Prós
Client exposure - Not many companies allow this for lower level of analysts, this is a great way to gain some experience speaking to higher executives in foreign client companies Project quality at times is great, CI & Due diligence projects are worth it if you're in the eye of your manager Monthly review meeting - The CEO takes this seriously, allowing inputs from all employees on how the company should meet its targets Office culture - Relaxed, you will meet great people throughout your time. Co-workers like analysts, some senior analysts and BD people are fun to hang out with.
Contras
All the other times, project quality is worst. If it is not mentioned to you early, most projects involve cold-calling to obtain proprietary information. No database subscription and thus, limited capacity to perform high-level secondary research. Inexperienced project managers - Always led to problems and politics. They will blame the analysts for problems created by them or Senior analysts. Illogical recruitment policy - Hire desperate & non-smart people on low salaries and get the most work out of them Top Management - Rigid and arrogant on certain occasions, they take interest in protecting those employees who stay longer. Pay - Decent, new joinees will always be underpaid though learning to negotiate will always help in this case A lot of other strategic issues - Sales & Business Development hardly works to generate new businesses Massive attrition rate - the reason for which is the frustration of the employees and not that employees are always disloyal Manager bias - Happens the moment someone misreports an analyst's wrongdoings