Hi, I am interested in working in the "business intelligence" industry as a first job from university (with the aim of moving to strategic consultancy in a couple of years), and Datamonitor's work looks quite interesting. I have heard some poor comments about the way they treat employees, and I was wondering if anyone had any comments about the company and its relationship with its employees. All comments/suggestions/advice are much appreciated. Thanks!

I was there for just over 2 years following my postgrad and still look back at some very fun, challenging and stimulating times. i am now working in the strategy practice at leading professional services firm (after having secured a number of offers / interviews with pure strat houses) so i think it is fair to say that a start at DM will not preclude the option to move into strategy in the future. in fact, DM alumni do generally go on to good things ranging from equity analysis, venture capital, industry and consulting. given its relatively small size, it suits those that have a bit more oomph and want to get really stuck in. the first year will be focused purely on developing the core r and a toolkit to enable you to write industry / market / competitor reports which are the bedrock of the DM business. moving forward, you will be expected to develop a focus and get more client facing. best of all, after 12 months you can be working on small-scale consulting engagements ie marketing strategy, product strategy, market entry strategy etc with a significant degree of autonomy. in summary, it it is a great place to begin your career but dont expect a massive salary and great bens but to expect a very entrepreneurial and non-heirarchical environment. happy to talk offline.

I am also an ex Datamonitor and I also had a good experience whilst working for them.

Hi,I did not work for DM but one of their competitors, IDC. I think that an analyst position with one of the major research houses is a solid foundation for somebody who wants to go into the strat. business. As for worrying about the corp. culture, get the job first :-). But seriously, you should ask the interviewer if you can meet some of the current employees / your future colleagues and try to get a feel of the place. You should ask them questions about the place. If there is a bad corp. culture, they will warn you off.Good luck