Aside from the major strat houses, it appears as if consultancy does not pay much. Firms such as deloitte, acc, pa, ey, capgem and so on offer salaries lower than backoffice roles in investment banks. Previously someone posted a thread on how compliance officers salaries compared favorably with consultants in such firms. How can one possibly say that consultancy is a prestigious/high rewarding career. For those stuck in the non strat firms, life is seriously miserable. They get stuck in the middle of nowhere and are literally contracters working on insignificant back to middle type office roles.

I completeley agree. And i work for a big 4 in thier strat division. I dont get paid peanuts. ( 60k for 3.5 years experience)thats less than a grad makes in his first year in banking

Back office in an investment bank? That sounds a rewarding job. Get paid a lot to never see sunlight and your work not make the slightest bit of difference to anyone except your boss.It's a wonder we don't charter a boat to take us all to Canary Wharf right now.

Saw an interesting piece in the Sunday Times this week. 3 chaps from my Cambridge college set up the "Innocent" drinks company after having worked at McKinsey and Bain. They're being courted to sell the business or float it. Potential market value was thought to be somewhere in the region of £170 million. Oh and they own the majority of the shares.Consulting gives you the skills you need to become a future leader of a FTSE firm - or to build a business that can be sold. Both are highly rewarding career paths - from both a satisfaction and monetary perspective.Most investment bankers by contrast have their job as a millstone. They can't quit to do anything else as the skills aren't transferable - so they get stuck working in London / New York and never escaping from the office during daylight hours.But if it's short-term gratification you're after then of course IB has the trump card. Consulting isn't going to buy you that Ferrari in your first years of employment. Look a bit further ahead though and the comparisons are much more favourable.Tony

Thanks for the insight tony. I was wondering isn't it just the consultants from the top tier strat firms that have the opportunity to move into industry and elsewhere. Surely the candidates at the tier 2 firms such as acc,capgem,ey,pa and acc find it near to impossible to move into high level jobs in industry

Anon - that's a bit like saying "most good jobs in industry go to Oxbridge alumni". By definition some of the best minds are employed by the McKinseys and Bains of this world - just as many of them will have attended Oxbridge before that. But not going to Oxbridge does not prevent you from securing an outstanding role, if you've got the ability. Equally, not having gone to a McKinsey or Bain need not be an impediment to getting an outstanding role in industry.The only issue is that the likelihood of you getting a great role in industry grows if you've been to Oxbridge or been to McKinsey or Bain - because both the universities and the top consultancies give your candidacy a "stamp of credibility" and flag you as being a potential high achiever.In the second tier firms there are many many individuals who are exceptional and who go on to secure such roles too. It's just less of a "sure thing". But rest assured, cream generally tends to float to the top! If you're a high achiever at a "second tier firm" then you will find you get plenty of calls from headhunters and that plenty of business schools will want to have you study there.Tony

I work at a large US investment bank in operations. I've been here since I graduated 3 yrs back and I earn 60 K all in all. I've been looking into consultancy however I'am curious to see what my counterparts at these so called tech/operational consultancies ( PA, Accenture and Capgemini) earn.

You should be happy. I graduated 10 years ago and still do not earn 60k and am in consulting.

Only just achieved this after 15 years!

sorry but i cant believe you were a consultant for 15 years and didnt earn more than 60k. That is the average salary for a median consultant ( 5 years experience) at a big 4 - or an analysts salary at a strat house. Where did you guys work?

I've worked on both sides. Started in an IB and now working in consulting. Both pay well. Both generally offer challenging and interesting projects. Both work you hard.The difference for me is in the people. Banking is STILL, unfortunately, riddled with the 80s generation of 16 year old school leavers who despise new graduates coming in and doing a better job than them. Banking is also full of highly dubious, ill-educated wide-boys from Essex sporting footballer haircuts.These are NOT stereotypes. I am NOT exaggerating for effect. Those who've seen both sides will appreciate the truth in what i say. Consulting on the other hand is full of highly literate graduates, clever, well educated, polite, interesting people. And not a single footballer haircut in sight.

work at deloitte as a senior consultant.

work for large global IT company as IT consultant

I feel slightly guilty - I messed up my A levels, got a poor degree and worked my way up in IT to manage a helpdesk (56k after two years) and I now work on a freelance basis within the IT Risk/compliance arena - salary £130k. I was hoping to move into consulting but if they pay so badly, I feel I should re-evaluate my next move!!

Check out thread # 16810 where some consulting salary figures were discussed. Also, for those willing to pay $40, you can access actual salary figures (broken out by firm, position, and educational background) from vault.com. Yes, it&apos;s possible to be in consulting 10-15 yrs. and not break Euro 60k. Just as there are people making millions, there are people making <30k. It depends on the firm, the type of consulting, your billing rate, and your background. For top tier strat houses, the rule of thumb for salary is billing rate/hour x 0.20 factor x # of hours billed/year. Hence, if your billing rate is $250 per hour, at 40 hrs/week and 48 weeks/year (assuming 4 weeks of paid vacation), you should be making +/- $115,200. Which is roughly what an entry-level associate at a top-tier strat house makes. For Big 4, IT, and others, the multiplication "factor" is all that varies.

My charge out rate at the Big 4 is north of £300 an hour. My notional hourly rate incl paid hols is £25!

Always get paid at least 1/5 (if not, 1/4) of your billing rate.

I quite agree - after all, I&apos;d be very happy with £50/hour and my clients would be happier paying £200-£250... I wonder why we don&apos;t do this? Oh yeah - the partners. Couldn&apos;t have them earning a merely really good salary, rather than a totally ludicrous one, could we.It&apos;s an interesting business model where the price bears absolutely no relation to the cost of providing the service. Clients are well able to work this out for themselves of course and this is why even when they are prepared to appoint us they tend to raise an eyebrow at the fee.

The factor of 0.2 sounds pretty low to be honest. Doing a quick calc, mine is around 0.3.I&apos;d always thought the general rule in prof services and consulting was third of the fees for the consultant, a third for costs and a third for the partners.

The 1:1:1 model is traditional as I understand but if you think 0.2 is low... work out what the factor is for a billing rate of £300+ and a salary of £25/hr. The factor is about 13-14, the reciprocal of which is 0.07!Once you factor in the utilisation and the discounts that are applied to hourly rates, I earn between 0.15 and 0.2 x my fee income.

If you are not risk averse, contracting could be a way forward.

I am seriously considering contrating. The day job is killing me - and want to read on the side. Anyone know of the rates on offer at the moment.

Contracting rates largely depend on experience and how hard it is to find a particular skill set at the time. As a general rule in the UK a Business Analyst with 3 yrs plus experience can expect 300 to 375 sterling a day, senior level consultants can get up to 500/550 and so does a project manager…. programme manager can pick up to 650 to 750 a day on the average. On high profile projects the rates are higher and a programme manager can be on up to on 1000/day… these rates are mostly inclusive of expanses….. I think rewards are good should you have a good network and can lineup regular stream of work….I enjoy it because it allows me an opportunity to give myself a raise every 3-6 months, I don’t have to get involved in petty politics, new challenges and varied experiences (one can’t afford to lurch in ones comfort zone for too long)… there are some downsides too… sometime one feels trapped in doing similar type of work (most employers want specific skill set from contractors), on the other side of the spectrum you can very quickly become a generalist (have worked on projects within Oil & Gas, Telco and Banking within last 3 years)….