Folks - I have two offers one from Cap and one from E&Y BAS - both in the Fin & Pref areas, package is the about the same level. This will be my frist role in consulting (move from a finance line role). Would welcome any comment to help me pick ?My thoughts are take a risk on E&Y because I would be intrested to work for a parntership and CAP is mainly doing the big system thing and not "real" consulting. Thoughts ?

with Ref the above post - the question could be E&Y BAS or CAP or OTHER ?eg I am early in my Job search - both CAP and E&Y are the 1st to come back to me - should I hold out from one of the other frims ?

I wouldn't rush to join EY BAS. It's been taken over by a load of ex-IBM'ers, many of whom oversaw the cultural demise in BCS FCM.Have a look at the E&Y BAS discussion at the bottom of the next page if you want more detail.CG are a good bunch. Try also ATOS. If you're interested in the partnership model PwC are also recruiting like mad, and PA (an employee owned company) are also building their FM exposure.

I was in in exactly the same position as you in that I am moving into my first role in consulting having previously been in finance roles in industry and financial sercvices.I think the decision will come down to what kind of work you want to do as EY BAS are positioning themselves away from the systems based consulting approach of the other firms that I interviewed with and received offers from.As for the practice being full of ex-IBM'ers, I think that is a fallacy as although the lead partner is ex-IBM, most of the other senior guys that I met and was interviewed by were from either DT, CapGem or ACN.Good luck with your decision.

Can I ask what you were doing in your previous finance roles? I am looking to move into consultancy, too, and would like to understand how you got your first consultancy job. What experience/knowledge/skills were they looking for? Thanks in advance.

Guest - thanks for you thoughts, I notice the same, people I have meet at interview are not ex-ibm. Have you started with them yet ?FYI My Background is CIMA + 5 years pqe with two large blue chips. Not done an internal consulting role but I have been involved in a lot of change, some people mgt and some customer facing roles.

i start in june.i think you just need to decide what kind of work you want to do when deciding on firms, which for me wasn't the systems re-engineering & implementation work that other firms seem to do a lot of. i'm also cima qualified and so i want to build on that to actually work on solving finance related problems, asides from those that arise as a result of poor systems.as for my finance background, i started in practice and then moved onto various reporting and analyst positions. the only real constant through the roles are that they have all been in either blue chip orgs or bulge bracket banks.hope this helps.

Some of the chatter on vault.com about BAS in the UK might offer you insight into the culture

I'm amused to see the same vault link posted in all the E&Y BAS threads. Not sure it helps very much! CG are a great company as are E&Y. Depends on the focus you want to take - make no mistake, CG is great at IT-enabled change programmes. E&Y is all about smaller, high value advice to the CFO. Take your pick.....

"E&Y is all about smaller, high value advice to the CFO."Whoooo ! Weeee !!!Haven't laughed so much in ages !!Keep them coming

I worked for CG and am now at EY as are many people from Acn, CG, IBM, ATOS and AT Kearny. I agree that it depends on the type of work you want to do. At CG, you will be involved in transformation of finance through IT. At EY, we are positioning ourselves outside of IT as an advisory. CG is a good company but lacks strutures and systems to support it like ACN or EY has.

I joined FS recently, having come from one of the big System Integrators. I left that organistion because of the poor quality of management, and the politics. FY FS is like a breath of fresh air, in comparison.It is concerning that BAS has been taken over by IBM and ACN partners and directors. I hope that they don't drag the culture down to the level they did at their former employers'.If you want to join a growing finance advisory business, BAS would not be my first choice. I don't know much about CG, but why not try Deloitte, KPMG, or PA ?Good luck in your job hunt.