Typical hours in fed consulting? Is it comparable to commercial? Minus travel of course

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Lower pay, work is closer to staff aug, overall competency of both clients and fellow consultants is lower, firms are less prestigious across the board, exit opportunities are much, much worse

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I’ve done both commercial and Federal consulting. I’ve see it all. People rag on the Feds for incompetence. I must say, it’s not true. I’ve seen incompetence in both the commercial and Fed spaces. Usually, the incompetent in commercial know where the bodies are buried and that is how they survive there. I’ve also had the pleasure of working with some very brilliant Feds. The converse is true of both as well.

Let’s remember not to lump everyone into the same group (commercial = good/ Feds = bad for your career). What I’ve observed over time is it’s always the people, the individuals, who make or break the experience. The beauty of consulting is in knowing the gig won’t last forever and your not going to be stuck in any one place too long.

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I work mostly 9-5ish with the occasional surge.

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Most Fed contracts are capped at 35-40 hours per week. Up to you if you choose to work overtime for BD

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There is a different work life balance in federal that you shouldn’t ignore (especially if you have family or kids to support). You cant just stay in the office or go to your hotel room to get the work done. For those not in staff aug, you have to manage late nights with other people that are not always thrilled about the hours (plus I assume you actually want to spend time with them). I’m not saying it’s impossible, but don’t switch thinking you are just 9-5 unless you are moving to staff aug

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40-42 hours a week

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40-45 typical with surges to 55-60 on worst case if I have internal BD/internal projects

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Well fed isn't that glamorous but it's a stable job with a consistent schedule.

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That makes sense @SC1 - did you previously work at a Big 4 when you had your commercial experience? I imagine this would help if you’re still receiving interest from B4 recruiters. I’m currently at Cognizant so would be a slightly different approach for me

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Boutique -> Booz, plan to go to big 4 commercial again, came to Booz due to a need for no travel for a few years
Either way, network! Making friends with people at firms you like, I like knowing I have a few friends at every firm I like who would be happy to refer me in

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Thanks for the feedback.. sounds like a dream scenario. I’m based out of nyc right now but will move to the dc metro area with spouse. Looking to transition to fed consulting

@IBM1 I’m familiar with some of the pros/cons of fed vs commercial but besides the work-life, comp, and client differences, what are your thoughts on why fed work isn’t glamorous?

Yea the pay just isn’t there at all. If your spouse also works you should be able to afford living here easily though

40-45 hours for a full time. It all depends on where you live and where your clients are.

@ICF1 do you see it as challenging to move from Fed to Commercial?
This is something I’ve heard of quite a bit and read throughout these 🐠bowls. I’m interested in exploring Fed consulting in D.C. for 3-4 years (currently 2 years commercial experience), but not at the risk of limiting exit opportunities for commercial in NYC or DC if I decide that route later on.

I don’t see a problem with it. When I’m hiring, I’m looking at an individual’s accomplishments and potential. Having worked in both, to me, says you have developed soft skills. I believe the ability to work with people is critical to success. Who you worked for before and in which sector is not so important. If you can learn, I can teach you or get you into training to pick up content knowledge. Teaching someone to work with others is something your parents and school teachers should have taught you. In other words, I can’t help you if your an ass, but if your a decent human being, I’ll gladly help you along in your career. I’m here if you have more questions.

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Moving from commercial to fed is easy ( I did it), moving back depends on how long you stay, where you work, and who you work with.

2 years into fed consulting I still do get a few inquiries from big 4 firms for their commercial practice (plan to move in a year or so).

It’s important to highlight that not all hours are created equally. When I worked at Ey doing commercial clients , their was more scrutiny on hours billed. For ey commercial I had to spend
Extra hours in order to master content that wasn’t billable time. For federal typically 40 hours cap but not with same scrutiny all the time. Commercial>federal

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