I am currently working as an engineer in an oil major (Exxon/BP/Shell) with 4 year experience. I am trying to move away from the technical world and have been offered a SC position in the oil & gas practice of a big 4 strategy firm. Does this sound like a good move, career suicide? Am I mistakenly seeing the grass being greener on the other side of the fence?

How much are you currently earning and how much are you being offered?

I am doubling my salary. I am just worried that opportunities later on might be limited. I have heard that it becomes more difficult to switch from a big 4 after reaching the manager level. Is that true?

Hi Good MoveDepends how you want your career to progress. I moved from Mott MacDonald to a Big 4 and never looked back. Pay, exposure to differend types of work and clients is far beyond what I had before. You will be using your expertise in the sector but will probably develop skills other than the engineering. I can't say about whether you can move away from a Big 4 but given your background, I can't imagine it would be difficult to move into industry if you decided after a few years that consulting wan't for you

Maybe moving from Big4 as Manager is not that difficult, the problem comes with trying to find a proper role. Small team manager, "manager", project manager or business analyst roles in a client organization might seem less challenging after management consulting exposure to top management. On the other hand Director roles are not usually offered to big4 Managers.

You would have to consider how much you are being offered and how much you are currently being paid. Also you have to consider the stability of the job being offered to you, since you are probably stable now in your job and be offered a job that might still be on probation or you will be under observation as a new employee. Nowadays its difficult to look for a stable job so its best that you aslo weigh these things. also would it require you to move and if you have a family will this be convenient for them too.