I have been offered job so far with KPMG Public audit (sept 2007), Accenture March 2007 (public) and hopefully soon Deloitte Tax technology Consulting. Any advice- My inclination is ACN, I know they get slagged off a lot on here but from the outside it looks like really interesting work. Also pay is better and nice £10 grand golden hello. Deloitte/KPMG pay less but I would be working towards ACA which is nice to have under the bealt. Any opinions gladly accepted, cheers.

Noone can make the decision for you, go with your gut- but I can tell you I'm ex Deloitte and they are a fantastic firm. I learnt lots, got a qualification and thoroughly enjoyed my time there. I've never worked for the other 2 and wouldn't want to , but different firms suit different people

cheers Brian, I know the decision is mine to make and I'm not trying to outsource it to anyone else- I do have a gut decision and am pretty sure which one I'm going to take but the more insight and info I can gather beforehand is all welcome. Deliotte certainly seems like a nice place from what I've seen. ACN seems pretty cut-throat which in a way entices me as I'm still young and feel I have the stamina to endure that sort of thing and maybe even thrive on it- but not what I'll want in 5 years say. Other 2 I'm sure the work will be tough and demanding but not so competitive which obviously might make the workplace nicer. My main point of thought is that though ACN seems most exciting out of them, KPMG is #1 and Deloitte #7 on Times top 20 big companies to work for. ACN is nowhere to be seen!!!

Isn't Deloitte number 2 this year or something? Think they have also done better in the Consulting table.Also - audit is (obviously) not the same as consulting. If you are posting on this site, I assume you have some interest in the latter. Deloitte has a fully-fledged consulting practice; KPMG does not.PS why did you go for Audit and not Deloitte Consulting? You do know the latter pays more and would be more competitive with the Accenture offer?

Mike, are you at graduate level? You have to be aware of the fact that these companies do quite different work, and you will build a entirely different CV profile depending on your choice. ACN is definetely much more IT based kind of work - unless you go for strat or f&pm service line. DC seems to offer quite a diversity of options which i would challenge in the interview.BTW: you might also want to give PwC PIC a try.regards,profblaumann

Thanks for all the responses. I know the types of work differ a lot, basically when I first sent off my applications I cast the net far and wide as I wasn't sure how successful I'd be. My preference is for consulting which obviously makes ACN and DL standout more than my KPMG offer (Audit looks like it would be much more boring than consulting). From the recruiting process all the way ACN has looked like a really good firm to work for but they get trashed all the time in this forum- obviously during recruitment they aren't going to come out with all of the reasons why they aren't such a good employer. The Deloitte option isn't in the bag yet but they have a really solid reputation as a good employer (like KPMG) but it wouldn't be doing audit so that might be the best bet. May try PWC, the other thing with ACN is that the starting pay is about 40% more than the other 2 which makes me think perhaps I'll have more responsibility early on. KPMG/Deloitte always get positivish feedback whereas ACN nearly always is shabby, as I'm no insider its hard to know what to make of that as from the outside ACN looks pretty good- is ACN really that bad or is it just that the people who come into forums tend to be the discontented type?

tell me: what service line and operating group do you have an offer for at Acn and ill tell you everything you need to know

BSI grad entry Government operating line. I know that with the NHS thing this might be a bad time to go into this area but on the other hand I'm endurable enough that I'll try to make the best of whatever comes my way and if after a few years experience I want to move on elsewhere at least I have some CVmaterial.

Peters, what do you think the best operation line is and why (if you've got time a quick pro/minus of each would be really appreciated). I've heard government is neglected a bit but my gut feelings as to what I might want to do in a decade or so time is more public than private sphere so I thought consulting especially with IT will put me in really good stead for this. Do you work for ACN? Is it really all doom and gloom or is it more what you make of it- ie is it guaranteed not a great job or if you put the effort in can you get some good out of it? I mucked around at Uni for too long and will be a few years older than most other entrants but basically I'm thus more hungry to prove myself and make the most of things. (I'm 26 which is apparently the average age of all ACN employees! feel like an old bastard and I haven't even joined yet)

PS- do you know if there's much leeway to swap operating lines if you want to do so? Obviously the earlier you try the better the chance- worse scenario I say I want to swap and then they just chuck me out altogeather.

People always bitch about ACN- truth is its a better place to work than most people are blessed with in the UK

Mike,To be honest, recruiting @ acn is very professional compared to their peers. Do not get too impressed by that!! Always try to talk to your future peers. HR do not have clue about day-to-day work, and M and SM tend to brigthen up things.After reading your comments, in my opinion, you first have to decide for yourself-which industry do I want to go in/see myself working in 5yrs/after consulting? genereally, it gets much more difficult to change into others once you accumulated some exp. in one. One possibility at ACN is to go for "global service lines" where you focus on functional areas F&PM, SCM across industries- what time of Cons work do you want to do? finance (->DC), more IT-focused kind of work (->ACN). ACN does pay more for juniors, but does not support ACCA/CIMA etc. This is a nice plus if you want to stay in that area. Anyway after 2-3 years exp, the differences are much smaller.ACN is a nice place, but it demandes much much more "pro-activity" on your part. There a very nice oppportunites within the firm (clients/breath of work etc) and you have to fight for them. Just swimming along and hoping that sby does things for you won't suffice....good luck,profb

I work for both Deloitte & ACN. 3 years Deloitte, got my ACA, did loads ofIT Audit work, and business process reviews, loads of client facing work and responsibilty. Then went on for 2 years at ACN. Joined as consultant (due to ACA), and found most of the analysts I worked with had never worked with clients but mostly internal ACN teams and managers. I had several projects where it was just me, an ACN manager and loads of clients staff - a lot of my friends who were analysts or more IT literate consultants were envious as I had such client facing roles..just something tothink about

Hi yasmeen,Do you think that a background in IT Audit (CISA qualified) provides a good entry point into consulting?

hi david,I made it work for me - Once I had my ACA, I then also did the CISA exam. REcruiters were trying to push me into just internal audit roles but I had it clear that Iwanted to try Consulting hence ACN... I sold my client and mangement skills, and also that I was a very IT literate person ... ACN also have a FPM group which is made of mostly ppl which ACA/CISA backgrounds so you could look into this..

yasmeen,thanks for your reply - I'm currently riding out the tail end of the SOx wave and I intend to attempt a move into consulting next.