Is BAH family friendly?
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Anonymous
| I'm in the process of interviewing for a position at BAH and was wondering if anyone here has worked there and if the culture is somewhat family friendly? I'm currently at a non-profit advocacy organization where no one bats an eye at the fact that I leave the office at 5 p.m. to pick up my kids, since we have a remote/telework set up so I can (and do) work from home after my kids are in bed. This new position would be much closer to home so I would have more time to spend in the office since I won't be spending 90 minutes commuting but at the same time I am nervous about going somewhere where the norm is to schedule meetings at 5 p.m. Any thoughts? I did a search but didn't find anything. If we're not allowed to ask questions about specific employers let me know and I'll trash this post. Thanks! |
Anonymous
| Sorry, what company is BAH? Glassdoor.com might have some employee reviews to check out as well. |
Anonymous
| Is bah in the building next to moo? |
Anonymous
Booz Allen Hamilton? |
Anonymous
 Good one!
It's Booze Allen. |
Anonymous
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Honestly, no. It is not family friendly at all. What happens is that your project manager will give you x amount of hours (way too few) to do a project. Let's say 40 hours. However, the project actually will take you 70 hours to complete. If you try to tell them that you need more hours, they tell you that they will fire you and hire someone else who can do it in 40 - aka someone who will put in the wrong hours and say it only took them 40 while they worked all nighters.
Sounds like you have a good situation- you will very much regret coming to Booz. |
Anonymous
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Is it an internal or client facing position? If client facing, you will be tied to billable hours, which is almost never family friendly.
In either case, though, it is going to depend on your manager and particular team to a large extent. DH was there for a LONG time (over a decade). It was not family friendly to him. |
Anonymous
| Most of these consulting firms expect lots and lots of hours. |
Anonymous
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It is very dependent on the account / project team.
They are very military friendly - they will not think twice if you need to do reserve duty - but pick up the kids is a different case. |
Anonymous
| Stay where you are! My neighbor just got laid off from there and said it's cutthroat. |
Anonymous
| I don't think Booz will be around for long. And I would have said that before Snowden, too. |
Anonymous
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OP - will you be on client site or at one of the BAH offices? I did both and found that it was far less flexible at the BAH office (lots of overachievers, judgment passed on when you come and go). That said, you could be on a really cool project team with a very flexible work arrangement. Client site could be even more (or less) demanding depending on the job.
Will you be doing primarily classified work or can you work from home? Look out for "business development" work - BAH has its people do a fair amount of proposal work, meaning you can get stuck working your "day job" and then going to the war room to write proposals for another 12 hours. That said, I enjoyed my time at BAH and learned an incredible amount. I also know people who do a good amount of telecommuting. My beef with the firm was that they tout "work/life balance" as their strength but I didn't really see that. Seemed like a bait and switch to me. I'd just ask about the typical hours/demands/work schedule/options for telecommuting. Be up front about your obligations. If they're serious about the w/l balance they won't hold those questions against you. If they balk, you don't want to be there anyway. Signed, a former BAH mom |
Anonymous
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Current employee, and IME it's been very family friendly, however it is very dependent on your team, client and project as well as on your own career objectives.
My management team didn't bat an eyelash when I asked to go part-time after having my child. My billable hours, as well as vacation accrual and benefits, dropped proportionately. My annual evaluations continue to reflect my high performance. I'm currently not seeking to advance within the firm, and therefore am not tapped for the extra-hours projects like proposals and marketing efforts. I know of more than one senior leader who was promoted while part-time for work-life reasons although as one pointed out to me - "at [this] level, 40hrs is part-time". In a decade with the firm I've only ever had one client that was not family-friendly and one or two marketing efforts that totally impinged on family time for a stretch of time. It's not an up-or-out environment, so you aren't penalized for choosing to downshift your career for a while, as long as your performance and value remains high. Things like telework really depend on your situation. My contract doesn't allow for telework but that's not a Booz Allen decision, it's a government decision. Times are tight in government contracting, so evaluate the option carefully. It's not perfect and there are lots of things I don't like about the company, but the primary reason I'm not job searching outside Booz Allen is the family-friendly environment. FWIW, it's "Booz Allen" or Booz Allen Hamilton. Not BAH, not Booz and definitely not Booze. Friendly tip for interviewing, that's the branding. |
Anonymous
| For those here who were at BAH -- how much private sector management/strategy consulting does the company actually do in comparison to gov't consulting? I know it's known for its gov't work but when I talk to people over there in a networking context and mention I have private sector interests (due to my background), they all say "oh yeah - we do that" and then can never tell me anything about it or point to anyone they know who has done any work for a finance/manufacturing/pharma etc. company; it's always along the lines of "oh - if you have finance interests, we do a lot for the Dept of Commerce." Yet they sell something a bit different when they're recruiting at b-schools and on their website. Can anyone clarify? |
Anonymous
OP here. I'm not sure what internal vs external means but it's a senior consultant position and the client is a government agency (not DOD...think stethoscopes, not security  ), if that makes any difference. In any case, I appreciate the input. The job duties are much more interesting to me than what I'm doing now but in the event that they make me an offer (and maybe they won't and all of this will be moot) I'll have some questions.
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