I've been lucky enough to land grad job offers within consulting with Deloitte (strategy), PWC (both strategy and management) and Accenture. Salaries are virtually identical. I didnt plan for this scenario either, I hadnt a single offer before completing each of the recruitment processes. Im almost at a loss to decide, and was hoping for input from you all. Which of these would you say is the best place for me to start a career in? Any particular reasons? If you had to rank these, how would that come out? Many Thanks

Imagine reading this:Dear All, I want to go on holiday and luckily i have won a competition that allows me to pick one of 3 destinations. I am not going to tell you what it is I like in a holiday, but I would like you all to comment on which one I should take.So why not start by suggesting what it is you want in a career/job. Then people can possible give you light how each one of these can meet/fail your criteria.

very true, but in order of brand and value on CV I'd say : Deloitte, Accenture, PWC

Knowing only what we know from your post, I would advise going for whichever of the options appears to give you the most comprehensive exposure to strategy consulting work (you don't state whether the Accenture offer is in strategy or not).Whilst strategy isn't the be all and end all of consulting, you'll see from this forum that lots of consultants aspire to finding a way to move into a strategy role and often find this a struggle. Many resort to gaining an MBA to try to orchestrate such a move, which even then may or may not be successful - and will necessitate having gained the MBA from a really good school. So if you have a genuine strategy offer within these three offers I would take that over and above the brand considerations of the three firms you mention. All three are highly regarded so you're not going to do your career any lasting damage by choosing any one of these over the others.Of course if you're able to shed more light on how you'd like your career to develop you may get some more tailored advice on here...Well done in any case and welcome to the consulting industry!Tony RestellTop-Consultant.com

I'd say go for the company where you think the people are the best to work with. By which I mean nice normal friendly honest people, not plonkers or slave drivers. There's nothing worse than working with a bunch of plonkers.

Cynic get back to work!

Sorry boss..... *stumbles back to cubicle for another 8 hours of putting together graphs for powerpoint decks* :-P

Assuming that the offers are for the same practices within the firms, and that you only care about reputation and CV building ( a bold assumption), I would also pick Deloitte, Accenture, PWC. Deloitte is considered a great place to start a career (just look at rankings of "best places to start a career"). Generally in the non-strategy firm league I would place Deloitte as the top wholesale consulting organization.This is the perspective of me after having worked at a competitor and as a future consulting firm client.

Rank them in the order that you have ranked them (in other words D P A ). It looks to me as though you were right first time. Accenture were the future once!

In the context of the above, I agree Deloitte is the best non MBBB firm (although note it's strat practice has been in decline for the last few years, has new leadership and is expected to be significantly overhauled to make it more competitive with mbbb. Suggest this will be more of an opportunity than a threat for you, but still worth knowing)However, I would say pwc is more credible than accenture for all but tech roles.

I'd go for E&Y !

Well done - 3 offers isn't just lucky - it's impressive, and a reflection of real hard work!When you're done congratulating yourself, I'd say to go for the one which you have the best feel about - where you felt most comfortable. Accenture has a tendency (mostly) to be more IT focused, PwC and Deloittes are going to be broadly similar. What's important in terms of your learning and development, at any stage, but especially as a graduate, is to work in the right environment with a supportive and open culture. This is partly about the culture of the organisation, and it's partly about your fit with the organisation - where did you feel most at home, and therefore where would you feel most comfortable? It's also worth considering the investment that the organisations would make in your development - what kind of training would they offer, how often, how much different experience would you get (as a graduate, I'd say you should aim for your experience to be as varied as possible so you can try out different areas and find what best suits)? Would they offer the opportunity for professional study (if you want it), good promotional prospects (they should be broadly similar) and access to a similar pool of graduates who you can learn, network and socialise with?Whilst you have a tough decision, it's the best kind of problem to have - best of luck,T

based on my experience i would say the following:- ACN: large network, IT focussed, international opportunities- deloitte: gets you closer to the CFO in my eyes, I have seen some projects where deloitte does the business consulting & strategy but ACN/ others take over the delivery. - PWC: no clue.