What does Federal Consulting entail

unless youre at a top tier firm (MBB) youre going be doing staff augmentation. moving between fed and commercial is pretty difficult.

articlecreator:

What kind of work does federal consulting entail

2.) What kind of place is Washington DC for young professionals?

3.) is the work harder than commercial consulting?

4.) Can exit opportunities lead into commercial roles?

1) All types of work, it really depends on the firm and the engagement. One key thing to note is the difference between federal consulting and federal contracting. Generally, the way I view it is that consultants in the federal space are brought in to deal with a specific issue, usually fairly short term (anywhere between a couple of weeks and 6-9 months, though can be longer) in nature. Contractors, on the other hand, are usually on the client site for extended periods of time and generally do work that could theoretically also be done by the federal employees. For example, someone brought in to do a market segmentation analysis would be considered to be a consultant, while someone brought in to fill a seat in the client's accounting department would be a contractor. Contractor positions are frankly often boring with limited career growth, but if you join the right firm, can pay decently well and provide fantastic WLB. Consulting positions can be more exciting, depending on the engagement and how that aligns to your interests, but will generally have noticeably higher comp (though not as high as commercial comp) and a bit worse WLB, though again, not to the extent of commercial.

Now, as far as the type of work...contracting is generally going to cover just about everything that would be considered operational for the government. Accounting, IT, logistics, stuff like that. Consulting is generally slightly narrower in scope and in my experience is largely focused on IT strategy, IT modernization, and business modernization/transformation. Those three areas are pretty broad, but a specific example might be that Agency A has an antiquated suite of case management tools and hires Firm B to develop and implement a strategy to modernize and consolidate those tools into one SaaS solution. IT focused stuff is HUGE for the government, since IT infrastructure across the government in general is almost criminally outdated.

2) Pretty good. I've lived in the Virginia suburbs my 9 years here, but there are lots of young folks in their 20s all around the area. Lots of food options, good night life, plenty of entertainment options, etc.

3) Federal contracting...not in the slightest. Federal consulting...possibly. Depending on the agency, there are specific challenges you might face here that you won't find anywhere else, that could make it harder than commoditized commercial consulting. If you're dealing with the intelligence community, that's a unique set of clients and engagements you won't find elsewhere. Likewise, if you're dealing with clients like the SEC or Treasury, the sheer size and scope of the potential engagements could be unlike anything you'd see on the commercial size. One key factor on the federal side, consulting or contracting, is the amount of bureaucracy and red tape you have to deal with. I've had both commercial and federal roles and the feds far outstrip the private sector in that regard. All that said, on the consulting side probably 75% of the core skillset is the same, so you can make of it what you will.

4) Sure, depending on what kind of commercial roles you're looking at. For example, I know a decent number of former coworkers who've exited federal IT strategy and modernization consulting roles to go to tech firms (FAANG and the next tier down). I'd say the four largest exit roles I've seen are, in order: another federal consulting shop, private sector roles mostly in tech or commercial tech consulting, flipping their badge to become a fed, and switching to an entirely unrelated career (e.g. leaving to become an elementary school teacher). To note, I'm mid career and that's how I ranked mid career exits. At the junior level, I see plenty leaving for grad school and making career pivots after that.

EDIT: Another factor to consider is the compensation as a federal consultant. I've worked at a B4 and BAH, so I'm familiar with their general pay scales, but I don't have much info on boutiques or smaller firms. Generally speaking, if you're on the consulting side vs the contracting side, the smaller firms will have higher pay than the Big 4/BAH, but won't have as much corporate infrastructure such as a bench, etc. Happy to share general comp bands for B4/BAH in the DC area if you're interested