Company: Deloitte
Date: 2014-07-07
Overall rating: 4/5
Employment status: former
Experience level: Junior

It's what you make of it + luck of the market
Pros: Lots of talented people, an inspiring workforce and important projects. Teaches you that you get out what you put-in, and not to rely too much on being shepherded. The opportunities for interesting projects are there and it's a golden nugget on any CV.

You're not molly coddled  - so if you're not pulling your weight your peers will let you know and avoid working with you. This can make teams stronger if a little hard to get along with at times. Working units deliver great work.

You will succeed by appearing to do what is asked of you while doing what is necessary to make your numbers - sometimes the two will align.
Cons: Expect to be kept well away from important client management until you're invited by a Partner. Be careful what you say as it will have a bigger effect than you realise.  You will be expected to make numbers even when conflicted out of many market opportunities.

It's a market for talent and projects and there is a fair bit of "positioning" by others designed to influence your perception of a situation. Getting good resources to your project is as hard as avoiding being staffed onto duff ones - until your personal reputation is established. Don't always expect to be told the whole truth and expect to have only the favourable aspects pointed out to you - you need to work the rest out yourself.  Shock-horror sometimes people lie to get what they want.

Expect to be left in charge of something, if it is a success be prepared to defend your territory as many will claim their right to your winnings, if it fails expect that to count against you come review time. Also watch out for falling debris from others' failures which has a tendency to be quite sticky.

As with all Big-4 - don't expect a lot of post-mortems or admissions of weakness/failure, there is a definite bias towards self congratulation.