Deloitte S&O vs PwC Consulting

Depends where you live, but on average Deloitte does do more strategy work. UK office, California for PwC have fairly robust strategy divisions.

ManBearPig will probably see this, and he would have a better idea of how much strategy work Deloitte does do.

One interesting part of PwC is they are rebuilding the practice, and it has had considerable growth. It also means they have less intellectual capital from past projects (only 5 years worth or so), but on the other hand they aren't tied to any old methodologies that they cant' get past.

As for culture, PwC has apparently undergone a significant cultural change over the past 5 years to be far more open and inclusive. For the most part, it has been quite effective and the majority of people are quite nice. It was interesting that you mentioned this part, as the consultant across from me (M.Eng) had the same experience with Deloitte. Although, whenever I've met a Deloitte consultant they've always seemed to be pretty good guys, so it was likely just luck (or unluck) of the draw.

10% more is significant, the signing bonus is nice, and it could add up over time. If you have an specific questions about PwC Consulting just send me a PM, and again hopefully MBP can get on here and answer anything you want to know about Deloitte.

Deloitte has the stronger strategy practice, but PwC purchased Diamond last year and still has a lot of their consultants / engagements / relationships. There is a bit of chatter about that being a failed attempt to buy their way into strategy consulting, but you tend to hear that from the folks that get burned by culture shifts of that magnitude, so it's hard to tell how much validity to place on that.

If you want to roll the Dice, PwC is a decent bet. If they are successful at building the practice, then by joining now, you'll be well positioned in 5 years. I've been involved in a few of their pitches this year for health care strategy consulting, and they beat out shops like Oliver Wyman, Deloitte, and Monitor. PwC had the better talent and price, but I'm only one data point so take that with a grain of salt.

If you're more conservative, Deloitte is the already established option of the two, and the safer choice if you want to be sure to get good strategy consulting engagements.

^^ agree. If you are thinking about making a career at one of these places or at least staying 10+ years I would go with PwC. They are committed to building up their consulting business and if you are good and get in early you can get a great understanding and ride that wave higher.

PwC also just changed their bonus allocation so that each division (audit, advisory, consulting, etc) divies up bonuses more on the performance of their division, rather than pooling all the money firm wide and then dividing it up. This could benefit you if the consulting branch grows.

no chance of getting an MBB offer? is your plan to grow with the firm or pursue industry/lateral to another firm?

Thanks for your advice...

MistaBooks.. do you have any more insight on what the bonus structure at PwC/Deloitte looks like? My offer is very ambiguous on the annual bonus, and the numbers I saw on-line are in 6-10% range, is that about right?

Down, no chance at MBB, i am in a second tier MBA school.. I did manage to get a first round at BCG, but I guess did not do well enough. My plan is to stay in consulting for 2-3 years and re-evaluate. If I can get on a fast track program I can seem myself staying, otherwise exit to the industry or doing my own thing are equally likely.

I'm a 2nd year BA at Deloitte and believe that their Strategy offering is MUCH stronger than PWC. The larger salary and benefits from PWC are representative of their lack of Consulting brand as yet.

I also wouldn't take your initial 'friendly impressions of the people' at PWC as gospel. Consulting is a fiercely competitive and backstabbing environment, and PWC and Deloitte are no better than each other in this respect. Consulting is a brutal job, so I think it's unrealistic to plan on more than 2-3 years in any firm. It's highly political and the likelihood of getting managed out (even with good performance) is high.

I will add that most consulting firms are going to struggle to grow in this environment, unless their focused on enterprise cost reduction / outsourcing / shared services type work. Even with slightly less work on, firms cut out the benefits including flashy corporate lunches and reducing the bonus pool. I can't comment on the higher level bonus structure, best to check out Glassdoor.com or equivalent sites.

anyone have any info on how exit ops compare?

Don't believe the lies. i have heard of people in Deloitte who have gone to mbb from due diligence, s&o and valution/m&a or whatever this year alne. i even know an ex deloitte snr who lateraled into top PE. no connections and non target.

Agree with the first few posts. PwC is a decent bet as it's growing. Deloitte has an established name, and is a safer pick as it will easily get you much more strategy work in the next few years. But, like someone mentioned, if you roll the dice with PwC the upside is greater in my opinion.

And at the top end PwC seems to earn more. I know the UK partner's out earned their Deloitte peers, and that PwC was again the largest Professional Services Firm by Revenue ($29.2B) against Deloitte ($28.8B), and has about 7,000 fewer staff globally.

Then again, as mentioned by a poster above the burnout rate is high at at consulting firm, so planning 15-20 years down the road to partner (and the even slimmer hope of equity partner) isn't a good reason to pick a firm. So, exit ops are probably key, being able to do the work you want (strategy), and just getting the experience.

Keep in mind, 95% of the consultants will not become partners at either company.

For Deloitte, the exit opportunities are really good outside of PE/HF/VC types of jobs. You are generally very competitive for most of the Corporate Strategy jobs out there and headhunters will pounce on you once you become a free agent. In addition, the network within the company as well as the client relationships that you build over projects will also provide you additional options for exit opportunities. I know people that have quit within the last few months to join corporate strategy for companies such as Google, Apple, and Nike.

Also, Deloitte definitely has quite a bit of strategy work -- especially if you've proven yourself to be a top performer.

Jesus, how much is PwC paying as I know my Deloitte SC offer (also a current MBA 2) was pretty good:

130K base 47,500 signing (40+7.5 exploding) 2nd years tuition reimbursement 10K moving

mba2guy.. uh.. PwC offer was actually slightly less vs. what you stated... My Deloitte offer was WAY below yours. Maybe I should push Deloitte for more..

What school are you coming from? Are you sure your position is in S&O? Are you sure it was for the post-MBA job (SC)? Did everyone at your school that got an offer get the same thing? Which office are you going to (though this shouldn't make a difference as all offices at my school got the same thing-boston, nyc, sf, la, chicago, minneapolis, atl, mclean)?

From my understanding, it's basically the same offer that all MBA2s received last year and is very much in line with what was reported on managementconsulted.com.

So, here is the result.. I have called Deloitte, and hinted that they were WAY under market. And they did not even make an attempt to negotiate. So I accepted PwC.

Full disclosure: I work at Deloitte (S&O in particular)

I think your decision should come down to how you answer the following question:

How certain are you that you want to make a career in consulting and push for partnership?

If you are interested in consulting for the exit opportunities, I think Deloitte is a no-brainer. We get more high profile engagements than PwC and we are exposed to far more senior members at our clients (SVPs etc.). There is no doubt that Deloitte S&O has a much better strategy brand than PwC. As you may know, Deloitte was the only one of the big 4 that didn't sell its consulting practice roughly ten years ago. This obviously gave us serious advantages over the other big 4.

On the other hand, if you are certain that you are going to stick to consulting and push for partnership*, I would strongly recommend PwC. The reason is that the practice is much newer and is rebuilding rapidly. It currently has a more entrepreneurial feel and you can move up a lot faster than you might at Deloitte. While it's true that Deloitte has a much better strategy brand than PwC, this can easily change in the next 10 years. If PwC is willing to make the investment to poach out top talent from top strategy firms, the whole landscape can be very different very soon. And you would have the added benefit of started while the practice was still in its infancy.

In any case, congrats on the two offers and good luck in the decision.

*FWIW, everyone thinks this and most people decide they would rather take a cushy job at a client once they've put in a few years

Oops, didn't realize you already made a decision...

you fucked up bro...delloite was a far better offer.

have fun fucking with the BO end of other firms

I wonder if the Deloitte offer wasn't S&O, since the salary seemed to be far below market, and they weren't even willing to discuss movement. In that case, PwC was definitely the right choice.

Djfiii, the offer is from S&O, here is copypaste from it:

On behalf of Deloitte Consulting LLP, it is my pleasure to formally confirm our offer to you to join Deloitte Consulting LLP as a Senior Consultant in the Strategy & Operations group, based in our xxx office.

MBP, it was not just salary, however it made a difference. As i stated in the original post, I found PwC people in our office just more pleasant overall.

Was it federal S&O? Also, was the offer for general management or specialized functional area?

Almost all new MBA's get the same package as MC. Could be one of a few things: hired outside of on-campus recruiting, hired as a specialist, hired to an office not in the US firm, etc...

TaGlobal, MC This was for Healthcare "functional area", although the offer did not specify it. They don't come to our campus directly, however I am pretty sure it was a part of on-campus recruiting. And I am in US.

I have 2 guesses 1) Because I come from a non-target MBA program they have a different compensation structure 2) Healthcare functional area is somehow payed less.

Neither one of those make too much sense to me, but oh well.

Another thing, with PwC, they claim a potential for promotion to manager after the first year, if I am a top performer. This was a definitely a consideration.

That quicker promotion goes back to PwC being in growth mode, and Deloitte being in maintenance mode. I personally think you made the right choice - as I said, I've been involved with a few of PwC's strategy pitches this year and they looked really solid; honestly, they showed up with a more targeted and on-point delivery than OW, and for about 1/2 the price. If you perform well, and PwC continues to win engagements, you'll be in really good shape in 5-7 years. I think bump to manager after 1 year is optimistic, even in a growing practice, but 2 years is not out of the question.

I know this has been a while, but wanted to start up the thread again

OP -

How has your experience been thus far? Can I PM you for some additional insight? I'm currently at a boutique healthcare advisory firm (almost 2 years), MBA/MPH, and interested in finding out more about your Big 4 experience in health care. How did you network yourself in off-cycle?

Interested as well.

I'm looking to get into healthcare consulting myself. Curious to hear your assessment.

Skipper: There are a couple of things: 1) Easy one - make sure that your resume does not have any skills listed that you don't want to use on a project. 2) Hard one - The way our firm works is typically you get a call from a demand manager before you get a call from a director to screen you. So you may have a couple of hours to dig and see what the project is all about, and how you feel about it. Normally, between looking up in the internal systems and using your network you can figure it out. Once the director calls you, it's never good to just reject a project, but you answer questions in a way that they don't think it's a good fit. For example: I would love to be on a project, sounds very interesting, but I have no experience in "whatever that project really needs". This may not work for associates, but for seniors that works well. Also, make sure you have vacations scheduled - you can always cancel them later. So saying that you have vacation scheduled in a middle of the project sometimes would deter from staffing.

Those are just a couple of examples.

OP,

Do you have a sense for yearly raises outside of promotions?

Ie salary adjustments?

Also what's the salary bump from Senior Associete to Manager?

Thanks so much!!!

Anyone???

I think it's very much dependent on your group and your performance.

I believe annual raise is 3-10%, manager promotion raise is 7-15%.

Interesting. A lot less than I had hoped for a promo. Thank you sir!

OP is back :) A new turn of events, and soliciting some more advice.. interesting turn of events.

I got a call from Deloitte this week, and they are VERY interested in bringing me back. Apparently they trolled my Linkedin page, and know I was promoted, so they want to bring me in as a manager.

They claim they could do much better from $ perspective. Position is in M&A group.

Is it worth to explore this option? I don't think anything would really change from what I do, but i lose my "brand recognition" that I have built.

If i do explore, what's the raise I should be asking for? Sign-on? Perks?

OP is back :) A new turn of events, and soliciting some more advice.. interesting turn of events.

I got a call from Deloitte this week, and they are VERY interested in bringing me back. Apparently they trolled my Linkedin page, and know I was promoted, so they want to bring me in as a manager.

They claim they could do much better from $ perspective. Position is in M&A group.

Is it worth to explore this option? I don't think anything would really change from what I do, but i lose my "brand recognition" that I have built.

If i do explore, what's the raise I should be asking for? Sign-on? Perks?

Interested OP, what ended up happening here?

Interested as well

hey op are you still active? I just accepted an offer with PwC Advisory and I'd like to ask you a few questions

I've been following this post for years.