After 6 years in industry at the premier retailer in the UK I have been offered a role as Senior Consultant at Deloitte.Presently I am a Senior Finance Manager and find the level at Deloitte a little junior (applied for Manager position) however am drawn to the role and the opportunity to open up to other sectors.At the same time I have been offered a good role at the UKs largest retailer, slightly better pay and the flexibility to define a new and growing part of the business.I am really struggling to make a decision. I have a 15 month old daughter and wish to see her grow but also want a rewarding career however having been at a FTSE 100 all my career the hours are no means easy. I am worried that the retailer is more of the same but then Deloitte may put me on retail based jobs. Both offer quick progression, although I am unsure if the progression to Manager at Deloitte is achievable in 12 months as advised and my colleagues who left assurance don't think it is possible to build the network in this time frame.So I look to the forum for advice; can you make Manager in 12 months? Will Deloitte open doors that working for two of the most recognised and respected company's in the UK won't?

You can make manager in 12 months, but you would really have to hit the ground running and most people in your position... don't.Deloitte will open doors for you if you actually have an idea of where you want to go with your career. If you are looking to do consulting for a few years with the hopes of changing to a different industry and/or function, then yes, Deloitte could probably do it. If you are hoping that you'll join and a career path will present itself you will be disappointed.

Most consultancies tend to low ball folks coming from 'outside' the consulting world and make ridiculous offers but even then people move across and that's, as you pointed out, the opportunity to fast track your career and go places if you have it in you.I admit the role title seems quite junior but if you can deliver more then Deloitte is the best place to be to get that recognition. And as stated earlier, it is not impossible to make Manager in 12 months, depending on their promotions criteria and which month it happens in.If I were you, I'd ask clearly what is the minimum time frame to move up to Manager - are you joining too late in the cycle to be considered and then actually have to wait for almost 2 years to make it through? That will be a bummer and something to think aboutWill it open doors? Yes, it certainly will but even more importantly you will also get a chance at moving across domains which is equally good in today's climate - good skills and cross industry experience at a leading Consultancy is great to have under your belt. It's not easy and only you will know what is practically achievable once you are inAll the best3Ts

I agree with the above.You can definitely make manager in 12 months. But in all honesty, I would look at the 30-month time frame re. making manager.But you might want to look beyond that. What do you hope to achieve? If you think that by going to Deloitte, your career with sort itself out, you are mistaken.If you have an idea, e.g. going to Deloitte so that you can gain exposure across industries whilst making new friends amongst clients, then Deloitte is a good choice.Also, note that Deloitte means long hours. A good friend of mine, she recently left Deloitte (she was high up in there) so that she could spend more time at home.

Hi,At Deloitte, year performance is reviewed at the end of March, agreed in June, with promotions coming into play in September.Therefore, if you join between now and March 2013, you'll have the full 12 months to deliver, with a first possible promotion in Sept 2014.There is also an exceptional promotion window in Jan, so if you missed Sept 13, you may catch up in the New Year, but I'm not sure on the criteria for that.Good luck

Having spent 2.5 years with "BIG 4-ONE" on Manager and then 2 years with UK's leading bank (overall 15 years experience) I applied for Senior Manager at "BIG-4 TWO" and was offered manager (Top Band) with the promises to make SM in 6 months!!After joining they put me into a role "under another manager" who was with "BIG4-TWO" for over a decade and was also contending for SM promotion for the second time!! No issue that another manager was also contending but the issue was how the heck I am going to make SM if I will be functionally reporting into another "Manager" at client site.My concerns were acknowledged by my onsite line manager (director) who clearly told me that in that role I am not going to make SM "ever"!! I felt betrayed by "BIG-4-TWO" and nothing was done by "BIG4-TWO" to keep their promises which were the basis why I accepted their offer and joined at Manager level.It's didn't take me much to sum up that I have made the worse mistake of my career to date that I believed "BIG4-TWO". I resigned within my first month by giving them 1 month notice ( I had to make quick decision considering after first 3 months my notice period was increasing to 3 months and it would have been difficult to get out of "BIG4-TWO" that easily!) I don't regret leaving "BIG-4 TWO", I secured a contract in a month paying me 1.5 times of what I was getting at "BIG4-TWO" and today I manage > £10 million projects and programmes for a leading UK Bank!! Summary, you will never make manager in first 12 months. if you think you are at manager level then don't compromise any level below that. As someone said 30-36 months is the realistic time to get promotion and that's was told to me by the director I was reporting into. I clearly undersold myself and had to leave in a month due to frustration...you may not want to do the same....Having "BIG4-2" on my CV only for couple of months didn't really hurt my career but I have recently learnt not to risk my career any further. I have 3.5 years old daughter and it's really amazing feeling to see them grow. Having worked in Consulting for many years I will definitely never go back into consulting due to work life balance issue. PS: If you are not convinced then you may want to replace BIG4-TWO with Deloitte and then try to feel how frustrating it can be for you if you land up in similar situation ;-)

I'm a little irked by the statement ' you will never make manager in first 12 months' this is not true. It may be hard but it is possible. Just so you have an optimistic option to go with the big bad world (which is mostly true).I joined Deloitte from Accenture. I wanted to go in at Manager, I got SC with same promises of you can make Manager in a year. Just to note that when I did start, I didn't work with [u]any[/u] of the people who interviewed me. So the 'promise' of you making manager is more a statement of possibilities rather than a guarantee. There is some chance and luck that may need to be involved. Take UKCONTRACTOR as an example; given a different role probably would have made it in the first year.So I joined a project entirely outside my service line. Had some luck in that I joined a newish project and so was able to carve out a better role for myself which ended up in getting an exceptional promotion. But, this had huge support from the engagement partner who had frankly gone out of his way to ensure the powers that be from my SL were made aware of my performance. It can be done, you just have to have some luck/intuition/skill to ensure you land a first role that enables this. The challenge is that if you don't know many people in the organisation, it may be hard(er) to do this. But it certainly does happen.

$0.02,Please read my statement in the context of OP, who is coming from industry with merely 6 years exp. He hasn't got consulting background and it will take him good amount of time just to understand the consulting world politics and survive in that world let alone dreaming for a promotion in a year time.Please negotiate at the outset, if u believe you have manager level calibre then why compromise, if not then go with sc and work hard to make manager in 2-3 years. That's the realistic view in your situation.