Company: Deloitte
Date: 2013-10-01
Overall rating: 2/5
Employment status: former
Experience level: Junior

Only as good as your last project
Pros: You have ample learning and development opportunities, and you will work with interesting, smart people. You will gain useful experience in management consulting, which you can use in any profession.
Cons: You will have no life outside of Deloitte. Yes, on paper you have five weeks of vacation - but you will quickly learn of the dirty word, "utilization," which ensures that you never get to take a proper vacation. Not that you would have any time anyway - not only are projects poorly staffed, so that often you'll be working long hours, but you will need to add on an extra 10 or so hours of "firm activities" to your work week. 

However, the worst aspect is the poor matching of consultants to projects, with little thought to whether the consultant can actually do the job. Oh, you're a senior consultant? Then you're supposed to "figure it out." Eventually, most consultants land on horrible projects, receive poor ratings, and are forever tainted. The leadership line that x consultant "received a poor performance rating and then turned it around" is a cruel joke and doesn't match reality. And, it's worse in Federal now that sequestration and shutdowns have hit. Forget taking risks or trying something new to get experience - just keep your head down and do your work.

The performance process also is a joke. It all depends on timing - if you had a poor project rating early on, then landed on a project where you did well, you'll be okay; if your final project rating is poor, then that's what leadership rates you on - and good luck trying to overcome that bad rating. You'll be gone before you know it. Also, the process is only as good as the managers on the project - if the managers are poor, and they blame you for your "poor performance" on your project evaluation, then you have no recourse for getting a fair evaluation. There is "best practice," which Deloitte leadership espouses to follow, and there is reality.

Finally, Deloitte changed its compensation structure last year to lean increasingly on variable pay, which means you are screwed if a.) you do poorly; b.) your department does poorly; or c.) the firm does poorly. You assume more of the risk, and if you go elsewhere, your base pay will be lower and you will have more trouble negotiating a higher salary. Thank you, Deloitte.