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Hi there, I have 3.5 YOE working for NHS Finance. I applied to Deloitte Risk Advisory, Public Sector (London, UK) and was successful. Waiting to hear back with package offer but it’s been over 2 weeks - was told they may offer M2 grade, any ideas what this is?
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Torn whether to stay within NHS as I will be getting an internal promotion or move to Deloitte.
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Look and really watch the managing director, partner, director, etc on your project. Look at their stress, look at their hours, and really watch what they have to do. After doing so ask yourself, is the money worth it? The greatest thing I have learned working at ACN is that no matter what career you choose in order to earn >$300 you have to work friggin hard and make some serious sacrifices. Many times those sacrifices come at the expense of your time and your families time. So you have to make the decision is the grind worth it to give my family a better life or give my family my time? Once I made consultant I thought long about this and I decided I’ll bail once I make manager because the ladder is far more important to me
Rising Star
The job is honestly what you make it. It’s possible to do the job without making extreme sacrifices.
It isn’t an easy path, but there are things you can do to make it easier - and what follows are lessons I learned the hard way: 1) Be humble, 2) Out-work your peers, 3) Get good at sales and ask early-on to be exposed to the business development side of the business. This is arguably the most important aspect of what we do, but I didn’t list it first since you may not be brought into the sales process until you’ve done 1 and 2.
I’ve never been the smartest guy in the room (only got a lowly 1300 on my SATs!), but I made up for it in hustle and out worked my peers. I asked very early on to help out on sales. Years later as an SM I had built a $3M book entirely on my own of net-new clients - and I’m at a large regional so this is a good sized book by comparison.
In my experience, our profession is filled with good technical people, but few of them truly know how to sell. If you master selling and maintaining/growing relationships, you will fast-track yourself to partner.
Knew a partner who told me he only scored a 1170 on his SATs. You would never guessed it. His mindset - extreme confidence and hardwork - seems to separate home from the pack.
Rising Star
Don’t worry about it. You don’t have what it takes
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PwC2 it is probably my reading comprehension… but since I am never wrong and I have no idea what you just said therefore YOU ARE WRONG! Logic! Don’t argue with it
Chief
No it’s not easy or there wouldn’t be such high turnover. If you somewhat like the work and the hours don’t make you feel sick it’s a good opportunity to make surgeon type money 500k-$2mil. If you care about having a lot of money it’s probably a decent way to go.
You can make the same amount in industry. It just takes some longer to realize that... everyone is different and may have different priorities and personal situations but the money can be found in a number of industries outside consulting. No right way or wrong way. If you are smart you will find what you are looking for while being happy
I found that most people that asked this question never made it to Partner because it mostly stems from a very weird mixture of mental enthusiasm and physical fatigue. The ideal drive to make Partner is one that involves a deep passion for solving business problems and enjoying client relationships. It’s a difficult path so a passion has to drive it.
Did you do a study?! Cmon now. These folks aren’t Gods, they were just like many of us and had similar questions to OP. I would actually argue most asked this question. If you don’t think they had moments of doubt if the grind was worth it or if they should jump to another appealing opportunity then you’re kidding yourself.
Rising Star
I’m up for promotion and I’m pretty sure I’ll get it. And I don’t think I work THAT hard. I’m a hard worker, but don’t work more than 45 hours most weeks. I think I’m just naturally good with people and I care about helping people. Selfishly, it makes me feel good and important to help others or have opinions about things. I’m also a strong writer and good at navigating difficult client situations. I don’t hard sell much… people seem to like me and come to me with their problems.
To be frank, it hasn’t been totally easy, but it also hasn’t been hard. I think consulting/client service is just a good fit for me. Plus, I’ve just been lucky to have some really good advocates and mentors. Because, again, people seem to like me… but maybe that’s because I like them too and try to do the right thing and operate with integrity.
Best of luck on your promotion, D1!
Pro
I’ll be frank— I look around at my firm’s partners and I don’t see a single person I’d like to be in 7-8 years.
All work insane hours, are under tremendous stress, never see their kids, a disproportionate number have been divorced. Many are, to put it mildly, unconventional personalities— from the partner who sleeps with her laptop in bed and wakes up 3-4 times a night to send emails, to the one who shamelessly walks out of a room smack in the middle of a conversation, with no apology or explanation.
I once worked with a partner who was rather introverted, but nevertheless had an admirable ability to bond with the client. Once, he had a client dinner scheduled, and practically begged me to come join them. When I said why do you need me there, he said, “I’ll be honest— all I’ve got is stories— and with this client, I’m just out of stories to tell.” I’ve never felt so sorry for anyone in my life.
Rising Star
Yikes. I don’t know how much of this is just specific firm culture or a weird subset to which you may get exposed or if the consulting industry is messed up outside my little personal oasis.
When I was an entry level analyst, I worked closely with a partner who was home nearly every night and almost always left the office between 5:30 and 6:00. He’d be available on email later, but it was clear that his family was the priority. I think his kids at that time were about as old as my kids are now.
My firm definitely has some weird people at the partner level that I would never want to emulate (and don’t), but it’s nothing like what’s described here. Relatively little divorce - certain less than societal average. Most of us who have kids are quite family oriented. We’re often stressed for sure, though not notably more than our peers on the client side. I kinda feel like a certain level of stress goes with the territory of almost any job where the responsibility is sufficiently high that the compensation looks the way it does for a consulting partner. FWIW, I was more stressed as a senior consultant than I am now.
My So and I are both pppmd’s, and we both took very different paths to get there. We both feel it is worth it. Asking these questions is a sign of heathy curiosity. Never a bad thing. Best of luck
Rising Star
Massive survivorship bias, but the grind has easily been worth it for me.
Stayed at the same company. Usually haven’t felt like it was that much of a grind (though it definitely is from time to time). I like most of the work that I do. Make a ton of money by any reasonable definition.
What company
been a partner for 11 years - yes it is worth it but you have to manage your life in all dimensions and from time to time one piece can take over so the key is always knowing your center point and coming back to it - many times i almost tossed in the towel but having great mentors in any career path helped me regain and focus
Rising Star
OP I’m only a few years in but honestly I love my work - and it’s completely different from what I did as a consultant.
Your career is going to evolve, just because you don’t enjoy what you’re doing right now doesn’t mean it’s what you’re stuck with forever. Most of us move around a ton at the leadership level anyways.
Growth matters more than landing in one “thing” you want to do forever.
Rising Star
People here are trying really hard to justify their decision or inability to not make it to Partner.
There are partners that spend a lot of time with their kids, and there are partners that don’t.
There are partners that are amazing human beings, and there are partners that aren’t.
Stressful work is relative. A task can be super stressful to you but enjoyable for someone else. Don’t use yourself as the benchmark and honestly don’t use the average either, because it’s very unlikely that an average person will make it to partner. So if you are using benchmarks based on the average to make judgements about life as a Partner, your judgements are probably incredibly inaccurate
Given you stay at the same firm, same service line for your whole career?
You don’t have to do it this way. I worked for three firms prior to making partner at my current firm. I also left as a manager and spent 6-ish years “in-house” before the company was acquired and I got back into consulting.
P1, what firm and how much?
Rising Star
McK2: this is exactly why I don’t live in the Bay Area!
“Grinding is easy”
-nobody, ever
Rising Star
👇
Making partner is a long haul decision. Most partnerships you will still need to ‘buy in’ to and then after a few years then you really start to make the money. New partners don’t just make 1M in their first year net.