Deloitte (federal) or IBM (federal) or accenture (commercial)

Deloitte Business Technology Analyst (federal) or Accenture Business and Systems Integration Analyst (commercial) or IBM Strategy and Analytics (federal)

I am not sure if I should do federal or commercial. If I do choose the federal route, should I go with IBM or Deloitte? Keep in mind that I want to go to graduate school in a few years. Thank you!

 

No, the first poster is correct: the Federal environment is awful, and you should avoid it like Ebola, or Michael Jackson’s basement – whichever drives the point more effectively. I worked in Deloitte Federal for 2 years, and I could not get out quickly enough. The fact that some Kellogg grads got duped is no reason for you to follow the same dead end path.

Federal government work is for people who want a steady, unchanging work life. This is not a social commentary – that’s just how the Federal government is structured. If you are trying to affect change as a consultant, then it’s not the place for you.

"Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper’s bell of an approaching looter."
 

The point about wanting a steady, relatively unchanging work-life fit/balance is spot on. You can have that in Federal very easily.. The moment you switch to commercial, it's a different beast. The people I know in Federal who have loved it are those that have persistent out-of-work interests/commitments, whether that is a relationship or a hobby/startup. It's much easier to maintain these aspects of life when you know your hours probably won't go above 40/45 per week for the most part.

 

Also, bear in mind what you want to be doing in a year or two... Switching out of federal/government can be very difficult. If your end-game is to do work in the commercial space, it may be more prudent to just start off in that area of consulting. There are surely cases where Federal would be the better option, but Accenture commercial sounds like it may be more for you, OP.

 
Best Response
Hank Rearden's Boss:

No, the first poster is correct: the Federal environment is awful, and you should avoid it like Ebola, or Michael Jackson’s basement – whichever drives the point more effectively. I worked in Deloitte Federal for 2 years, and I could not get out quickly enough. The fact that some Kellogg grads got duped is no reason for you to follow the same dead end path.

Federal government work is for people who want a steady, unchanging work life. This is not a social commentary – that’s just how the Federal government is structured. If you are trying to affect change as a consultant, then it’s not the place for you.

they did federal pre-mba, not post mba. My argument was that federal does fine placing in business school.

 

Worked as Federal BTA for the better part of two years, Voco90 and Hank Rearden's Boss are spot on. Great place if you're older and tired of the regular grinding commercial consulting hours, but if you want to get a wider array of project experiences definitely go commercial. Most federal projects I witnessed were 9 or more months in length.

Also just my opinion and from speaking with a few younger talent staffers, Deloitte's done a pretty good job of building a "fence" around the federal practice making it very hard to get out into the commercial space especially for BTA's because they know that most people get bored and want to move out. Not saying I haven't seen it happen, but its rare.

 

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