I feel like I am a cross roads and I really need to make a serious decision.My interest lies in consulting. I joined a grad scheme in the Big Four, Audit/Assurance, London, FS in Sept 2011 and have just sat the last exam of the ACA.I really did not like audit and so I luckily managed to negotiate a transfer into the Financial Advisory arm of the business.I am enjoying it, but my goal is to switch into the Operational or Strategic part of Consulting, rather than what I am doing now.The reason why I am concerned is that, progression for people in Financial Advisory (some of which uses the ACA) seems so much faster than people that are in pure Operational and Strategic consulting.Is this the norm? I am not 100% money motivated, however I compare how quickly people progress between the two streams and the differential makes me wonder?Is progression that much slower in consulting?

Progression may be slower, but the English is certainly better.Define "progression"? If you want to be called a VP in 3 years, suggest joining an American firm.

By that, I mean there are quite a few people I have come across who have been in consultancy for about 15 years and they are at Senior Manager level.Is this the norm? I am not adding either a positive or negative value judgement to that - I need to understand if my expectations of progression are correct or not.In Financial Advisory/Tax/Audit it seems 15 years and you would be hitting Director if you stayed in practice?What do you think?

Sounds like a fair observation to me. The consulting market has been commoditised in a way that financial advisory doesn't seem to have been. As a result the route to the top is slower.For example in my firm, there have been new grades added, there is an ambition to increase the staff to partner ratios and real salaries in each grade are dropping quite considerably.If you're truly interested in strategy and operations then I suggest you try and make the move to consulting with a view to using it as a stepping stone to industry roles. Plenty of threads on here outline the challenges in making such a move and will be useful. If you think you'd like to stay in professional services, then I'd suggest you'd find it more rewarding and easier to specialise in financial advisory/corporate finance somewhere.

Basically, the internet destroyed consulting. Who needs a consultant on £1000 a day when you can get all the info you need from google.

Surely there is an element of tongue in cheek in your reply?I suppose I have always wondered 'how' a consultant can command such high salaries. In the sense that someone in Financial Advisory has put themselves through the ACA, so there is that premium that could command, even if the actual work itself does not really require elements of the ACA.Whereas consulting seems.. softer somehow?It really is a lot for me to think about it - at the moment I am leaning towards consulting but still need to weigh things up!

I prefer Bing.That's true to a pint, but only that the qualification (whatever it may be, ACA, law, doctor-y) is a platform. That premium diminishes as the number of years that you have been qualified increases.

point. not pint. too early for pint.