in consulting in 2006. At the same time profits and share price have continued to steam ahead, leaving many employees feeling short-changed. There is a feeling that they have gone downmarket in order to compete on price with other consulting firms and the Indian outsourcers, so in terms of working with the smartest people in the business...its not what it used to be as salaries have gone down, so have the quality of the recruits they manage to hang onto. The best people are leaving in droves to become freelancers and earn a good daily rate.