After reading so much in this forum, I am really sad to see myself in the mirror. I dont know if people are telling the truth or are they just bumping up every fact to make it look larger than life. I have around 6 years experience in consulting. I have really worked hard these 6 years trying to impress every single client and have been really successful in my projects etc. I work for an consultancy which works on the Onshore/Offshore model & the company is a top fast growing company. I was transferred from India and because most of the Indian companies see that as a big favor - they tend to give a very less salary - inspite of the job being in consulting and they charging clients good rates. But I would assume this is the situation everyone who originally came from India would be in.After 6 years of experience I felt being paid 30k approx is a decent salary & was eagerly awaiting some sort of promotion to take my salary up by another 5k. But looking at this forum, i dont know where the problem is. People with 3 years experience are getting 80k. There are consultants from a very similar background who are posting in this forum telling that they get paid 80k or got into an M1 or a C3 in accenture etc. Is this a real fact? Well, I am sure most of you cant tell that, but you can atleast share what you think differentiates me with those who are very similar in terms of years of experience but are being paid more. I would say the reason for my salary is just my company and nothing else. The fact that I posted this was after seeing the post by Aces where I believe he has around 7 years experience but have been offered a M2 in Acn & a super duper package in Deloitte. Are these bumped up, larger than life posts OR are these real? If they are real - doesnt these companies offer these just for people who they think are very different in terms of skills and experience?

Don't worry - they're mostly people talking bollox

I too think so - but most of the idiots who read this believe everything thats on this forum.

frustrated,there are salary bands and these are well-publicized on glassdoor.com and other sites. I personally believe Aces is a prime example of the insecurity that pervades this forum (and if you read Mr Cool's comment on that thread, it goes to the heart of the matter). People like to boast and be recognized for the size of their "package". You'll notice that the most frequent and respected contributors on the forum will never reveal their real earnings except where it's helpful or relevant.

Starting salary in EY's Advisory programme is 32k (up from 31.5k from the previous year)I feel for you dude, thats a bit crap situation to be in given your exp :(

Ask yourself this:Are you enjoying your job?Does your salary allow you to do everything you want to do in your life?Do you have a good work/life balance?Are you respected by your colleagues?Are you learning/growing as a professional?If the answer to the above is yes, then moving because of an increased salary will not improve your situation. You'll have more money but be unhappier for having it.People being paid those big salaries probably have lives that now need those salaries to fund them (fat mortgage etc.) but most of them probably could not say yes to the above questions.Only you know how you feel but once you start chasing the money beware that in most cases some or all of the above will disappear once the money arrives.

To frustrated: what is your visa / work permit situation? If you are restricted to working for your current employer, then I think you are being exploited by your employer to some extent. They are paying you a below-market wage thereby undercutting their UK-based employers. The starting graduate salary at Accenture is somewhere in the region of £32k (plus signing bonus). This is for people with zero experience. On the other hand, if you are free from work permit restrictions, then its a market economy: you are free to apply for UK-based jobs at the big (or small) consultantancies. Then the question becomes whether your skillset and experience will get you hired.Unfortunately I suspect you would be subjected to some prejudice here (some founded, some unfounded). Its not all about skills and qualifications on paper (Prince, Six Sigma, CFA, whatever), but about whether you can lead team of client and consultants, shape work and relationships with senior clients, and a whole bunch of other 'soft skills' stuff. Since this is difficult to convey on a CV, recruiters will try to infer it based on your previous experiences. However, if your consulting experience is largely from India, the recruiter won't know anything about the type of work you have done, the working environment, level of client contact, or types of firms you have worked for. Therefore they will struggle to understand how good your soft skills are, and may reject you simply due to that. This isn't the case for all recruiters, but I suspect the case for most. For example, imagine a recruiter has 20 CVs to read through in an hour. They will spend a few minutes scanning through - if they can't assimilate any of the information to their understanding of the consulting world, they will move on to the next one. Finally, you don't mention what type of consulting you do. Remember that strategy consulting pay is in a different league to what I call management consulting, which is again on a different scale to IT consulting and offshoring consulting.

Am not sure, as it's been a while since I checked, but I think the old "company-specific work permit" situation is disappearing and all work related visas will become a tier 1 / 2 / 3 visa each with industry restrictions and minimum salaries. 30k would not make the cut for a tier 1 visa and would be adding insult to injury if he were in that situation!re. the prejudice factor: sadly true, however there is a subset of IT consulting (AO) which actually values external hires' experience in India as long as you had the right roles (ie you planned the transition of work with the onshore stakeholders). I suspect OP's move to the UK was in one such role, in which case his familiarity with the Indian ways of working is a plus not a minus. (Insert remark that SI bodyshopping is not "real consulting" here.)Indian consultancies exploiting their onshores is nothing new (although with relocation allowances, travel and so on base salary is only one factor in the comp picture). But given half a chance, many move to a non-Indian SI at substantial salary jump (aligning to the UK wage scales), mainly out of resentment at their depressed wages. 'twas ever thus...

Agree with someguy, particularly the last point. Last year one of my clients installed some risk management software. The internal IT work was done by one of the larger Indian firms using on-shored staff. The software vendor later found out how little the Indian chaps (fully trained on the software) were on and promptly doubled their salaries to go work for them. Wet from around 30K each to 60K.

Hello,Just signed a contract with Accenture for a graduate consulting role.Starting salary is 31.5K plus 10K bonus for a total of 40K, before tax obviously, if you are a real hot shot.Pure fact just signed the contact. If you don't believe me check the website: https://microsite.accenture.com/UK_graduate_joiners/Whats_in_it_for_me/Pages/Rewards_and_benefits.aspxAfter 6 years of experience you should be getting al LEAST three times as much! They are ripping you off man

"at LEAST three times as much in six years"?You are beautiful...

HAHAHAHA@ACN Grad, easy on the Kool-Aid. And don't blow that sign on all at once. PS. You might be slightly disappointed come September next year.

What's the matter someguy? If you read what I wrote I said 31.5K base + bonus of 10K if you are a hot shot.This means you get 31.5K as a base before tax and if you are a super hot shot you get an extra 10K.If you are not a hot shot, like myself, you can get the base (31.5K) plus a bonus of probably 0K to 5K so at most 36.5K in total after tax as a first year analyst. No matter what happens a graudate gets 31.5K with ZERO experience which means that after 6 years getting paid 30K is WAY to lowFor Wow: Yeah probably three times is too much but with 6 years experience you should be aiming for 50K to 60K no? Isn't that what managers get paid at ACN?

lighten up AG. Your numbers are spot on, and yes the top end grad sign ons are eye watering. However as you know they come with a 1-2 year lock-in and actually mean your total comp in A3/C1 may be lower if you perform CW or Below. I was just amused at the 3x figure.