Pros
After a year on the job, a consultant will learn the basic skills of how to negotiate with vendors over the phone, and learn a variety of processes relating to implementing different cost-savings programs. The founders of Profit Recovery Partners have made millions in the past cornering big companies like FedEx, Staples, and Xerox into lowering their prices, usually receiving between 30-40% of their clients' savings as payment. The work here is not rocket science. If you know Excel, have a good business sense, and can negotiate, you can take what you learn with you to a higher-paying consultancy or become an independent cost-reduction consultant.
Kontras
Managers are out-of-touch with the majority of their younger staff, data entry is redundant and often trivial, and there is high-turnover due to employees feeling underpaid and under appreciated. Their salary structure is deceiving: 20% of a consultant's potential salary is made up in "bonuses" which are dependent on company performance, something that is too often outside the control of the consultants. The company's policies and business model allows for the manipulation of the payouts of these bonuses by creating a discretionary difference between "billable" and "non-billable" dollar savings across a collection different categories. Partners have been known to capitalize on the way their salary structure works.