Hi!
I am a recent hire to Deloitte's Federal Technology Consulting Practice. I will start as a first year BTA this upcoming Feb. I have been teaching abroad and traveling since I graduated in May, 2015 with a degree in Biology. Was very fortunate to land this job, as I have no business/tech experience.
I have always wanted to go to Medical School, and am on the cusp of applying, but the growth in consulting, and MBB, is alluring.
However, I want to get a sense of how realistic growth really is.
In Medicine, I could make 350K starting with the specialty that I've wanted.
I've heard a bit about Deloitte's 2234 policy, where I'd make Consultant 2 years after I join as a BTA. My thoughts were...I'd stay with Deloitte until I make consultant, at which point I'd move to MBB.
I'd like to eventually make partner at MBB. Is this incredibly difficult? Are there many lay-offs? Job stability is very important to me. I'd want to AT LEAST make principal...is this realistic?
I'm naive on this whole subject, and am really searching for counsel before I make a decision that will change the direction of my career forever. Thank you for any and all input.
I guess I would ask what your main motivation is. From this post, your drivers seem to be money and stability. With that said, I still think it comes down to preference and awareness of your own skill.
If you become a doctor, the lifestyle will be much more stable. Additionally, you can probably live where you choose to. For example, you could live in the middle of Ohio if you so choose. Your money out of residency will be, as you said, really good. However, there are two cons here: doctors don't have a high ceiling in terms of the amount of money they can make (at a trade-off of better stability) and the HUGE opportunity cost of undergoing medical school and residency. Also, there is no guarantee you will get the specialty you desire. Again, here is where your awareness of your own skill comes into play.
For the consulting route, again, there is a lot of ambiguity. Less about becoming a partner, the lateral to MBB is not as easy you would think. Deloitte is a great firm and you're in a great position to make the jump, but nothing in life is guaranteed. Additionally, bluntly put, it is, as I said, a jump. If you were to make the jump, you would most likely have to get an MBA (Deloitte is a great place to get to a top MBA, so there's that) and that is another 2 years to consider in this career path.
Assuming you make the jump, making partner is definitely a possibility. Yes, you will have to be one of the better consultants, but there is a lot of selection bias ie. people leave for other opportunities on their own. If you are truly passionate, I see no reason you can't make partner. It will be extremely hard, but hey, so is everything worthwhile (becoming a doctor, lawyer, banker etc. )
The last question or thought I want to ask, is why you are so dead-set on making partner at MBB vs Deloitte. If you're chasing pure prestige, I would highly recommend not doing that. You're going to meet great people at Deloitte, people who will support you in your career decisions, and that is the most important thing. I would not be surprised, given you take this path, that you decide to stay at Deloitte.
Anyways, hope this helps!
Failure makes some good points above, but he's sugar-coating the message IMO.
OP - your "plan" is wildly optimistic. MBB rarely hire laterally out of industry, and landing an interview let alone a job offer is going to be very very difficult after 2 years at Deloitte as a BTA.
And then as far as making partner, the raw numbers are hard to parse out. The vast majority of MBB consultants leave well before the partner promotion point. Some because they can't cut it at the next level, but the majority leave because they don't want to stay in consulting, either because they're fed up with the lifestyle or because a more attractive job offer comes up (PE/hedge fund/start-up/corp strat) or a combination of both. All this makes it a bit hard to say what your "chances" are of getting promoted to partner.
But in any case, your chances of getting promoted to partner shouldn't be anywhere near your list of priorities when choosing between med school and consulting. There's a million questions you should be asking yourself about what type of lifestyle you want, what interests you, what gets you excited, etc. before you start thinking about a promotion point 15 years from now that you may not even want by then. You can't do an NPV analysis on life.
This isn't even close to a plan, its wishful thinking. Yeah yeah, nothing is impossible etc. There is almost no chance you lateral from Deloitte Federal Tech into MBB. Hell, most people can't even lateral from Deloitte Federal into S&O. No idea on tech to S&O, but you're combining the challenges.
You will incur a ton of debt and years of low wages going the med school route. Maybe you'll eventually make it to your specialty and the big bucks, but the healthcare environment is changing rapidly; the good money may be gone by the time you get there.
There is little job stability in MBB; 2 years to promote or you're out of there. About half of post MBA level make it to the level before principal, then a bunch are cut making principal, then more cuts to partner. It is incredibly difficult to make it.
Give this job a shot and then decide if you want to stay in consulting or go to med school, but when you are making that decision, assume you are staying at Deloitte.
Thank you for all of your responses, as well as your criticism of my optimism. I don't want to think that something is realistic if it is truly not, so I appreciate your realism.
@John Doe, I was wondering what you meant by cuts. Would they actually fire you on your way to Principal? That's something I don't know much about, the stability of consulting overall.
As far as the discussion of ability that @Failure pointed out, I truly believe I have everything in me to make it to the medical specialty I want. This is because, academically, I am sound. However, I know nothing of my ability to do well in consulting, and even though I can be persuasive and find social situations easy to manage, I can't say I'm at the upper end of schmoozing and charming that some other consultants that I've seen.
I am however, very much driven by stability and financial security.
But of course, you have to make it PL/EM first; and you aren't going to lateral in that level from Deloitte. You probably won't even be able to lateral at the level before that either; odds are you will have to leave and get an MBA in order to get into MBB. You could of course try and lateral into some sort of "advanced analyst" level where you would get promoted in 1 year to the level before PL/EM, but that's not a normal path. So you've got a lot of IF and hoops to jump through before you even get into MBB, before being presented with 50/50 odds of making PL/EM, before being presented with unknown odds of making Principal. There are a few users who have some knowledge of how many make it to Principal, but I'm not confident enough to give you any sort of % on that jump.
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