IDEO

"IDEO isn't perfect by any means—but as a firm full of people who take a human centered approach, I would say it's pretty well intentioned. People are interested in working with you to find solutions. In professional services (of any kind) work life balance is a bit of a miss, so it certainly isn't perfect here, but depending on your team, there's strong support."

"I worked at IDEO for several years and saw its transition to a partnership. Overall, the partnership (where all the power is) is dominated by a boys' club. This seems to be by design because the founder of the firm has always openly stated that he just wanted to create a company in which he could "work with his friends." Those friends, not surprisingly, seem to be almost all male. Below the senior levels of leadership, however, women are not treated very differently. The maternity leave and flexibility are quite amazing, especially for a consulting firm. There is total respect for family commitments and obligations and the senior leadership respects and treats people well."

"I worked there for nearly 3 years. While there are a lot of women there, there were very few that made their way up to partner (that was a good old boys club). I think that has been changing since I left but definitely the case while there. If you push for it, its possible to have a good work life balance but navigating through the lack of structure to make things happen is challenging. You have an "advocate" but every time you meet with them they say lets revisit that the next time we meet. Non-hierarchy can be very frustrating unless you are tenacious and work hard to figure out how to get the processes or tools in place to do your job well."