Experiences of working for Big 4 Consulting?

[sira]

Currently sitting on two offers. Ones in-house for a top tier bank that I've worked for in the past (5 months) and the second is a Manager position for one of the Big 4 consultancy firms (6 months with "possibility of extension"). The latter is paying £100pd more.

I've always worked in-house and never worked for a consultancy firm. Could anyone share their experiences of working in Big 4 consulting? Good, bad and ugly.

My one concern with Big 4 consulting is that I often hear scare stories about projects being canned early. I've never done a gig where its ended early, so slightly apprehensive about that.

And as a contractor, will Big4 enhance my CV more than sticking in-house?

[courtg9000]

I have worked for 2 of the "big four" in the long past.
Both had lots of draconian internal policies and barriers.
Both had lots of people at all level talking absolute b**ls**t all hours of the day and night.
Late night (9pm+) and very early morning (7am) presenteeism was expected. Dropping some absolute twaddle on to your desk and marking it urgent at about 5.30 pm was a fave to get you to stay late. My advice get an hourly rate! Saturdays and Sundays were often requested. For these purposes, I always said I was both catholic and jewish and observed both the sabbaths!
At a project level and client level both had issues managing both and somedays you might not have a clue what is happening even in a seniorish role.
At a client level expect to be personally disliked by client people at most levels below c-suite because you are from big 4
Be also aware that as an outside contractor you may well be expected to skill their people in your short supply skills at both junior and senior level.

[TheDude]

And as a contractor, will Big4 enhance my CV more than sticking in-house?

Depends which bank - I was a permie at Goldman Sachs - absolutely hated it but it was a stepping stone to a contracting career at firms who wouldn't have considered me before.

A stint at (say) RBS wouldn't have had the same impact on my career.

[Lance]

Depends which bank - I was a permie at Goldman Sachs - absolutely hated it but it was a stepping stone to a contracting career at firms who wouldn't have considered me before.

A stint at (say) RBS wouldn't have had the same impact on my career.

depends on the work..... not the client. Unless the client is doing a specific piece of work that another client also wants to do. But that is then about the work not the client.
It's about the work.

[TheDude]

depends on the work..... not the client. Unless the client is doing a specific piece of work that another client also wants to do. But that is then about the work not the client.
It's about the work.

That is certainly true - sadly GS use a lot of proprietary tech that wont do a lot for your career however they are certainly not the only organisations that do this.

[Lance]

That is certainly true - sadly GS use a lot of proprietary tech that wont do a lot for your career.

yeah but experience in high speed financial transactions (for example) is still experience, even if you can't steal the IP the technology stack is different.

[PerfectStorm]

No experience of working for them - but lots of working with, alongside them at clients.

Their people always fit into one mould - taking things a bit too seriously, working far too late, and delivering via PowerPoints and massive documents rather than actual things. As far as technology goes, they're book-smart, but not street-smart. And I get the impression there's not much scope to be an individual - the nail that sticks up will get hammered down.

I wouldn't have anything to do with them personally.

[courtg9000]

No experience of working for them - but lots of working with, alongside them at clients.

Their people always fit into one mould - taking things a bit too seriously, working far too late, and delivering via PowerPoints and massive documents rather than actual things. As far as technology goes, they're book-smart, but not street-smart. And I get the impression there's not much scope to be an individual - the nail that sticks up will get hammered down.

I wouldn't have anything to do with them personally.

Yep, PowerPoint and padded out Word doc's are order of the day. They are all very much clones too.

[northernladuk]

No experience of working for them - but lots of working with, alongside them at clients.

Their people always fit into one mould - taking things a bit too seriously, working far too late, and delivering via PowerPoints and massive documents rather than actual things. As far as technology goes, they're book-smart, but not street-smart. And I get the impression there's not much scope to be an individual - the nail that sticks up will get hammered down.

I wouldn't have anything to do with them personally.

OP doesn't say what he does but I'd also agree with this view of the people the client sees. Court also mentions death by powerpoint which is also true. If you get on a team with a load of grad consultants who are super energized and like herding cats it will be very frustrating as well.

If the OP is back end it could be just the high pressure and working times that Court mentioned.

I would also not be jumping at the chance to work with them either.

[sira]

Thanks for your contributions. It echos what I've heard in the past. I'm not in IT, I work in legal/reg side of banking. I feel like giving it a try, because I've not tried it before. It's only 6 months, worst case I hate it and do 3-6 months and then grab another contract. Their paying higher than top tier banks, which kinda surprised me actually. Its a Manager role so they said I may be manging/supervising some juniors, but its TBC. And they said I'd be allocated a project based on my personal interests and strengths...which is nice, if true.