Big 4 Consulting Firms

[Doggiedog]

Is anyone familiar here with the reputations of the big 4 consulting firms? I am about to get an offer from one of them but I've never worked in the field. I have no idea if E&Y has a better reputation than say KPMG. I can tell you about investment banks and broker dealers but know nothing about consulting. I know a lot of it depends on who and what group you work for but perhaps some may have reputations like cheap, sweat shop, elitist, etc. Any insight would be helpful!

Thanks!

DD

 

[skim milk]

They have a decent reputation. The perceived ranking is usually Deloitte above the rest, then PwC, then E&Y/KPMG. Deloitte is clearly the best firm of the pack. What kind of consulting are you going to be doing? There's also management consulting vs technical consulting with the higher reputation and higher hiring standards going to MC if you want to analyze further. Within MC, there's division among different groups so basically the strategy and operations (S&O) group at deloitte consulting is the best placement you can get among all 4.
Most of the Big 4 guys want to go the opposite direction and go into finance at ibanks.

 

[Ns1]

The perceived ranking is usually Deloitte above the rest

this, and they most certainly charge/hire that way.


they're all sweat shop btw.

 

[Doggiedog]

Thanks for the insight! It would be enterprise risk management (market, credit, ops). I'm thinking maybe the director or senior manager level. I did my stints at ibanks and it's thoroughly a young man's game which I am not. I've had three consulting firms inquire but I really don't know the differences in their practices and pay.

 

[AreaCode707]

this, and they most certainly charge/hire that way.


they're all sweat shop btw.

Y'wouldn't know it.

What's the job? Makes a huge difference, to my mind.

 

[Doggiedog]

Sadly Deloitte wasn't one of the three!

 

[Cattlegod]

E&Y and KPMG are not in the top 5.

McKinsey
Bain
BCG
Booz
Deloitte

 

[skim milk]

By the way, good thing about consulting is that all of the variables vary depending on the project you're staffed on. The hours you work, the type of people you have on your team, your boss, work culture, etc vary with every project. For example, one project you might be working from 8-8 and the next project may be strict 9-5. One project may be a stuffy corporate culture and another might be startup firm where you can wear jeans everyday so your consulting team will conform to the culture of your client company.

 

[Farang]

I'm not an expert but worked with a big-time accounting/finance recruiter for a time.

He said career trajectory for most people was to work at a big 4 for a while and either climb the career ladder there (usually is pretty structured, he would target people based on their promotional calendars i.e. people at KPMG maybe make sr. associate after 2 years) or drop out and get a corporate gig. Big 4 people have value because they have been put on a variety of assignments spread across various industries, as opposed to starting out in a single company/industry.

Generally the attitude is big 4 is longer hours/more stress but more pay

 

[Doggiedog]

I see. I guess I did the opposite of that. I've been exposed to different industries but they seem to want a specific skill set. I'm still wary about the the service selling aspect. That's one thing I haven't really done. Expectations on selling services seems to be very high.

skim milk, that is exactly what the people I interviewed with said. They liked the flexibility of their job and that it's not the same grind every time.

 

[skim milk]

At the level that you're going in, you will have expectations to sell. Client relationship management and selling. Getting more projects into the pipeline is your main value-add as you move up. It's similar to investment banking. The analysts-vp type levels do the grunt work, and the MDs are out there meeting and selling. In consulting it's just like that and bringing in more business by selling is what will promote you from senior manager to partner level

 

[Farang]

I see. I guess I did the opposite of that. I've been exposed to different industries but they seem to want a specific skill set. I'm still wary about the the service selling aspect. That's one thing I haven't really done. Expectations on selling services seems to be very high.

skim milk, that is exactly what the people I interviewed with said. They liked the flexibility of their job and that it's not the same grind every time.

If I had to guess, based on my experience with a big temp placement firm, there will be a general 'salesmanship' to the company culture. The company is built on what it bills to clients, so the main motivation will be to add new clients and increase billings from current ones. Since the focus then is on relationships=money, I would imagine most pressure comes from turning your contacts into new business for the company.

I did not enjoy this aspect because the motivation is not to provide good service for pay, but to do whatever necessary to increase billings. This is what leads to the longer hours/more stress because you are depending on factors completely out of your control basically just a yes/no to someone if they are willing or not to give you cash

I compare that to manufacturing, where sales is a separate entity building a brand and developing markets. The focus there was mostly ok we get $x for every pound we produce, so how do we produce more? Then freedom to focus on quality and improvement in the work. Much more segmented culture

 

[JEDI]

They have a decent reputation. The perceived ranking is usually Deloitte above the rest, then PwC, then E&Y/KPMG. Deloitte is clearly the best firm of the pack. What kind of consulting are you going to be doing? There's also management consulting vs technical consulting with the higher reputation and higher hiring standards going to MC if you want to analyze further. Within MC, there's division among different groups so basically the strategy and operations (S&O) group at deloitte consulting is the best placement you can get among all 4.
Most of the Big 4 guys want to go the opposite direction and go into finance at ibanks.

no anderson/accidenture?

 

[Zeze]

PM me. A good friend of mine and my fiancee are both at PwC (and fvcking hate them).

 

[RedCOMET]

E&Y and KPMG are not in the top 5.

McKinsey
Bain
BCG
Booz
Deloitte

Is for commercial or govt based markets?

For the op, are interested in consulting for govt or commercial clients?


As an aside I hear big 4 consulting firms and I tink tax advisory, risk management type of contracts and not necessarily IT or management consulting.

 

[silverpig]

E&Y and KPMG are not in the top 5.

McKinsey
Bain
BCG
Booz
Deloitte

This.

KPMG, Deloitte, PWC, and E&Y are the big 4 accounting firms. They also do consulting, but they are primarily accounting.

BCG, Bain, McK are the big 3 consulting firms.

 

[evident]

my wife worked at pwc as an intern and hated it. she worked over 100 hours a week. her hourly rate turned out to be about 6 bucks an hour.

 

[Chess]

E&Y and KPMG are not in the top 5.

McKinsey
Bain
BCG
Booz
Deloitte

and I work for this one... its top 10 consulting firm year in and year out...

alot of changes have pissed me off.... read the IT thread and you will know why :biggrin:

 

[Chess]

Is for commercial or govt based markets?

For the op, are interested in consulting for govt or commercial clients?


As an aside I hear big 4 consulting firms and I tink tax advisory, risk management type of contracts and not necessarily IT or management consulting.

http://www.vault.com/wps/portal/usa/rankings/landing?rankingId=76&regionId=0

Use vault... its pretty credible.... he listed the top 5 consulting firms correctly......

If you are talking about KPMG and accounting firms then click on the tab and read what they say.... (=

 

[Doggiedog]

This thread shows how much I know about consulting which is very little. Thanks for the responses. The position would be at one of the big four accounting firms in consulting for commercial clients. It wouldn't be IT. It would be risk management. I didn't expect things to progress this quickly (less than a week) so I haven't had time to assess the situation but the opportunity seems good. It's a bit different than what have been currently doing (causing problems instead of solving them). I may have to stall a bit to get more level headed.

 

[Chess]

doggie dogg doggystyle

check out the vault page i linked and its plenty of information for you to browse over my friend

 

[xeemzor]

This thread shows how much I know about consulting which is very little. Thanks for the responses. The position would be at one of the big four accounting firms in consulting for commercial clients. It wouldn't be IT. It would be risk management. I didn't expect things to progress this quickly (less than a week) so I haven't had time to assess the situation but the opportunity seems good. It's a bit different than what have been currently doing (causing problems instead of solving them). I may have to stall a bit to get more level headed.

Be very careful about getting into risk management. Often times it's basically a glorified internal audit position, not where you want to be.

 

[Mandres]

Are you familiar with the culture at the Big 4? It may be serious shock if not. The pace, hours, pressure and competition are insane. I'm not sure how it works in advisory but in tax/audit 60 hour weeks are standard for most of the year and from Jan - Apr. you'll be lucky to see your family even one night a week.

I honestly think that if you have to ask what it's like in the Big 4 at the manager/senior manager level then you're totally unprepared for what you're getting into.

 

[RichieZ]

wow i worked at deloitte right after college from 2005-2008, crazy to see it be #4 now at vault. anyways I thought the culture sucked and the people were of middling quality, lots of facetime bullshit and doing your firm activities to get your extra curricular activities in.

honestly don't think I learned a thing other than I got ot focus on my soft skills. projects took me to different industries from government, high tech to pharm. sent to projects from saramento, ca all the way to basel switzerland. your staffing totally depends on your own network and ability to schmooze the higher ups.

in year 3 I was sick of it, so I knew I was going to leave and purposely didn't get staffed. mid year review = not on track and when I quit I had ~50% utilization. ended up quitting to join a startup as employee 1XX this is now public worth ~20B today - I think that one worked out

 

[CPA]

they're all sweat shop btw.

This. Don't expect to have much of a work/life balance for a while.

HOWEVER, it will open doors for you that you may have opened without the experience.