1) Mostly just the inverse of the pros. Not for everyone – you need the right personality and mindset. It is after all consulting, so you need a high level of accountability, to meet the client's needs, to prepare work that is client-ready, etc. No one will dress you down for making honest mistakes but you need to be a quick study and dedicated to improvement. Sometimes there can be long hours – you also have to manage it yourself a bit. My experience is that longer hours are cyclical but a chronic poor work-life balance is usually due to poor time management, patching your own mistakes, wasting time on a bad methodology, overcommitting, lousy delegation – i.e. the usual culprits. I’ve found work-life balance at CPCS in the big picture is mostly within your control. There’s not as much of the BS where something urgent is suddenly dumped on your desk for no good reason.
2) CPCS kind of straddles the middle. It is more consulting than the big engineering and accounting firms. It’s hard to just coast through this job by virtue of being good/okay at one thing. If you’re starting from behind in terms of knowledge and skills you may have to push harder to catch up. You have to hold your own. People do leave because they are not cut out for it. Overall I’ve found this is a positive because it is meritocratic and you can almost always count on your colleagues to be competent and dependable.
3) At the other end of the spectrum it is more technical than the big management consulting firms. They want people who are really into this stuff and like the work, rather than people who are just there for the paycheque, prestige, resumé. Again, on balance, that is a strength. In terms of the pay it is not that bad, but probably could stand to be a bit higher, truthfully. Certainly it is a step or two below what people are capable of earning going to the highest bidder. You have to put it all in the blender and see whether it’s in line with your priorities.
4) I would say that CPCS places a high priority on building pride in the company, but in more modest or spontaneous ways. It may not be for very extraverted people as there is less show and hoopla than some big companies (huge retreats, ra-ra events, extracurriculars and that kind of thing). For example you may go out for a drink with your colleagues once a month, or get a team lunch, but not have an employee soccer team or whatnot). That may not be for everyone. Some people who work in remote settings may not get as much social interaction through their job.
