Pace Harmon
Visit Website: www.paceharmon.com
Overview
Introduction
Pace Harmon, now part of West Monroe, is an advisory and management consulting firm focused on providing business support through the entire sourcing lifecycle. Through cloud and digital transformation that embeds technology strategies and decisions into all functions and lines of business they help radically transform IT and back-office functions for major corporations. Capabilities in IT strategy and business process outsourcing, procurement, and vendor management, support large-scale technology, outsourcing, network, and other compl...
Company Stats
Employer Type
Size
Featured Rankings
Vault Consulting 50...
Major Departments/Practice Areas
IT Transformation and Outsourcing Advisory Services...
Major Office Locations
Washington, D.C. (HQ)...
CEO (West Monroe)
Firsthand Findings
Pace Harmon insiders describe a lean and nimble outfit where everybody gets to know one another and management is directly involved in the daily operations of the firm. If you’re looking for a close-knit team of subject matter experts, where you will learn quickly and be able to chart your own growth, this firm is for you. Early exposure to clients and a culture of mentorship make every day a learning opportunity for young and mid-career consultants.
Overall, quality of life seems to be a positive at Pace Harmon; leadership is accommodating and compassionate, and cash-heavy compensation packages make for a rewarding experience. While the smaller size of the firm means an abundance of development opportunities, consultants do admit to feeling the strain on resourc...
About the Company
In November 2020, Pace Harmon was acquired by West Monroe, a national business and technology consulting firm.
Pace Harmon is an IT and business process transformation and outsourcing advisory services firm providing guidance on enterprise optimization, complex outsourcing and technology transactions, and service provider governance. The firm is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with offices in Chicago and San Francisco.
Founded in 2003 by senior partners with Big 4 consulting heritage, Pace Harmon provides advice that help its client base of Fortune 500 and other large enterprises maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of their IT and functional operations.
Pace Harmon is an employee-owned firm led by an experienced team of executive managing directors and managing directors who personally c...
Employee Reviews
- “Managing Directors are intimately involved with every project's delivery, and younger associates at the firm learn incredibly quickly thanks to daily interaction with managing directors and subject matter experts.”
- “Opportunities to own work early and learn from very experienced colleagues; smart, motivated coworkers who care about your personal wellbeing.”
- “The level of responsibility you can get within the first few years is incomparable to any big consulting firm with large teams. You're typically on a project with 2-3 full-time people, meaning you have to be comfortable owning your work and working with the client directly.”
- “You will have offers from firms that more or less do the same thing on a day-to-day basis. The difference between these firms is the people you are working with and the type of work you do. At Pace Harmon, you get to take ownership of the work you've done by presenting it to the client as an analyst; you won't see this at any other firm. Additionally, the people at Pace Harmon are the nicest, most genuine people you will find out there. Everyone has each other's back.”
- “If you want to work on meaningful projects, as a full team member from your first day, this is the firm for you. You won't be one of many at Pace Harmon, but this means you also must be willing to chart your own path and look out for your own career development.”
- “Opportunities to own work early and learn from very experienced colleagues; smart, motivated coworkers who care about your personal well-being.”
- “I think Pace Harmon is very accommodating with regards to work/life balance. There may be some weeks that I have to work more than normal and others where Pace Harmon will accommodate personal or family health issues that require time off.”
- “While the hours are more than a typical 40-hour work week, the firm is also very accommodating of your need to balance work and life. Travel is typically Monday to Thursday but unless the client is insistent on a local presence, we do a good job of balancing travel and work from home for our projects.”
- “The hours are very demanding. Because we are a small firm we try to go above and beyond for our clients which means working late nights or weekends if something comes to us last minute. The firm is not really flexible with working from home (aside from allowing it due to COVID-19).”
- “The firm is supportive of taking vacation, and I have never had issues or had to work while on vacation. The number of vacation days are reasonable.”
- “My firm encourages us to take vacation time. Work does not intrude on vacation time, and I have good support from coworkers when I take time off.”
- “Pros: 15 PTO days, 10 sick days, plus a floating holiday; if you give advance notice, you won't have issues with taking vacation days. Cons: make sure your vacation plans don't overlap with a team member, this could mean you end up taking meetings and doing some work if it’s a busy time due to small teams; flexibility on how you use your PTO days isn't consistent across managers.”
- “Cash Compensation is great. Medical benefits have great coverage. Only issue is that we don't get any matching 401K contribution because we have the ESOP which take 3 fiscal years with the firm to vest.”
- “Compensation is very strong. Salary progression in first three years is excellent, and bonuses are commensurate with effort and very strong…”
- “The firm offers a great compensation package including consistent salary progression and performance recognition through bonus allocation.”
- “The salary progression upon promotion is a large increase, which is very nice. In addition, the annual bonus target is large, which makes for a nice bump at the end of each year.”
- “Our compensation is market-competitive which makes it difficult to entertain alternative offers for employment. Bonuses are correlated with overall firm success and profitability which can cut both ways.”
- “Pace Harmon ties compensation to the performance review process.”
- “The best aspect of Pace Harmon's career development is the informal mentorship at the firm. Everyone is extremely willing to help each other out, and provide advice. While formal training is minimal, many peers, particularly at lower levels, are happy to share knowledge, tips, and tricks about the job. The small size of the firm means no one is lost or left behind.”
- Firm leadership is wholly interested in each person becoming a better consultant, enabling them to pursue whichever service area they find interesting. The friendly and educational atmosphere, even among senior leadership, is second to none.”
- “As a small firm, the ability to achieve my potential is highly influenced by my own drive to achieve results.”
- “Pace Harmon utilizes a majority of informal training, usually through hands on learning and Q&A with project members/leaders. However, over the past year, there have been more opportunities to participate in more formal training sessions, or classes to improve in the hard skills of the consulting toolkit. Firm initiatives have also improved to work on creating a diversity panel to educate current employees on current and lasting issues nationally and globally, and to improve our workplace environment.”
- “We have increased formal training significantly in the past year with many great training sessions, though more coaching and mentorship would be appreciated. We have also improved on promotion processes and promoting more quickly based on merit, though there is still a lack of transparency around it.”
- “Much of our internal training is focused on leading edge practices developed and formalized through our client work.”
- “The firm is making an active effort to create a more diverse workforce, whether through efforts to recruit more diverse candidates, or through educational series to create a better workplace environment.”
- “The firm seems aware that there is a lack of diversity currently, and attempts to increase it through recruiting efforts and internal initiatives to make employees feel welcome and heard.”
- “The firm has recognized its failure to retain diverse candidates in the past, and is working this year to promote diversity in recruiting and in retention.”
- “Training occurs for diversity and understanding.”
- “We have recently focused on increasing the number of veteran hires.”
- “The firm has recognized its [struggle] to retain diverse candidates in the past and is working this year to promote diversity in recruiting and in retention.”
- “Business outlook is strong; business is pretty counter cyclical, and we haven't seen a COVID downturn. The firm is also focusing on building out new competencies (e.g., cloud). It is also undergoing a change in leadership, which I am confident will work.”
- “In the uncertain economy brought on by COVID, Pace Harmon is performing much better than average as clients want more cost saving initiatives and need more of PH's services.”
- “Management is very agile and we have possibly the best positioning to have in the industry to weather an economic crisis. Nobody wants to cut costs more than in a crisis. However, this probably means that when things pick back up, other firms might get more traffic than we might. Until then, cutting costs is a great source of income.”
- “Our sales and financial performance has not been impacted significantly by the Covid-19 pandemic. Our ability to grow revenues is constrained by our small size, and our ability to increase staffing levels is constrained by our ability to find quality candidates.”
- "Pros: newer younger leadership is poised to take the firm in a growth trajectory, enabling a real opportunity for junior team members to climb the ranks quickly and facilitate growth of new service lines; there is no shortage of work. Cons: more work than people, without a concrete plan on how we plan to close the gap.”
- “The firm and its leadership are exceptionally flexible to changes in the business environment. We have hired aggressively through the COVID-19 pandemic, and plan to continue hiring throughout 2020 to meet a significant increase in demand.”
Getting Hired Here
- “I think case interviews are necessary to screen for a basic business understanding and math capabilities, and the behavioral interview section is ideal in that it really helps understand who the candidate is in a more candid environment.”
- “Ideal candidates are intellectually capable, adaptable, and good at giving and receiving feedback.”
- “The firm's interview process is quite elaborate, with several rounds at multiple levels. Each candidate is vetted extensively for skillsets in various categories such as technical abilities, aptitude, thought process, analytical capability, consulting experience, and cultural fit.”
- “The ideal candidate is confident, intelligent, and self-motivated. They are humble, but willing to share their expertise with others. They would be a good mentor to others at the firm, and a good teammate.”
- “Top Qualities in an Ideal Candidate: 1) Attentive to detail; 2) Mature (i.e., can be put in front of a client); 3) Motivated. Typically, college hiring involves a resume screening by a committee, followed by on-campus first rounds, and final interviews at the office.”
- “We call back any candidate (we have no quotas) that demonstrates poise, sharpness, intelligence, and a willingness to learn above all.”
- “If I hired you tomorrow, what kind of work do you think you would be doing?”
- “Nothing out of the ordinary. Typical case studies for consulting.”
- “What motivates you? What would make you excited to come to work every day?”
