Reasons to go into commercial consulting vs federal

In the past I have interned with JP Morgan for two years and then Accenture federal services. I am about to graduate and would like to switch to the commercial side of Accenture. Is that a hard transition? What are good validated reasons to want to try out the commercial side. To me federal work of course is a bit more slow pace but what are some other good reasons?

 

I started at Deloitte Consulting Federal Practice and after about three years switched to do commercial projects. If I had to choose, I really liked the Federal projects, as it always seemed a bit more exciting, especially if your in the Defense/Intel/Treasury area. Pay was a bit lower but not a vast difference. Plus, I loved living in DC.

Commercial projects are def more fast paced and ad hoc in a sense, with timelines that are not as long in duration (some were three weeks long) I also was working on multiple projects at once, which I felt made the work harder to engage with.

Just my pennies to add :)

 

I've worked in both Federal and Commercial consulting at a Big 4. Above posters are spot on. What I can say in addition is that the transition from Federal to Commercial is possible, but difficult to do. I had to work hard to get my promotion, get top ratings, and then network my ass off to get a transfer request approved. I transferred immediately after I was promoted to Senior. You can also try to interview at competitor firms. If you stay in Federal too long, you could get pigeon-holed and will not be able to leave DC. Exit opps in Federal are typically government agencies (Fannie, Freddie, DoD, HUD, etc.). Commercial is faster-paced, more interesting, gives you more transferable/valuable skills, better for B-school, and has good exit opps to industry.

 

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