Hello all,Some advice required, hopefully you people can help out!I am currently working in the public sector (3 years experience) and have recently been looking at a move into consulting. Although I generally enjoy my current job pay freezes, lack of movement and slow progression have started getting to me. I have recently received an offer at one of the big 4 for a role in strategy consulting, in a team relevant to my public section area of expertise. I am really pleased but have a few concerns:1. Will my work/life balance be non-existent? I realise hours will be longer with more travel but is it terrible?2. I obviously don't have a consulting background. Is this an issue? Are redundancies common? Is there a chance I leave my very safe job and find myself redundant in 6 months? 3. Is there anything I can do to prepare myself? Courses, reading etc? Thanks all!

Hello,Simple answers below1. Yes and yes2. Yes, yes, possibly3. YesNow to elaborate1. In consulting expect to be on client site which could be anywhere for up to years... Expect also to be billable and working longer hours. I had commutes that were 4 hours each way. 2. Consulting skills are hard soft skills that time to acquire and not everyone is suited to. Consulting is not a safe job. There are some that manage to hide very well at the senior levels but they do so by being too scary to take down and finding others to blame. One firm recently getting "rid" of people is barely offering more than the statutory payment.3. Forget 32 days holiday, business class, a decent bonus (crap times) and what consulting looks like from the outside. It is not a glamour job. You may improve your income but welcome to the world of job pay freezes, lack of movement and slow progress.

Thanks BB. Big decisions... Big pay rise and arguable better prospects but associated risk and opportunity cost of time and lifestyle.I'd be interested in any other views? Thanks all.

To counter the extremely negative picture painted by Babbleboss and provide an 'average' view of the Consulting worldFor your FIRST Question1. Work - life balance from what you have experienced so far is very likely to change. Excluding travel time, you can get staffed on projects where you will see yourself putting 10 hours days for a few weeks or months. But you have to be really unlucky to be working 10 hours days for majority of the year. I have worked with many in Consulting over the past 9 years and its usually a 50-50 split. You get a project that's not planned well you suffer and then you get on a normal project where its all fine with normal hours2. If you include travel to distant client locations then I agree with Babbleboss though 4 hours is quite a bit of travel! Assuming you take 1.5hrs one way, you are looking at every day being a 12 hour day leaving your home at 0700 and back at or after 1900 - so that totally blows your work life balance out the window3. What many Consulting folks tend to forget is the week is usually just 4 days with Fridays for you to work from home or your home office location. Honestly, working 12 hour days for 4 days a week, setting out Mon and relaxing your way back home on Thursday evening is pretty good and you will be surprised how quickly you get used to itMoving to the SECOND query,1. Job security is dependent on at what level you are entering. It's obvious the higher the level you get in, more the pressure to perform. That being said, you have to really bad at what you do to be in the league of the lowest performers. If your luck is against you, you may get into a bad project with a horrible manager and life will not be good. But then, where can you ever guarantee that will never happen?2. Redundancies due to market down turns is a lot riskier in Consulting than Industry though, towing the moderate line, in today's world its the same in or outside of Consulting. At 3 of my previous client locations, they made huge redundancies at each yet we we continued to staff more Consultants on newer project roles so you can never guarantee anything.3. Finding yourself redundant in 6 months is your worse case scenario - pick the wrong project, dont have the skills or willingness to learn, dont put in the hours and get the Devil as your boss - how practical is that to happen here or anywhere else you go in life? Finally, what you can do to prepare1. Realize that the easier days in the public sector are over2. Dont expect to walk in at 0900 and leave at 1700 - it never happens3. Mentally tune yourself to take in as much as you can and put in those extra hours4. Think about staying at the client location for 3 nights and work from home on Fridays - many Consultants do that and its quite usual. If travel time goes beyond 2 hours then its too much to commute daily. Think of going home on Tue night so you break it that way5. Be ready to learn as much you can and ignore everything else around you. 6. Most important of all - dont compare Public Sector to Consultiing, it's completely different so dont try to find any similaritiesMy adviceYou have been thinking of moving and now have the chance. Money does not come for nothing. You have to put in something to justify being hired and as long as you do that you will be fine. BUT - If you are only taking it for the money not wanting any of the above hoping life will be very similar to your public sector role then dont take it - because in a few months you may realize it was a big mistake and you may very well walk out in 6 months timeConsulting isnt as bad as people say it is but it isnt all about the high flying lifestyle either. It's all down to how you manage your work and make a life around it to enjoy the money and the experience. Working in Consulting is definitely a step up from Public Sector work and you can learn a lot while working with some exciting minds. And as a general statistic, if Consulting was really that bad, no one would hang around - so while there are few who cannot take the long hours, a pretty big majority enjoy working in Consulting. Life aint a living hell in Consulting and you have a good control on how you can shape your career as well as your projects and work life balance - you just have to be good at it :-)Hope this helps. All the best, and let us know what you finally decide to doA

(1) It will deteriorate. The rough guide is meant to be 55 - 60 hours per week. But understand that this is very variable - at the start and end of projects you will be working more, between projects far less.You do become more efficient with your free time (e.g. purposely work ahead to free up time to see friends), so you can have some work-life balance if you are well planned and strong at managing upwards. Therefore, it depends what work-life balance is to you: if it is escaping the office one night a week to catch a movie you can have one; if it is 2 hours of gym per day you probably might struggle...(2) I suspect the hiring manager wasn't a total moron and your background wont be an issue. It will be a TOTALLY different skill set, so you will need to learn quickly. Strategy is not safe. Redundancies are common in this environment and don't discount the possibility of being fired if you fail to learn. Whilst I doubt your current role is as safe as you think, consultancy is risky(3) Not reallyI am far more positive about strategy consulting than Babbleboss. I work for a different strategy firm but I love the fact:- My team is full of bright, hard-working, highly motivated people- My office is so diverse, you can have a conversation with anyone and learn something new- My cases are consistently challenging - I am always learning- The breadth of experience means I know a little about a huge variety of topics- Career progression is much faster than elsewhere- As a twenty something I can personally talk to CFOs of billion dollar companies and have an impact- I have had a lucky run of cases and feel like I am making my (small) mark on the world- We have a flat hierarchy where I can give my opinion to the Managing Partner and it mattersHowever, work-life balance and job security are two of the largest draw backs of strategy I am afraid...

Dear Switcher,I think that you should consider this move as it will definitely be beneficial to your overall experience. With the current economic situation, you should consider this a boon that you were able to get a job in a Big 4 firm. In addition, with the growing presence of losing a job in the public sector, you might be more satisfied with the supposed security in the private sector. I'm not entirely sure about the transition, but I have read an article that goes further in depth on this subject - I have attached the link below.http://www.consultingcafe.com/articles/why-i-stopped-consulting-in-the-public-sectorI hope it helps, and I wish you the best of luck!