What would you all say are the best consulting firms to work at in the federal government space? I’m not sure how many “prestigious” firms (like MBB) have a significant federal practice at all.

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Our practice is smaller but we’ve won some really interesting work & have great people

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Thanks EY1 and GT1. Appreciate it!

Booz definitely has the largest footprint for consulting. It used to be a lot better to work for before they went public. Deloitte has by far been a better career experience for me and we are making large gains in the federal space.

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@BAH1 Booz wasn’t bad at all...Deloitte just came knocking via LinkedIn (when I wasn’t even looking) with more money and incentives. It just sucks that the perks/benefits started to decrease the longer they were public.

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I’ll second Deloitte and Booz, but I honestly don’t think prestige matters as much in the federal space. It just helps to have a brand name like any of the big four (minus pwc) or Booz on your resume if you ever want to exit to commercial

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Id say Guidehouse for healthcare. Some pretty major work especially this last year or so.

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AD is much closer to MC than Director. High utilization but less pressure than directors on sales and revenue

Each firm in the fed space has their niche. If you want to go cyber, BAH is towards the top of the rankings. If you want to go digital, Deloitte and Accenture are towards the top. IT/tech strat are probably D and ACN at the top, BAH is a half tier to a tier down. Same with implementations. PMO is everyone and their brother. And so on.

MBB are small fish in a big pond in fed.

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What do you mean by "digital"?

For defense, Booz is probably tops with Deloitte catching up. Lots of smaller firms out there as well that also compete in their categories (veteran owned, service disabled, etc.). You have to bounce around or get lucky to get paid enough to survive in such a HCOL location. Hard-to-find language skills, government/military background, clearance, and willingness/ability to slog through proposals all help.

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I left another big4 to help grow our presence in the gov. We’re smaller for sure, but there is still a lot of big accounts to land and stake a career on, which is great for high visibility with leadership and promotion potential.

It really comes down to what you define as “best”? Org restructure at USAID is vastly different than SIGINT work at NRO and the firms reflect that.

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+ many recent high level hires from gov are creating additional opportunities for junior folks

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Depends on whether you want to do consulting vs staff augmentation. From what I’ve seen, Booz is just staff aug

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I had both types of projects before switching firms--some really cool, others repetitive

They are all the same, just different color Kool-aid. Whichever firm you end up at, make it to senior then jump for another 20-30%.

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It all depends what your long term goals are. If you’re looking for a resume booster / increased career prospects the Deloitte. If you want to coast like a fed and enjoy life Booz, if you’re into tech, Accenture, healthcare Navigant/Guidehouse or Huron. If you’re into defense and Intel work, Harris or Lockheed

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GDIT, Leidos etc... lots of staff augmentation but no different from Booz.

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