Capco Reviews

Pros – Very meritocratic, contribution to the company is strongly encouraged and access to some very exciting projects and very experience people.

Cons – Work/life balance is tough to maintain at the moment but this will improve with more experience.

Pros – - Competitive pay and benefits
- Really good people (everyone says this everywhere, but it's really true)
- Good work-life balance for a consultancy, weekend work is very rare, as are all nighters
- Good social side (always drinks, sports, events if you wish)
- Good company size, can get to know people quickly and it helps with the sense of community
- Easy to chat to partners/the CEO even if you're just an associate
- Business is growing very rapidly compared to the industry as a whole, which is reflected in new types of projects and great clients
- Relatively small in-takes (mine was "big" at 13) so you'll get a lot of of one on one time with senior guys and a decent amount of influence over your projects and training
- Free fruit, drink and doughnuts

Cons – - Quite a lot of technology consulting projects, not for everyone, although this is changing (I'm on a strategy/consumer analysis project)
- Not exactly a con (I'm happy with it) but it's financial services only, may not be for everyone
- No showers at work

Advice to Senior Management – I'm pretty happy so far

Pros – Salaries can be good.
More open than most other consultancies to applicants with no prior consulting experience

Cons – Plenty of nepotism and politics when it comes to both resourcing engagement and year end promotions - almost all of the management team are ex-Accenture and project a clear bias to their former colleagues.
Rapidly gaining the reputation for being a 'PMO shop' i.e. the opposite of a high value consultancy

Advice to Senior Management – Adopt a consistent and impartial approach to compensation and promotion

Pros – Good salary for an experienced hire coming from industry

Cons – Very poor leadership in the banking domain, long hours, Accenture culture

Advice to Senior Management – Stop trying to be Accenture

Pros – Salary,salary,salary,salary,salary,salary
some interesting project
Some good people

Cons – No choice on assignments. Money makers.
Promotion very slow and political

Pros – if you are young and want some experience (basically to learn)
if you dont have another job offer (i would still not recommend joining capco irrespective)
if you are very very diplomatic and politically savvy, you might do well
if you dont care about your reputation

Cons – UK specific feedback:
Worst leadership i have seen in my 16 years of career in delivery and consulting
Worst quality of parters I have met with (no vision or coaching abilities)
out 8 people joined, 4 have left or sacked. These are seniors with industry expertise and families, they were asked to do job much below their caliber and when they refused, they were sacked
No respect for individuals.
Its a body shop and no were near to consulting organisation whatsoever
My sincere word of caution that even if you are offered good salaries, you will paying be paying much bigger prices in terms of sacrificing your self respect and reputation.
Capco does not have good opportunities and healthy pipeline and every diminishing reputation with clients so stay away as there is no secured future with this firm
as a managing principal you may be asked to generate numbers which is what recruitment agency consultants do and they do it much better trust me by looking at fitment. here you will be asked to sell bench forcefully setting your reputation up and setting up the consultant from the bench. if either of you disagree with that approach and dont do as asked, you will be sacked under the name of probation.

Simply stay away. Trust my word.

Advice to Senior Management – Stopping messing around with careers and stop messing around employees' families. Run your organisation like a Consulting organisation. Stop behaving like a large recruitment agency.

Pros – If you are from a non finance back ground and want to gain some financial experience.

I was from an investment banking background.

Cons – 1. Its not a consultancy, its a body shop. You are sold to the client as a body.
2. All the senior management is from Accenture that makes it worse. They have poached their sycophants from Accenture and made them managers. So people doing junior jobs in Accenture are managers whereas external hires are bought in at lower rank.
3. Dont fall for the advertising. They are hiring a lot but there are many people leaving as well.
4. I left it to join a Big 4 and its 100 times better. Big4 or a bank is a better choice.
5. Its a hiring and firing culture. If you want job security then stay away.

Pros – Good variety of Retail and Capital Market based projects

Cons – Promotion is slow, salary is weak when compared to piers and lack of culture. Poor HR and operating procedures means that there is a lack of communication between management and employees. The place had a sense of being little more than merely a pool of contractors with a facade of a management team skimming the profits from the high rates and hard work. Projects were often undersold meaning employess were expected to work 90+ hour weeks and for little reward and recognition.

Advice to Senior Management – Provide a consistent approach to benefits and promotion. Put in place a stronger HR team who can communicate their ideas.

Pros – An amazing place to work.

Cons – Capco lacks international projects and opportunities.

Pros – - Scrappy, entrepreneurial consulting firm
- Smart, likeable people
- Deep expertise in capital markets and banking industries
- Leadership team is accessible
- If you want to fix something, you're empowered to do it.

Cons – - Like most consulting firms, it keeps trying to find revenue sources other than consulting, because that's how you gain a predictable revenue stream
- Doesn't have the infrastructure of a big consulting firm (which is also a plus)
- Low brand recognition

Advice to Senior Management – - Listen to Gen-X and Gen-Y about how staff expectations are changing. You don't have to agree with or implement everything they're asking for, but you should know where they're coming from.
- Remind recruits over and over that there is up to 100% travel involved in this business.