Question for slalom, do u guys always stop working at 5? I personally don't work late unless I have to, but I'm curious how you guys built that culture, especially with strategy...seems uncommon

EY1 I think there's an error in the company on your profile. It's coming up as EY not slalom

"Strategy"

I would love to end my day at 5...

Yes. I haven't encountered any situation where clients expect us to work for free under the table. We (or at least me) are usually good at managing scope creep and scope changes as well. There's also the rarer scenarios of giving time back to the client because we finished something early

We bill the EXACT hours we work. If the SOW is 45 hrs a week and there's 45 hrs of work to be done then we do it. We also aren't full of new analysts or associates that think the disclaimer everytime anyone submits time is spam.

So to answer your question, yes for the most part unless there is a dire client emergency. And our clients are ok with it, otherwise they drop us.

The levels are a bit different here, kind of wonky, and don't line up directly. For Accenture equivalent, Most everyone that wasnt an MD or senior SM will join as a consultant, I've seen consultants and managers join as consultants and are content to stay there. Solution architect titles are used by the more technically inclined groups, it's not necessarily a more prestigious or better paying title as neither have the internal people management component - the wonky thing is you can and do run engagements as a consultant or solution architect that could have internally higher up people reporting to you.

Tldr consultant > solution architect > manager layer: solution principal or principal consultant or consultant manager > director/SM layer: practice area lead > practice area director (partner level in some practices) < everything above this is partner: managing director < general manager

Honestly it all depends on the nature of the engagement and the engagement manager. A good manager is aware of these situations. As an adult you jump in when you have to but at the same time the EM align resources in a way that would have a good work life balance.

You are right SM lol

Do u guys sign the SoW with the expectation on the clients perspective that you will be working normal hours? I know that's the goal with every properly scoped SoW, but I get the impression some clients may pick firms knowing they're going to work 80 hour weeks bc that's their reputation...could be wrong on that one.

Is solution architect equivalent to manager? It goes consultant to solution architect right?