Pros
High salary, Connections to senior government leadership, name recognition
Cons
Utilization is the holy grail but computed as a disincentivizing measure. As it is only tied to billable hours, you may do much more than 40 hours of work that even results in bringing additional work in, but you better make your utilization numbers. Poor onboarding process for Senior Associates (level 4) from the outside (me). Without knowing the company culture, profile and methodology of doing business, I was thrown into a customer facing position after only two weeks there. The only thing you have to rely on is your previous methods of consulting. I can guarantee you it will be different than BAH's ideas of consulting. this set me up for a very painful time of being countered on decisions at every point by an associate (Level 3) who was also on the contract and had two years with the compney (as a matter of fact, her entire 6 years of work history was only at BAH). This could have been avoided in a number of ways. 1) More comprehensive onboarding process for senior associates with a significant shadow period before placing them in a billable status and 2) if making them billable, do not place them as a team lead until they are familiar with how the company does business. I was told as I started only a very small percentage of Level 4s from the outside last. It was entirely evident to me as I got close to leaving as well. They have a poor performance record with people who have significant experience.