A recent survey from glassdoor.com, indicates that the answer is yes, as 3 out of the top 10 companies listed (including the top 2) are Consulting organizations. Having previously worked for both big and small firms, I know that the Consulting industry can be at times amazing and at other times quite cruel.

First, a shout out to Slalom Consulting. How you managed to breach the top 10, besting cosmically cool brands such as Apple and Nike, I will never know. What I do know is that your model of providing local homes for (ahem) aging "big time" consultants is a good one. Kudos.

Good consulting firms do a few things extraordinarily well. Most importantly, they have mastered the recruiting of their pre-defined target profiles. The mostly young and consistently intelligent, attractive, and motivated individuals that they hire end up working and playing together extremely well. Their clients are also usually left satisfied as they benefit from a temporary (although expensive) workforce, the quality of which they likely would not have been able to attract on their own. The best firms have used this point to help fuel an elitist culture, the spirit of which is woven deep into each employee's mind-set.

Those facts, paired with short-lived project assignments and a well defined (although increasingly prolonged and decreasingly lucrative) career path, keep many Consultants very motivated. On the flip side, there's no denying that Consulting is a difficult industry to stick with. Years of out-of-town assignments, outlandishly aggressive project timelines, and difficult client personalities make it a challenging place to be long term. Congrats to Slalom, along with Bain and McKinsey, for addressing some of these most difficult of issues and making their employees feel great about where they work.