Overview

Introduction

Consistently recognized throughout the industry as a “Best Place to Work”, Oliver Wyman promises an “environment where exceptional people can thrive.” A large consultancy whose reach spans five continents, Oliver Wyman strives to provide its people with an entrepreneurial, non-hierarchical culture where talent people work alongside one another on complex, high-visibility client engagements. Go-getters who enjoy early responsibility and a fast-paced, driven environment will do well here.

Company Stats

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Employer Type

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2020 Employees (All Locations)

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Featured Rankings

Vault Consulting 50...
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Major Departments/Practice Areas

ActuarialAutomotiveAviation, Aerospace & DefenseBusiness......
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Major Office Locations

New York, NY...
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Employment Contact

Firsthand Findings

Oliver Wyman is distinguished by its subject matter expertise across a range of verticals and practice areas. The firm prides itself on its deep commitment to providing top-notch insights and analyses that establish it as a true client partner. The focus on impact, not only for the client, but also for broader societal implications, makes this a firm truly rooted in its values.

A word that came up frequently in response to questions about Oliver Wyman’s culture was “weird”—and we assure you, survey respondents meant this in the best possible way. The level of emphasis on individuality—on building a stronger team through a culture of unique perspectives and personalities—is truly unmatched. “Quirky”, “friendly”, “down-to-earth”—these are all qualities that the cul...

About the Company

Oliver Wyman is part of the Marsh & McLennan Companies (MMC), a global professional services network with brands and affiliates in more than 100 countries. The largest component of Oliver Wyman Group is Oliver Wyman, a management consulting business which has more than 4,000 consultants working out of offices in 60 cities spread across some 29 countries. Oliver Wyman Group also includes NERA Economic Consulting and the brand and innovation consultancy Lippincott.

The firm's consulting services cover sectors including automotive, aviation, aerospace and defense, communications, energy, media, financial services, industrial products and services, health and life sciences, public policy, retail and consumer products, and surface transportation. Its capabilities include digital, corporate finance and restructuring, operatio...

Vault Top Ranked shield

2021 Vault Rankings

#6

Vault Consulting 50

#8

Best Consulting Firms for Strategy Consulting

#8

Best Consulting Firms for Retail Consulting

Employee Reviews

  • “A true meritocracy that values integrity, competence, and empathy.”
  • “Challenging, rewarding, and important work with kind, funny, and down-to-earth teammates who are invested in my development.”
  • “A place where you can truly be yourself at work. You don't have to be a perfect professional square all the time. Differences are embraced. Excellent, inclusive culture. Slightly better hours than big 3 consulting.”
  • “The people in the firm are extremely driven, intelligent, and committed to their work, but are also very down-to-earth and generally very friendly/likeable, which makes the firm a great place to work.”
  • “OW is a great firm for a candidate that wants to take an active role in directing their career and enjoys solving hard problems. We celebrate individual personalities and have a great sense of collective endeavor. This is a firm where you can really feel at home.”
  • “A career in professional services is shaped by the people you work with, both your peers and your supervisors. Choose a firm, not for the brand name, but for the place where you feel most at home and where you see yourself being able to work with others to make a difference, both in the market but also in shaping the firm for the future.”
  • “This is the most progressive culture of wellness and social awareness that I have ever experienced at work. Employee resource groups are instrumental in holding conversations and events that both raise the right conversations around topics such as mental health and create opportunities to connect with others in the firm to build community and connection. This is by far one of the best aspects of the culture.”
  • “Relative to our consulting industry, I believe our firm does an excellent job. That said, consulting is not a corporate job, the demands are higher, but you're challenged, motivated, and gain a ton of experience.”
  • “Projects are generally adequately staffed and partners will usually take measures -- including accepting lower margins by increasing staffing -- when hours being incurred are well beyond expectations (i.e. well beyond 12AM on a daily basis). Weekends are usually respected with some rare exceptions. Weekday evenings are generally treated as "firm time." We could do a better job of setting a "night off" per week or avoiding last-minute requests/calls late into the evening.”
  • “Best aspects are team culture and close knit office dynamics. Oliver Wyman still very much operates as a small firm from a tight-knit culture standpoint. The firm also respects weekends and vacations, and I've rarely had to work through them. But with that comes the downside that individual expectations are high for consultants, and there's a constant step-up mentality, which sometimes hinders your ability to manage a sustainable life while on the ground. Hard to say what travel like will be like post COVID, but it wasn't too much of a nuisance when I traveled.”
  • “Vacation policy is generous, and we try to aggressively protect time off as much as possible. When there are urgent project crunches that we know will impact dates (e.g., a big extension that crops up at the last minute), we offer compensation to rebook or reimbursement of travel expenses for consultants. We plan out at the beginning of every project who has what time booked and are given that information in initial staffing conversations.”
  • “The worst part of the firm's quality of life are the hours. Weekdays are consistent long hours and late nights, often with little time to take a break. The firm does a good job at recognizing the difficult hours and managing it best they can by respecting and encouraging time off, balancing tough times with easier stretches, and having a good feedback system in the event anything is going wrong.”
  • “Our firm's compensation strategy is very transparent and merit based. It seems we lag slightly behind the compensation of similar firms for each title, but progress faster through the different levels that get us to that salary.”
  • “Especially early on, the firm's compensation package is fantastic - the salary progression and bonus structure enables very competitive total compensation. Additionally, there is no negotiation required - everyone in a region gets the same pay for the same level, so there is no question of different pay based on market knowledge or negotiating skill.”
  • “Salary progression is fair and meritocratic, and bonuses are good. Partner bonuses can be very volatile at the individual level (by design).”
  • “Best: Compensation and benefits are good when you take a broader lens across industries, beyond consulting. Relatively competitive compensation package at the entry level and then at the partner level. Worst: We have meaningful gaps vs. consulting peer set. We struggle to match salary + bonus comp levels to our peers for mid-career consultants (all levels except entry level and partner). Our benefits (healthcare, parental leave, other perks) tend to lag behind consulting firms, but fixing this issue is constrained by the fact that we are part of a larger group (MMC). The group designed their benefits to be in line / better than a broader set of industries, where the benchmark is lower than in consulting.”
  • “Good maternity / paternity leave policy and vacation. Would like to see equity distributed in the form of stock options or awards for OW performance or MMC stock.”
  • “There is huge upside to our compensation as there are no upper limits. On the downside, we pay our staff at the strategy consulting median, making it difficult to get talent that heavily prioritizes monetary rewards.”
  • “Everyone at OW is invested in making sure our consultants succeed. As such, there is a lot of informal mentorship, apprenticeship, and support starting at the very beginning of your career. The firm is also quite flexible, so it is comparatively easy to move between offices and practices.…”
  • “Oliver Wyman has a transparent and straightforward review process that allows you to be evaluated on more than just project reviews; extracurriculars, volunteering, business development and other items all contribute. Oliver Wyman allows progression at a faster pace than many other firms and allows real flexibility in terms of subject matter or discipline.”
  • “There are several formal career development opportunities and many of which are required. There are also significant informal programs for all levels of the firm to get involved and be mentor others, become a mentee, learn about different practices, and so on. The formal training is getting much better, but it is always difficult to take time from client work and dedicate to formal training, so these can often create more stress then benefit. But this is a normal issue across consulting.”
  • “Promotion criteria are transparent and the promotion process is very meritocratic. Informal training and mentorship are foundational parts of the culture here, and my managers have gone out of their way to help me learn and develop.”
  • “The culture of mentoring is stronger than elsewhere (I have worked at a competitor and seen more) and the promotion process is fair in a way that is kind of amazing (I contrast it with what I saw at McKinsey which was fine, but nothing as good as this). The absence of a true up-or-out is both smarter (it handles how strong people may learn at different speeds at different parts of their career) and better for employees. I think that we could do more on formal training if we were larger, but I think we do the current training well.”
  • “Oliver Wyman is a very lean firm, which as a result offers promise for advancement and internal mobility, allowing consultants to get varied exposure across industries with relative ease. The flip side is that, being a smaller firm, OW does not always have active projects in every aspect of industry and those with a particular interest may have to wait until the right opportunity becomes available.”
  • “Diversity efforts across all forms have really stepped up over the last couple of years; although there is still a long way to go, I take pride in the fact that my firm is open and honest about where we are and where we are trying to get to.”
  • “There are very tangible efforts underway at OW with respect to anti-discrimination, building diversity, and accelerating the development of underrepresented groups at the firm. I'm personally gratified to see the level of introspection that the firm has placed in light of recent events in the US and the BLM movement. However, there's a long way to go…”
  • “Pay ranges are same for men and women and they receive equal opportunities for advancement. However, we have fewer women that advance to the most senior levels of the organization but are working to address this shortfall.”
  • “While I am confident of the firm's fairness and efforts to increase diversity, currently we do see a big drop-off in representation of women and minorities at the more senior levels of the firm.”
  • “Oliver Wyman does a fantastic job pushing forward on Diversity & Inclusion priorities, particularly in 2020. Additionally, most of my projects have been led by women at the manager and partner level - I'm not sure if that's reflective of the overall company split, but it's a great sign for how well-balanced the company is.”
  • “The unbiased review system goes a long way to remove promotion boundaries for diverse populations, and the firm is undergoing a pretty substantial overhaul of our training for biases as it relates to the promotion process.”

  • “Oliver Wyman has maintained and perhaps increased momentum during COVID-19, and I'm very confident the company will be well-positioned for years to come because of it. We are growing, adding new clients regularly, and performing innovative and impactful work.”
  • “COVID-19 has hit everyone hard and has certainly impacted morale. We are struggling to adapt to the "new normal" like everyone else is…While the future is still uncertain, we work hard with our clients and put impact first, which means always iterating our model to refine it.”
  • “Our firm is very innovative and has been winning market share over our larger competitors consistently over time. We stand out by diving deeper with our clients and supporting both the strategic vision and making that vision a reality for them.”
  • “Our firm is taking a leadership stance on climate and sustainability. We are proud to be a certified Carbon Neutral company. We have also made significant commitments in supporting our clients and communities to navigate and recover from the pandemic.”
  • “Quality is key to our outlook. Our clients see us as essential business partners which leads to growth when they are doing well and retention when they are not.”
  • “Our ability to be agile and to be trusted advisors to our clients during the worst of times positions OW to perform well during the pandemic and to rebound more quickly than our competition after.”

Why Work Here

Ask any of our colleagues why they chose Oliver Wyman and the answer is the same: "It's the people." Other firms say it; at Oliver Wyman, we live it. Our culture is constantly shaped, refreshed, and reinvigorated by the people who work here. At Oliver Wyman you have the chance to make an impact from the moment you join. Everything we do is driven by our values. The entrepreneurial nature of our firm facilitates exceptional opportunities and the ability to shape not only your future but the future of our clients and of Oliver Wyman. With over 4,000 professionals based in more than 50 offices in 26 countries, we have the reach to meet our clients’ needs anywhere in the world.

Getting Hired Here

  • “We have [multiple] rounds, including case and behavioral interviews. We are looking for sharp, confident, well-spoken individuals who can think in a structured manner to solve a problem, but we also want them to be social and engaging, as that is the culture at OW.”
  • “Our interview process is multi-round and rigorous, but it is efficient. You know quickly (that day usually) if you have advanced. Including day-of offers on final round.”
  • “Oliver Wyman wants individuals who are not only smart, but also have an entrepreneurial spirit. OW wants candidates who not only are ready to come in and solve problems, but make sure those answers are sustainable for the client. Innovation and communication are key to thriving within the firm.”
  • “Smart, humble, slightly quirky. We want people who are sharp and who we are happy to grab a [bite to eat] with…We make sure that we call each candidate as soon as we have a decision – we're hyper-aware on this front.”
  • “Ideal candidates fit into our culture (humble, sense of humor), are willing to learn, hard-working and curious / self-driven.”
  • “Culture is very important to the firm and as such, behavioral interviews are weighted heavily. Although our work in quantitative, we look for diversity of thought; therefore, case interviews are not always numbers-focused.”
  • “Our interviews are industry standard for consulting. Standard case questions and fit conversations. The only differentiation is that we sometimes do a presentation style case in addition to the 1-on-1s.”
  • “Should a client enter a new line of business? How can a client improve their economics (through productivity improvement, growth, etc.)? How would you structure solving a complex analytical problem?”
  • “Case questions are industry agnostic and broadly assess problem structuring, quantitative orientation, and communication skills.”
  • “Full-time final round interviews consist of a Presentation Case question where candidates are given case information to review and a brief period of time to prepare before presenting their findings in front of interviewers and answering questions.”
  • “Our firm makes use of typical case prompts for our case interviews. In addition, we include a presentation case in the final round. For this case, candidates receive the case prompt (2-5 page document) and are given 30min to prepare their approach. They are then asked to present their approach and recommendation in a 20min presentation followed by 10min of Q&A.”
  • ““Help walk me through the pricing strategy for a class a non-profit wants to start.” "Should this big box store switch their logistics model to a more just-in-time model?" "Tell me about a time you dealt with conflict.””

Perks & Benefits