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!

 
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.

 

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

I've seen tons of engineers try to break in to consulting. I've seen very few consultants try to break in to an engineering role (exception being a pivot to tech - but even this is often in to some type of product management / business-heavy role versus technical).

 

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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