Deloitte S&O vs. Top Engineering Companies?

Hi all,

I'm seeking for some advice.

I'm a Chemical Engineering senior at a Top 5 Engineering undergrad. I realized I gravitate towards the business side of companies versus the technical side this past summer so I decided to go for consulting. I got interviews with MBB, but didn't receive any offers. However, I DID get an offer from Deloitte S&O. At the same time I recruited for engineering and have offers from a top chemical company (Dow, BASF, etc.) and a top oil & gas company (Chevron, Exxon, Shell, etc.).

I'm stuck. Obviously there are 2 different career paths, but the main question is - is Deloitte S&O worth starting my career with and declining the top engineering companies? It's not MBB, so I'm concerned with the growth, projects, and exit opportunities I would have. Should this be a concern?

Is it better to start of my career in one of these top engineering companies to build technical skill and then decide to do consulting OR should I go straight into consulting with Deloitte S&O? Does experience in industry have value, or would it be a waste of time?

I know the differences in the work I would be doing, so it's not a matter of "what work do I like?" but basically what the best move is to start off my career.

Any advice or insight would be greatly appreciated!

4 Comments
 
Best Response

What do you eventually want to do?

If you want to be the head engineer of some oil & gas firm, or an engineering industry specialist at Wood Mackenzie or whatever, then sure, be an engineer. O&G is a bit of a shitty industry to be in right now, though.

If you want to do something more corporate, then S&O would probably get you there faster. If you think you'd like to go start your own business (outside of engineering) instead, then S&O would give you the wider set of experiences you'd need for that. If you don't know what you want to do, then S&O would give you more optionality for the future.

Tl;dr don't bother starting out as an engineer unless you want to be an engineer.

 

I definitely don't have a drive/passion for engineering and not 100% sure what I'm passionate about so that's what attracts me to consulting right after undergrad.

But would S&O have great exit opportunities available?

The 2 engineering companies are #1 in their respective industries and are great to have on a resume to start off your career so I'm just wondering if having experience in those companies add greater weight than S&O if I wanted to go to business school.

 

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