I've been at the firm on the consulting side for the better part of a decade. What career opportunity are you considering? My experience has been great, but my practice group is filled with great people who care about team development. We have some of the lowest turnover in the firm. Most are great, but individual practices can vary. Generally, working at the firm is great, but there are pockets of people who lack certain management skills or competencies which can create friction. I heard about a team that had a subcontractor on it who was eventually hired as a BD employee. It did not sound like she was fun to work with.

Work life balance (or work life "harmony", the new jargon) is generally pretty good. It is what you make it. I know of a consultant who made principal by his low 30s, but he worked some 3,000+ hour fiscal years to get there. Good on him, but that is not for me. I worked 500 hours the last two months with some really significant deadlines and limited staff resources to help. It was intense, but not Wall St investment banking intense. As a mid-senior level member of my team, I am (finally) well compensated for the effort I put in. The period passed and I took some time off. Steady state, I would say I typically work between around 45-50 hours a week. Obviously consulting work ebbs and flows with intensity. Even if we have multiple projects we are still obligated to high quality, timely provision of services/deliverables to our clients and this impacts work life balance in my experience.