Company: Deloitte
Date: 2012-10-05
Overall rating: 2/5
Employment status: former
Experience level: Junior

Deloitte is out of Touche
Pros: 1. Good place for recent graduates to start their career
2. Compensation when you start is competitive
3. Great training programs available
4. Easy to get a higher paying job once you are ready to leave
Cons: The following comments apply to experienced hires in the Federal practice based out of Rosslyn, VA. My understanding is that people have had more positive experiences in Commercial.

1. The only way you will succeed at Deloitte is by embracing it as a life style. Want to become a partner/principal one day? Don't expect to go home at 6 pm and be done for the day and have a separate life after work. Your friends will need to be Deloitte employees, the activities you do will need to be Deloitte sponsored, the words you use will need to conform to Deloitte culture (e.g., what's your elevator speech; how are you building "eminence", have you defined your personal brand?).

2. Just a fraction of your year-end evaluation is based on the work you do for the client. Leadership without a doubt cares more about "internal contribution" than actual consulting. Meaning you don't have to deliver spectacular results to the people who are really paying your salary, but you do have to write white papers (which no one reads), do proposal work, and perform community service. I understand that every job has superfluous tasks, but at Deloitte you are really expected to do at least two full time jobs.

3. Leadership is non-existent. I was on several projects and there was virtually no interaction with people at the director level. After several years at the firm I still had no idea what they even did as I slaved away.  To their credit, once in a while, e-mails from executives I'm supposed to know would stream into my Inbox touting the great sucesses of the firm. The nail in the coffin was when I resigned. Deloitte no longer has an exit interview process; they clearly don't even care about why people are leaving in droves and what they can do to make it a better place to work.

4. Performance increases are dismal, except for those who get the highest possible year-end rating (corporate drones who have dedicated their life to the "green dot"). If you choose to join, be sure to negotiate a really good base salary because it won't be going up much.