.... as stated by Vault. Any comments?1) Mckinsey2) Boston3) Bain4) BAH5) Monitor6) Mercer MC7) MOW8) Mercer HR9) Parthenon Group10) Deloitte Consulting11) LEK12) Marakon13) IBM BCS14) ATK 15) Accenture... if you want the rest: http://www.vault.com/nr/consulting_rankings/consulting_rankings.jsp?consulting2007=2&ch_id=252comments?

Vault is an American focussed site, so there's no surprises that quality European HQ'd firms aren't listed

Define prestigious?

Prestige: Social respect accorded to an individual or group because of the status of their position.I dont think Jonny was trying to open a semantic debate...

I've since looked at the survey methodology, although note the point above about Vault being US dominated.The point I was trying to make is that as a consultant surely we shouldn't be accepting bland statements uncritically, there's a reason that ''random surveys'' aren't allowed to include consultants in ther samples, because we should be capable of tearing the questionaire apart to judge the anticipated reponse required by the survey sponsor.In this sense does prestigious mean as an employer or as a supplier? Clearly from the research methodology it's looking at presetige as an employer, in that sense I'm sure we could argue around the edges of the sequencing, and the whole issue about employer attractiveness has been done in a few recent threads.

These rankings are pointless as only Americans were surveyed and thus negate the views of people around the world. Just look at the number of threads in which people slate Accenture and IBM BCS. Mercer HR #8!??? What about Roland Berger and Mars & Co?

My thoughts are that if you join a firm who's name begins wiith an M or a B you're probably onto a winner, looking at that list.

While these surveys do have some uses I agree with Random Acts. Prestige is inevitably a subjective concept.For instance (one for the bloopers) during my interview with Marakon my interviewer mentioned a possible plan of his was to move into industry in a couple of years. I (rather foolishly) questioned how recognisable the Marakon name really was in industry given its size. In my opinion a more prestigious firm in that scenario was one which had donea lot (good) work with various firms otherwise the recruiter just won't know whether you're bs'ing about the quality of work you have done.

3 Mercer entries in the top 10 (I doubt that people made sufficient distinctions between the groups so they probably counted a vote for each) and someone called Parthenon Group who I looked up and have 140 people in 3 offices. No, I can't find any fault with this list, definitely a definitive guide.