ClearRoute Reviews

Many client engagements feel chaotic and rushed, closer to a hackathon than a professional consultancy engagement. Teams are often staffed with people who are learning technologies or domains for the first time while already delivering to clients. There is limited investment in building genuine expertise or long-term capability within the team. Instead, delivery can feel driven by buzzwords and sales narratives rather than deep technical knowledge. The culture can sometimes feel like a tight inner circle, where influence and opportunity appear concentrated among a small group. This creates the impression of a “boys club” dynamic where progression and influence are not always transparent. Transparency around internal decisions is also lacking. Organisational changes and restructures can feel opaque and are sometimes only discussed when people directly ask about them. The company often celebrates how much it spends on socials and perks, which can feel misplaced when compared to the level of investment in training, mentorship, and technical depth. There is also a strong perception that much of the work originates from personal networks and existing relationships rather than through clearly competitive processes. While networking is normal in consulting, the lack of transparency about it can raise questions internally. Overall, the company has the potential to be much stronger than it currently is, but the gap between the marketing narrative and the delivery reality is difficult to ignore.

Management and communication are really poor at ClearRoute. It feels like the outside image of ClearRoute is the most important thing, e.g. increasing headcount, expanding into different countries, running networking events... while the core problems with the day-to-day business are neglected. You'll be told you're going onto a specific project for weeks and... nothing happens. When the plans change, you also won't get told until the very last minute. This makes for a jarring experience as an employee. There's an element of this at all consultancies, but it was especially poorly managed at ClearRoute. One of the reasons I joined was because I was told there's an existing, clear progression framework - there was not. It was created long after I joined. On their website they said all interviewers have underwent internal bias training - at the time, this was untrue, no one had ever had it, yet it stayed on the website. The amount of support and guidance you receive in the role varies massively, depending on who you're working with. For me, there was none. This didn't change despite it being brought up repeatedly. This is particularly stressful when you're on a client facing project and have to manage senior stakeholders without support. There was a tendency to over-hire which led to lots of people being 'on the bench' for weeks after joining. There's a lack of diversity in the UK office, particularly regarding women in technical roles. I didn't see anything being done to try and remedy that, despite other employees asking about it. The work life balance is generally quite good, but senior management will often show that they're working very late or on weekends, which can put pressure on employees to do the same. I raised concerns for a long time before I eventually decided to leave. From what I've heard, not much has changed and other people are planning to leave soon because of it.