Hi,I just graduated from top 8 university. I've got an offer from a couple of large IT firms in their Consulting practices (think IBM/Infosys Consulting/Atos etc.) and one of the roles starts in December (a month's time).I am not particularly interested in IT - I applied to ensure I do get some offers. I want to do Management Consulting, particularly Operations or Strategy consulting. My university grades are great (1st in Engineering) but my pre-uni grades weren't amazing (less than the requirement from MBB etc.). I'm not sure what to do. 2 of the big 4 have put my application "on hold" claiming I MAY get an interview soon and right now I'm just waiting on nearly every firm to get back to me whether I'm going to have first round interviews or not.I'm assuming a role at the likes of IBM etc. would not put me in a good position to potentially move into, for example, Deloitte S&O after a year or so? I posted a similar thread before but now the situation has changed considering I do have the offers now which I need to respond to in the next few days/week and I don't know what to do.

Once in IT, forever in IT. People get pigeonholed very quickly on!Which might be a problem if it weren't for the fact that IT is so amazing! Nothing beats talking tech with the techies in the IT dept all day long. Megabytes, motherboards and hard disks - can't get enough of that sh1t. We effin love it.

[quote]Once in IT, forever in IT. People get pigeonholed very quickly on![/quote]So only way out of IT is an MBA? Is it challenging to get into a good MBA having worked in IT Consulting.Also to be honest I am still not very clear on the different consulting divisions. IBM are a massive IT company but they claim to do things like Operations Consulting and Digital Strategy and even normal Strategy related work.Is this all a lie? Do places like IBM mainly just do SAP Implementations and large scale multi-year IT Transformation projects?

Out of interest, why do you want to do Management or Strat consulting over IT? Not knocking you personally, but for a lot of people it is because it makes them feel warm and fuzzy inside, and they think future potential wifes will be impressed when they tell them they are working on a strategy propositions for tier 1 investment banks.Both pay roughly the same if you are good, and whilst you may be a tech consultant, you don't need to be a techy (i'm most certainly not), just enough to get by without looking foolish.

[quote][quote]Once in IT, forever in IT. People get pigeonholed very quickly on![/quote]So only way out of IT is an MBA? [/quote]No, there is no way out. But IT is so good that only a crazy person would want to get out anyway![quote]Also to be honest I am still not very clear on the different consulting divisions. IBM are a massive IT company but they claim to do things like Operations Consulting and Digital Strategy and even normal Strategy related work.[/quote]Operations Consulting = Doing business process diagrams in preparation for the SAP system to go in.Digital Strategy = Working out how to integrate the SAP system with the website.Normal Strategy = Identifying areas of the business where SAP is required to improve profitability and effectiveness.[quote]Is this all a lie? Do places like IBM mainly just do SAP Implementations and large scale multi-year IT Transformation projects?[/quote]No, they do so much more than that! For instance, they also do SAP training.Hehe. Seriously though, IT is awesome. IBM and the like are awesome places, some of the smartest people in the world work there. If you've got an engineering degree, you should thrive in IT!

[quote]Out of interest, why do you want to do Management or Strat consulting over IT? Not knocking you personally, but for a lot of people it is because it makes them feel warm and fuzzy inside, and they think future potential wifes will be impressed when they tell them they are working on a strategy propositions for tier 1 investment banks.Both pay roughly the same if you are good, and whilst you may be a tech consultant, you don't need to be a techy (i'm most certainly not), just enough to get by without looking foolish.[/quote]To be honest I guess I am not in a position where I can say I certainly want one over another because I haven't actually experienced too much first hand. I did do an internship at a small consulting firm over the summer and quite frankly found everything fascinating. I just love learning about different types of businesses, how they operate, how they make money, where their costs lie and how they can improve.I feel that as an IT consultant you're limited to simply improving a company only within the IT domain but I want to be involved in making big changes. Additionally, I have very ambitious end goals. Eventually I want to end up as a COO/CFO/CEO at a large company or run my own business. I just think IT wouldn't prepare me too well for that kind of future.Finally I just wanted to add that I imagine moving from a strategy firm to an IT firm is much easier than the other way around.

Don't be quick to knock IT. The CIO where I am currently staffed is ex IBM, COO had a stint as a tech consultant at infosys (I think), they've done ok for themselves.IT means so much more these days, it touches absolutely everything in an organisation so done well you can have a very successful career for yourself.

That's right. Try telling Bill Gates that you can't make a successful career out of IT!

Think twice what you want to do as in your career.

It depends on what your looking for! Good job, work/life balance and a good salary then IT is where you should be. Innovation changes so quickly there is always work for IT professional. In Strategy, its long hours, the pay gets better once you reach a certain position but it takes 10-15 years at 70hours a week to get there.I work for SAP in their in-house strategy team, we offer free business case and operational strategy development (where the answer is always SAP) but I must work between 40-50hours a week, fly business class everywhere and make ~£250k a year! Average salary of major tech companies is approaching £160k, so it depends on what your looking for!

It depends on what your looking for! Good job, work/life balance and a good salary then IT is where you should be. Innovation changes so quickly there is always work for IT professional. In Strategy, its long hours, the pay gets better once you reach a certain position but it takes 10-15 years at 70hours a week to get there.I work for SAP in their in-house strategy team, we offer free business case and operational strategy development (where the answer is always SAP) but I must work between 40-50hours a week, fly business class everywhere and make ~£250k a year! Average salary of major tech companies is approaching £160k, so it depends on what your looking for!

It depends on what your looking for! Good job, work/life balance and a good salary then IT is where you should be. Innovation changes so quickly there is always work for IT professional. In Strategy, its long hours, the pay gets better once you reach a certain position but it takes 10-15 years at 70hours a week to get there.I work for SAP in their in-house strategy team, we offer free business case and operational strategy development (where the answer is always SAP) but I must work between 40-50hours a week, fly business class everywhere and make ~£250k a year! Average salary of major tech companies is approaching £160k, so it depends on what your looking for!