Should I work for Roland Berger? (Vietnam office)

Question

Hi,

I have just completed the final round with Roland Berger - Vietnamese office. The partner told me straight away that there is no work-life balance at the firm. He also asked about my motivation to join the firm.

I understand work-life balance is difficult to be achieved at top consulting firms, but I expect that a partner should not be too straight forward, at least show some sympathy and some support for staff members to achieve the work-life balance.

I did check Linkedin and found out most consultants in Vietnamese office quits after less than 2 years.

I do like the job, but I am afraid that whether or not I can work with such the partner who expect team member to devote such a lot of effort to the work.

Does anybody here have experience with Roland Berger in Vietnam/ or in South East Asia? Please give me some advice.

Thank you very much for your support!

Answer 1

Hi there,

I do think you need to “wake up and smell the coffee” so to speak. Consulting is hard. Very hard. You are not going to get sympathy from most Partners (think about it - how did they get to the position they're in?).

Work-life balance will be difficult to come by. If you are not prepared from the outset for the lifestyle change, it will be difficult to make it.

Now, of course, there are ways to manage (and I maintained a life while at BCG), but, your “best case” scenario is 60 hours weeks and no work-life balance Mon-Fri (with weekends being yours). Worst-case is 80-90 hours and little weekend down time.

Feel free to message me - I've written a few articles on the “good and the bad” of consulting, as well as ways to do well while there.

Answer 2

Hey,

When you are doing something you really want to do and are having fun..question of work life balance (WLB) doesn't arise. You make it work seamlessly.

Work-life balance is something that you must take control of. If you let the company dictate the rules, they will consume you. But it takes some time for you to be in that position of control. It wont happen from the day 1 when you join the company. If you are in such a company- thats great! But very few companies (including consulting firms) are getting WLB right. They are trying but success is in pockets. Also be aware that as long as you work for any big corporate (with profits & growth at the heart of the business) in a mid-manager or upwards role, your time & effort will be stretched. The corporate sector just doesn't work on 9am-5pm basis anymore.

Have a look at thread for more details on this subject- https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/does-work-life-balance-improve-with-time-8445

So my advice to you is this- get into consulting if thats what you really want to do. If its the right fit with you career aspirations, values and risk apetite. Go for it. Otherwise dont. Dont let WLB be the only deciding factor.

Answer 3

Hey there,

I have never worked at RB, however, have a couple of friends that worked there in European offices and the unison commentary was that the company culture is quite bad and much less friendly than in other tier-2 and MBB firms.

I have heard quite crazy stories about it (blame games, etc.).

Take that with a grain of salt since it's based on 3rd party information, but I trust the people I talked to and all left relatively quickly and went to other consulting firms.

I guess it depends on your alternatives on how to proceed.

All the best!

Cheers,

Florian

Answer 4

Hello!

Consulting is hard, that is a fact.

I would try to get more facts to make a better decision:

- How much travel do they do?

- How much work in weekends?

- How many hours on average?

I am saying this, because the concept of “hard” really varies depending on different cultures.

Once you have the fact, you can objectively analyze whether this is or not for you.

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

Answer 5

You have to understand that the fact that a partner is upfront about the reality of work-life balance says nothing about the reality of work-life balance at the office.

Honestly, I prefer partners that are upfront and truthful (and that says a lot about the specific office partnership) that those that pretend to be something that they are not.

One thing I found different at Roland Berger (vs. most other firms) was that the communication was usually more direct, and there wasn't much sugar coating on things. It is something I always appreciated about the firm. You have to understand that Roland Berger is a German firm, and as such this communication style is not surprising.

I've worked for other firms. I've seen honest efforts to improve work-life balance. I've seen fake efforts to improve work-life balance. Regardless of those honest or not-so-honest efforts, consulting was always demanding. Client always came first, ahead of everything else.

Regarding consultants mostly leaving in less than 2 years… that's actually the industry standard. Half of the consultants usually leave in 2.5 years, and that happens accross firms.

So you have to understand this is quite demanding. Doesn't mean the firm doesn't care about your wellbeing. But you will spend most of your time working.

Of course, in many offices (and some partners) partners go overboard, and that's why you should do some research. It may be that the specific office is quite demanding, but you'll only know through networking.

Answer 6

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