Kalypso Reviews

Kalypso is a consulting firm that markets itself as innovation, but honestly does little more than PLM implementation - at higher than market rates for a commodity. There is EXTREME favoritism, especially towards attractive female employees, including extra staffing, easy ability to stop traveling, and hotel, trips, and other perks given by Bill Poston, one of the two founders. The two founding partners still do 75% of all partner work, with some partners doing next to nothing. Partners who don't sell aren't penalized, but rather consultants who can't get staffed get laid off - after founders claimed they never do that. There are numerous instances of hiring of family members, favoritism towards Texas based people (including tax evasion for the founders). Most of their cultural values are paraded as benefits, but are common practice among other consulting firms. Compensation is poor at all levels. Getting staffed any many firms is challenging, but Kalypso sells very little work so your utilization is very high (1+ year data migration, very boring), or very low and constantly doing PD work for partners who can't sell.

Broken and false promises: One of the first things I heard during the interview process was that this was a "different" innovation consulting firm that really cared for its people and clients, that Kalypso was like a family and that career and personal development was a high priority. After working here now for over 2 years I found that basically none of the promises have been kept that were made during the hiring process or afterwards. Specifically I was told the firm followed the 3-4-5 model when it came to traveling for client projects: That means as a client service professionals you would typically spend 3 nights away from home, travel for 4 days and be billable for 5 days out of the week. The reality is that most of the time I am working away from home at the client site 5 days per week, but I am only billable for 3 days because the partners responsible for the project underestimated the required effort, underbid the project and didn't care how it would affect the people delivering the work and that we would have to work hundreds of hours without being able to submit them as billable. As a result my utilization appears low and I get punished in my performance reviews and compensation. And the same happens to a lot of people here. Same thing with promotions. When I was hired I was told that the firm offers great career opportunities and the possibility of quick promotions. Examples were given of employees who advanced from Analyst or Consultant to Sr. Manager in just a few years. The reality is that there are a few select women who are favored by the founders who have risen through the ranks fairly quickly. Everyone else is stuck in their positions for years without the chance for a promotion. Same problem with pay raises. Initially they bait you with the promise that while your starting salary may be a little lower, it will increase quickly as you get promoted. The problem is, it's just another false promise to get you to accept their low offer, but then they never follow through and you'll never see a raise. Lies: Particularly the founders and many partners have no problem lying to employees and clients alike. They change and enhance resumes to make someone look like a good fit for a specific project, they tell clients they have experience with something when in fact they've never done it before, and so on. The lies just really seem to come so easy for some of these people, you just don't know what to believe anymore. Favoritism: Some things have been said about this topic in other reviews, and it's really that bad. A few, mostly female employees have found favor with the two founders and are treated in very special ways. They are invited to the founders homes, they get to go on special trips to tropical destinations with the founders, complement of the firm, etc. It really has no end to what they can do while everybody else works just as hard but unfortunately doesn't get the same favors. Many people here are quite fed up with the situation and are about ready to leave the firm given the right opportunity.