Pros
The pace of work was intense. The learning curve was steep. The variety of work was the most appealing aspect of the job. Some of the people were fun to work with some of the time.
Cons
SBI is "all sizzle, no steak". They say they help companies generate more revenue but there is no way they can prove it. They are more like an expensive temporary staffing agency rather than a strategic consulting firm. By the time the customer figures out they're over-paying and could do things themselves, SBI has likely drained them of millions of dollars. SBI actually keeps a tally of how many customers they take over a million dollars from. They don't have any unique IP or research reports like other firms; most of what we delivered as "solutions" could be found by customers on the internet with a little bit of elbow grease. You can never work long enough or hard enough to satisfy the partners. Vacations were rare and the partners expect people to work while on vacation. 6 and 7-day work weeks were expected and travel was much more than they said it would be during the interview process. Critical feedback came from every direction. Bonuses, if paid, were always smaller than expected as compared to the pre-hire propaganda. Benefits were very expensive and I had to pay almost 100% of the cost myself. I think SBI provided a couple hundred bucks each month to help with benefits but that didn't go very far. The partners play favorites with promotions. The people they promote each year are almost always men and there have never been any women in leadership positions.