Great place to work - Consultant C1 Consulting Employee Review

As a candidate, I reviewed C1's Glassdoor page as part of my due diligence before accepting an opportunity. I have to say that I'm relieved I took the negative reviews with a grain of salt. + Benefits! Cost efficient health insurance program with an 80% employer contribution (dental and vision insurance offered as well). They offer flexible spending accounts, 401k, disability, life insurance and a profit-sharing program. + Culture. Every company that experiences a large amount of growth in a short time can go through growing pains. The owners realize the importance of engaging employees and implemented a culture committee to plan fun events (such as a trip to get frozen yogurt or a team building activity). + Training. C1 sets each employee up for success with a rigorous training schedule in the first two weeks. They also have monthly lunch and learns where either a Manager or higher leads the training, it's a nice way to get exposure to senior management. + Flexibility. C1 offers work from home every Friday and gives employees two hours of personal time a week. + Growth. It is amazing to learn about how quickly C1 has grown since 2004 and most of the new business has been based on referrals from our clients. I think this speaks volumes on the type of work we produce for our clients. After all, C1 stands for customers first. + Meritocracy. C1 is not afraid to promote employees, there is no structure that you have to wait 2 years before moving from an Associate Consultant to Consultant. Everyone respects each other no matter your title.

C1 has high expectations and as a small company, there is no place to hide or get lost in the shuffle. In order to succeed, you need to be willing to roll up your sleeves, dive into the work and occasionally put on a couple different hats. Not everyone is able to live up to the quality of work expectations.

Take the negative reviews with a grain of salt--they are mostly a consequence of company size. Up until 6-12 months ago we were a "small" firm and it's uncomfortable to write a review as a happy current (or former) employee when everyone (in your branch) will know you wrote it. This leaves the most likely people to write reviews to be bitter, former employees. Given that we are now a mid-sized firm I would encourage employees (former and current) to give an honest review of the company. Pros: 1) Very intelligent coworkers 2) Competitive salary and benefits 3) Great work-life balance (for consulting). Work from home Fridays, multiple holidays, managers are very lenient with employees needing to come late/leave early/leave for an hour or two for an appointment. It mostly depends on how reliable you are in terms of getting work done on time and not being someone overtly trying to take advantage of C1's leniency 4) No traveling Monday-Thursday nonsense (i.e. our firm does more than simply sell employees to a business for 6 months at a time) 5) Opportunity to work directly with high-level people (i.e. Directors, Partners--most of whom are open to suggestions on project approaches, design, etc.). Really, this shouldn't be understated: you can quickly get visibility with the owners of the firm. 6) The firm makes a real effort to get you on project types you request to work on

1) Partners have very different styles of managing projects--mostly due to their areas of expertise and personality types 2) Recent split in NJ/NY office seems likely to cause more complications than it fixes