NERA Economic Consulting
Visit Website: www.nera.com
Related companies : NERA Economic Consulting Asia , NERA Economic Consulting Europe
Overview
Introduction
NERA provides economic advice, analysis, expert testimony, and regulatory insight for global clients in North America, Latin America, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific. The firm has been advising government authorities and the world’s leading law firms and corporations for over half a century. The firm brings academic analysis and rigor, objectivity, and real-world industry experience to bear on issues arising from competition, regulation, public policy, strategy, finance, and litigation.
Company Stats
Employer Type
Size
Featured Rankings
Vault Consulting 50...
Major Departments/Practice Areas
Antitrust and Competition...
Major Office Locations
New York, NY (HQ)...
Employment Contact
Firsthand Findings
NERA Economic Consulting works on some of today’s highest-profile cases, as it has consistently done throughout its six-decade history. In fact, NERA insiders take tremendous pride in the reputation their firm has secured for itself as a trailblazer and standard-setter in the industry. The exceptional quality of the work product, in which every single insight or segment of analysis is thoroughly reviewed for accuracy and integrity, has positioned NERA as a trusted leader among its clients.
The culture within the firm is one of high academic rigor; your colleagues will be among some of the most intelligent subject matter experts you’ve ever encountered, and candidates who are committed to deepening their own knowledge. The firm provides numerous professional devel...
About the Company
NERA Economic Consulting understands what many people can’t: economics. The firm provides economic advice, analysis, expert testimony, and regulatory insight for global clients throughout North America, Latin America, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region. Employing more than 500 professionals, including 425 economists, the firm has been creating strategies, studies, reports, expert testimony, and policy recommendations for government authorities and the world’s leading law firms and corporations for over half a century. NERA specializes in bringing academic analysis and rigor, objectivity, and real-world industry experience to bear on issues arising from competition, regulation, public policy, strategy, finance, and litigation. The firm uses hard economic data to make its case, drawing on its professionals’ expertise in statistics, econometrics, game...
Employee Reviews
- “An incredible opportunity to learn and get exposure to countless products, industries and forms of analysis in a short period of time.”
- “There is a good culture here, with people who are interested in your development. You have early access to interesting and newsworthy projects and actually conduct meaningful work.”
- “Whether you are entering into economic consulting or are a seasoned professional, you will continue to learn and improve your skills as a consultant.”
- “Great culture with exposure to interesting and important projects.”
- “Great colleagues, interesting work, but work/life balance and culture are very team-specific.”
- “A great place to learn—the work is challenging, but everyone is helpful and supportive.”
- “Projects at NERA are interesting, challenging, high profile, and rewarding. But that comes with responsibilities to be ready to address client needs as they arrive and sometimes a lot of after hours work to complete.”
- “Pros: hours are very reasonable when there aren't upcoming deadlines. Hours are flexible. Cons: when there are major deadlines (e.g., Expert Report deadline), work hours increase exponentially.”
- “Case timelines sometimes dictate irregular schedules during deadlines, but the overall flexibility outside of deadlines makes up for this.”
- “The firm encourages work/life balance. Because much of our work involves working under court-imposed deadlines, vacations usually have to be scheduled to not conflict with filing deadlines.”
- “We receive three weeks per year initially, plus 10 sick days and 10 holidays. I believe we get an extra week per five years of employment. Provided that we plan in advance and don't have it coincide with then-known project deadlines, vacation has always been honored.”
- “Better than most places. We have a good number of vacation days, but it is sometimes difficult to take, especially in bigger chunks. But efforts are made to accommodate most requests.”
- “Base salary is generous for an entry level position. Sign-on bonuses and year-end bonuses are also generous. Only negative is that base salary doesn't increase proportionally with the billing rate of junior employees.”
- “Base salary is largely standardized between geographies, and promotions are virtually guaranteed and come with sizable raises. That salary is very good for lower cost of living areas and is a bit light for more expensive metros, at least initially. Bonus pay varies dramatically, as a function of billable hours, and makes total comp very competitive if your team works long hours. The 401k match is very generous (7% match on your 6% effectively) but vests over a long period, so it's only very valuable for people who intend to spend a long time at NERA, which is unusual at the junior level. Tuition reimbursement is generous but benefits are otherwise very basic.”
- “Health insurance is probably the weakest component of NERA's benefits plan. Gym/lifestyle reimbursements are extremely limited. Is difficult to find pertinent information for counseling and mental health issues.”
- “I think the compensation package is fair. Salary progression is steady, and bonuses are common, based on individual and company performance. The perks are strong, including 401k matching, health and dental insurance, and discounts on numerous purchases.”
- “Below partner level there can be very little transparency about bonus structure. However, many partners are very proactive in sharing project profits in proportion to each person's contribution to billable time.”
- “Best: very good pay for the number of hours I actually work. Worst: very rigid structure that may not reflect the actual responsibilities I have.”
- “Best aspect: the firm provides significantly more formal training for junior staff than many of its competitors. Worst aspect: limited promotion opportunities without an advanced degree.”
- “Nice steady promotions at the junior level, but there's a clear ceiling without a graduate degree (ideally a PhD). Firm training offerings are OK…Very little mentorship.”
- “There are plenty of training resources for research staff. It's great that they are willing to invest so much in building up the skills of the new hires and benefits the employees for a lifetime. Plenty of research staff go on to jobs at top tech firms, largely on the basis of the analytical skills they build as researchers. There is so much work that it is hard to make time to write CV-building papers. But CV-building papers are important to advancement. The firm encourages writing, but puts a lot of red tape around allocating time during the business day to writing. This is the only real form of investment in consulting staff and the incentive structure seems upside down. You just have to motivate yourself to spend your evenings and weekends doing this work.”
- “NERA Economic Consulting fosters a collaborative environment conducive to academic and professional growth. The atmosphere is extremely welcome to challenging questions and working together to create an optimal solution. Training opportunities are vast (almost every two weeks there are various training workshops).”
- “Firm offers many resources and opportunities to learn new skills.”
- “Very smart colleagues and exposure to very different and challenging projects.”
- “NERA as a whole is about as diverse as people who go into academia in economics, which is to say, not exceptionally diverse but with good representation across European and Asian countries and skews a bit male. However, women and people of color hold some of the highest positions at the company, and compensation and promotion opportunities are very accessible to people regardless of their demographics. If I were from an underrepresented group, I may feel a little strange because of the firms' demographics, but I likely wouldn't be prevented from fulfilling my full potential.”
- “The firm is reasonably diverse, but may not appear incredibly diverse from the outside. We are a firm of economists, and the pool of economics graduates is perhaps less diverse than other fields. I have been involved in hiring decisions and I am confident that we are nondiscriminatory in our hiring decisions. I also think promotions and pay raises are distributed methodologically based on merit and tenure with no bias.”
- “We have a very balanced organization and the most senior roles are populated by equal numbers of men and women.”
- “I don’t have too much personal knowledge about how my firm deals with disadvantaged groups, but they have a very open culture and I would be extremely surprised if they had any discriminatory compensation policies.”
- “Strong stance on lateral equity.”
- “There are several very high ranking women at the firm, but I have not been here long enough to opine about the promotion/retention of other groups.”
- “One of my firm's biggest strengths is its ability to weather economic downturns. Business has been steady through the COVID-19 pandemic and it seems unlikely the firm will have to lay off people as a result of this crisis.”
- “NERA is one of the best firms in the area of economic consulting—unsurprising given the quality of the individuals who work at NERA. In general, the firm comprises individuals with talent and good economic instincts who are well trained in areas of sound economic principles and analysis. The culture is fairly low-key and the "people first" emphasis has been consistent over the years.”
- “COVID-19 presents uncertainty, but we are generally well positioned to be able to work from home and keep project pipelines relatively full—people are going to file lawsuits regardless of the economic situation.”
- “NERA is highly regarded and its practice areas are all some level of noncyclical—employees are not very concerned about losing their jobs due to the economic slowdown caused by the coronavirus...”
- “Economic experts are always in demand, so with very little business development, new opportunities still come in. I wouldn't mind if there was some more active business development or discussions about how we, as a firm, can continue to lead in the industry outside of the normal work we do.”
- “It is clearly a tough time economically, but overall it seems my company has done a good job weathering the storm. There have been no layoffs, and our revenue is very similar to it was last year. Overall I'd say the company is in a good place, all things considered.”
Getting Hired Here
0- “Interview and callback process is very transparent. Everyone I interviewed with was very nice. Firm is generous in reimbursing travel, lodging, and food. Only drawback is the firm is not very flexible with interview dates. Once you are assigned an interview time, it is very difficult to change. At a junior level, NERA seeks candidates with the following skills: reading comprehension, the ability to write and speak clearly, the ability to understand economic logic/reasoning, and experience with excel and statistical software programs.”
- “Interviews consist of a phone screen followed by a super day. The ideal candidate has a high GPA in an economics major with good research assistant experience, ideally for a government agency, think tank, or academic.”
- “Step 1 is a phone interview with one senior researcher. Step 2 is an on-site super day of numerous interviews plus a test. The ideal candidate is analytically oriented with a background in economics/statistics and enthusiasm for research.”
- “I believe that the firm looks for individuals passionate about economics and for those willing to learn a lot on the job. I didn't come in with the technical skillset that other employees have, but I'm eager to learn and become a contributing team member.”
- “[The firm looks for] solid background in economics and other quantitative majors such as math and statistics, great analytical and communication skills.”
- “First round interview over video chat and then a super day with five interviews in person. It is seeking highly academically driven and academically successful candidates.”
- “Mental math questions, case studies that force candidates to reveal their deep understanding of economic concepts, behavioral questions, detailed questions about economic research experience, familiarity with different statistical concepts and statistical programming languages like SAS, Stata, R, Python, etc.”
- “Most of my interviews consisted of behavioral questions. There was also a coding test in which I was tested on my ability to conduct basic data cleaning tasks and a set of multiple choice questions (similar to SAT/GRE questions) to test my critical thinking skills.”
- “Talk about a project you've worked on that requires extensive data analysis. Look at this excel table and tell me what's wrong w/ it - attention to detail exercises.”
- “Tell me about any experience you have working with large amounts of data. What kind of coding languages are you familiar with? Why NERA? Why the __ (office location)___ office? Some econometrics questions.”
- “There are some math/statistics theory questions, as well as free form behavioral questions. Depends on the specific practice group you are applying for.”
- “What do you look for in a company and what do you think NERA is offering you? We are looking for a mutual fit.”
