I was just reading thourgh the Mckinsey thread 44127 and the response has made me pretty nervous. I have an aspiration of taking consulting as my career. However, I would like to look at organisations like PA, deloitte and accenture. Could anyone advice on 1. The avg working hours for 5 days a week in the above organisations for C and PC grades? 2. How many times will you have to work on sat and sun for the above grades?3. If long working hours how do all spend time with family?If employees from the above organisations reply i could have a reality check after the shock i got from looking at the mckinsey thread

I work for PA, having moved up to PC from C about 2 years agoAs with much else, it depends on the client, but most client days are 10 - 12 hours, on top of which you are expected to contribute to thought leadership (TL), sales proposals, etc. Overall the hours end up being very long from Monday to Friday, but you can usually manage to keep Sat and Sunday free.I've had to work most of this weekend, but that's not very common (maybe one weekend a month or so)

1 out of 4 weekends then...oh dear! I hope it's worth it!

just claim the time back in lieu if you have a family. After all the Human rights Acts guarantees you a right to a family life. Just sue them if they refuse and when you leave...

Life must be different between the management consultants and the more techy side (not IT but spreadsheet modelling), as I work in as a consultant in spreadsheet modelling and often go home at 6pm or earlier. If your good at your job you can get things done fast.

Eventhough not good and not according to what other threads say about working hours, 10 - 12 hours looks ok. From Experience, i reckon anything more than 11 or say 12 would make it very difficult in normal days.Could anyone else provide more inputs?

In 10 yrs at ACN it was about 45-50 hrs pw. About 1-2 x per year the hours became insane This was at analyst / consultant. As a manager the bouts of insane hours became more frequent, every other month or so.some form of work most weekends, but it was more admin - writing appraisals, deleting emails and completing training. To be fair this was my choice - I could have done this early morning in whatever hotel I was staying in. I just needed the sleep.