Slalom Reviews

Pros

- Culture - Pay - Work life balance

Cons

- Don't know of any

Pros

Very selective and trying to do things right.

Cons

1. You have to be always wired as it comes with consulting, however it is contrary to what they claim. 2. My leader wants work to be done off hours but doesn’t let me put those hours as chargeable. I have heard the same thing from my colleagues. This is one way for people to get promoted, as in, have people work double hours and charge half. Engagement are a hit. 3. I have seen people getting multiple promotions within a short span of time. e.g consultant to Director in 4 years. Good for the person but not so good for the junior folks as a person with a title and no real life experience is leading them. 4. Now I am being asked to come to office to warm up chairs. 5. I live closer to downtown office, which is a train ride away and down own a car. I have had clients in suburbs and had to pay out of pocket for uber and commuter, and we were told we cant reimburse. 6. Annual goal setting is a joke and you are on your own to put your priorities and goals—seriously? 7. Some leaders lack basic social skills, including speaking and writing. Everybody should be made to write a paper/give writing sample as the interview process to weed out folks. 8. My practice leaders don’t have a standard methodology that they can apply(process, templates etc) and everything is on the fly. **Anybody can put two and two together and infer why Slalom is able to bid low

Pros

Supportive teams. There's a clear and easy path for growth and promotion. Work life balance is respected. Interesting and impactful growth.

Cons

I'm worried that our "culture" has infantilized our bench (which is ever growing) in that they don't have the tenacity nor 'scrappy' nature to compete in a shrinking market. Companies no longer are throwing cash, so I fear that "doing what's best for me" (a statement from a colleague) is not, and should not, be the motto going forward. Feedback is given but not implement. Most issues are solved by having a meeting and then never revisited until there's escalation. A common theme through corporate America, but the "nice" culture here encourages procrastination (i.e very non confrontational). Avoiding politically charged word choice (there's other comments referencing the 'wokeness' that I don't necessarily disagree with) I think we need to start looking at our ERGs through the lens of a company in hard economic times. It's frustrating seeing money shelled out for women's history month etc when we know, and have been communicated with, regarding curbing spending. No one wants to say anything for fear of being scolded, but we all have compassion fatigue. It's hard to support a new cause/event authentically especially paralleled to record inflation.

Pros

If you are early in your design career, your problem space is defined so meeting expectations is easy.

Cons

Once you pass the more junior stage, you will still have to take on illy written SOWs that require problem discovery that if you are lucky, your sales partner is good, and you get bill hours for it. If you are unlucky which is common, you don’t get to fix it and have to deliver against the client or the SOW owners imagination. Imagine that craziness as an experienced UX leader because the slalom XD leadership has no ethics when managing senior designers. They will use you as button pushers AKA design monkeys. There is very little respect in that process. I have personally seen them do this to 3 of the very senior & reputable & well respected leaders. At the end they just lost all interest at work and got managed out or had to quit.

Pros

All pros and cons are from my perception or experience while working at Slalom: - There's some flexibility to drive your career where you want, but you'll also be required to maintain "check the box" expectations based on your role to a fault...Given this, you'll have to overextend to grow expertise outside of your role, leading to burnout - and this is only becoming more prominent as Slalom grows and becomes more corporate. More corporate tends to equal "stay in your box" and less room for to take a path less traveled. - There are still some great people here, despite them becoming harder to find as Slalom continues to grow.

Cons

All pros and cons are from my perception or experience while working at Slalom: - Slalom has seemed to have lost the plot on their core values. Slalom seems to be growing without much of a strategy, except to follow in other large consulting firms footsteps. As Slalom grows, their differentiation has dwindled. - Less competitive pay and benefits compared to other Big 4 / established consulting firms. - Lots of "drinking the kool-aid"...to a point where, ironically, colleagues tend to come off less genuine to fit themselves into the mold. - Some Senior Leadership did not practice the core values that they preached. Lots of smoke and mirrors.

Pros

- Celebrate Authenticity: Slalom has a phenomenal culture. They encourage you to come to work each day as your authentic self. They welcome personality, diversity, emotions and everything in between. Every day I feel as though I am building meaningful relationships and connections with my teams. - Opportunity: Slalom gives a large opportunity to learn and grow. I have felt my work has been impactful, encouraged and appreciated. No task is too big or too small and I have had the opportunity to work on a variety of projects. Management is always open and asking for feedback to see if there are any areas for improvement, which I really appreciate. - Open-Minded Environment: Slalom has a very entrepreneurial spirit. I feel that my ideas are always heard and valued. Our inclusive and diverse culture makes it a very creative, fun and flexible place to work. - Perks: 4 weeks vacation to start, great benefits, and competitive salaries. - Internal events, activities, and resources: Slalom is constantly hosting events and activities to get employees together and involved. In addition, there are various resources available to employees for help, support, and more. - ERGS: There are a number of Employee Resources Groups (ERGs) and Affinity groups at Slalom which help to build inclusivity, celebrate diversity, and foster belonging. I overall have had an amazing experience at Slalom, and look forward to coming to work every day.

Cons

I have personally had a great experience working at Slalom, and do not have any cons at this time.

Pros

Working with amazingly smart people. Work / life balance super flexible very supportive of personal development

Cons

Experience outside of Slalom is not valued as much as experience at Slalom Don't really take upwards feedback, the higher your level the more your opinion matters Not very diverse in leadership (not just ethnic, but also diversity in thinking) Don't really know how to deal with viewpoints that conflict with leadership's The values on paper don't always manifest, sometimes it feels like "Do as I say, not as I do from leadership"

Pros

local teams, local management, you will get to know everybody you work with. you can work on work outside your city

Cons

The GM level of the company all stab each other in the back and dont care about anybody else. This is not a company, its like small mom and pop stores, all have the same product and fight for each scrap. 95% of clients are mid market clients. every project has to be resold over and over again.

Pros

There are so many pros to working in talent acquisition as a recruiter but here are a few: - At Slalom, Talent Acquisition and HR are separate departments. Slalom makes a huge investment in the talent team, in terms of career development and training. There is a clear career path and also lots of learning and soft-skills training opportunities. - There is a national and global talent acquisition network that you are a part of that you can leverage - There are lots of internal initiatives, with Talent Acquisition or otherwise, that you have the flexibility and opportunity to be a part of in order to enrich your daily job and career - Talent Acquisition employees are true business partners with the hiring managers, who work actively in the community to make strong connections instead of sitting back and waiting for resumes or interviews - Strong focus and outcome-oriented approach to inclusion, diversity, and equity as it relates to recruitment. - Slalom really protects its people, and does not lay off its employees as demonstrated during the pandemic and the economic recession. Really protects and respects their recruiters.

Cons

No major cons. Only thing I would mention is that Slalom is expanding globally and can be a bit slow in adopting an international mindset.

Pros

Amazing people who want each other to succeed. No travel! Great WLB. Can try out new industries/verticals.

Cons

Too nice - below average performers are allowed to stick around or even get promoted. There is a culture where conflict is avoided at all costs, constructive feedback is rare to avoid hurting anyones feelings. Local model creates unfair challenges to new markets as promotions are based on standard corporate metrics - easy to hit in mature markets, almost impossible in new markets. Immature training programs with an overemphasis on technology. People from industry are not given consulting training, especially presentation, communication skills and business foundations. Pay does not keep up with competitors, is a hard company to stay at for multiple years as pay increases lag inflation. Decentralized industry knowledge, experts and content, makes it impossible to compete with B4