You're 4 years out of college? What degree(s) do you hold? What has your professional experience generally entailed?
I'm 4 years out next year, with an electrical engineering degree from Purdue. My professional experience has been technical consulting for various firms, most of it done in house. After my first year my company moved me to an oil refinery where I have been doing power systems analysis, and lately I have been getting more involved in design and business development. The work I do is extremely technical, and I have also been involved in the proposal/reporting/financial side of things lately.
I'll say this up front - you're doing well for 4 years out of college. In your shoes, I probably wouldn't advise leaving that for consulting unless you can generate some interest with a top firm. Don't go to a body shop just to be in consulting - the hours will be the same, but the people around you won't be as smart, the problems won't be as challenging, and the pay won't be where you're at today for some time.
I highly doubt I am anywhere near qualified for a top firm. I'd be shooting for lower level firms since I have no formal training or experience in the area.
I'm not much for "firm prestige" but I will say there's a difference in what you experience in the top firms. If your preference is strategy work, your career development will benefit greatly working with McKinsey, BCG, or Bain - although I'd throw Deloitte's S&O and Booz's strategy group (I think it's called Strategy& or something else ridiculous now) as good places to develop.
I would think strategy is within my interests, but my impression was that you need to have significant technical experience before moving into a role like that. I don't have the experience needed, or even the skills. Management consulting is very interesting to me but I feel that given my age (27 this July), it's too late for me to enter that without an MBA, which I cannot afford, and highly doubt I would get into if I am shooting for a top 5 program.
If you're into technology work, take a hard look at Deloitte. IBM and Accenture have some name recognition, but (just my opinion) a lot of their engagements are probably going to be things you can find your way into in-house without the grind of being a consultant. Deloitte does some of that too - and I don't follow it very closely nowadays, but they'd been able to keep their rates up and do more in IT strategy than implementation work. Accenture probably does more advisory work than IBM, who by its nature as a software and hardware company as well, tends to push its own products. Some find getting deep into one product stack pretty interesting, but I avoided IBM for that reason. I've also seen them take on a little more staff augmentation work than I'd want to be involved in - that's not really consulting. As you dive into the smaller firms, you run the risk of finding a body shop doing entirely staff augmentation work, and I guarantee you won't enjoy that.
I have always felt that I would have a fair shot at an entry level role in Accenture for systems integration consulting - I have the contacts to get me an interview, I have consulting experience, and I can probably learn enough technically on my own to get my foot in the door. A friend of mine, former roommate, did an internship at Amex then went to ACN as a systems integration consultant, then eventually moved into management consulting. My theory is to get into systems integration, then possibly transition into management consulting for several years, at which point I would exit into industry in my early thirties.
As far as pay, I don't really want to get into specifics on where I went, but I transitioned to consulting about 4 years out of undergrad. I'd been doing business intelligence, data warehousing and analytics in that period of time, and I didn't go over as entry level. If you have some related experience and interview well, you'd probably be ok looking at L2's (meaning level 2, the titles vary by firm). Pay can approach what you're making now, however, by the up or out nature of the firms I mentioned, you'll either surpass that number in a couple of years... or be out.
How would I get the experience required to come in at the L2 level though?
All of the above presumes you have some marketable experience, decent enough grades (although mine weren't great) and are good with people - the first two will land you interviews, but you need some people skills to get the job. You'd be surprised how much of the interview process is just about comfort.
I have good experience in an unrelated area but the soft skills I gained would transfer over, I think. My grades were not good but given that I have a brand name client on my resume along with a Professional Engineering license, and 4 years of experience, would a company like Accenture even care about my GPA for an entry/L2 level role?
I haven't posted here in months, but I saw this thread and this is a similar transition to one that I made earlier in my career. I'm no longer in consulting, but it was a good move and opened some doors, even if I'm honest and tell you I didn't love consulting. I've also spent a lot of time in large companies who bring in consultants, so fair or not, I have a certain perception of what firms' strengths tend to be. Of course, entirely my opinion, nothing else.