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I joined deloitte in 2021, it fucked my entire life. Not only was they not working seriously, I found myself embarked in a catastrophic development with one member of my family fired, myself fired under false pretext, my aunt working in the algerian public sector degraded. And was left jobless, without a nickle nor a psychological nor at least a kind sentence for 4 years, experiencing all sort of abuses, loneliness and depression. To me, yes, Deloitte ruined my life, they can say whatever they want, the truth is that they don't know anything, and worst, they are not honest, they bring smiling people with suits, but they are acting like a mafia

It depends on the consultancy. Some great smaller consultancies out there where work life balance is good etc etc.

I watched few videos about this topic yours is 100% helpful so thank you.

From what I heard, the firms like pwc or Accenture actually don’t pay so well compared to the hustle and honestly, often rather boring work (at least in Europe). You can easily get similar or even larger salary working in the industry.

I stumbled upon you channel and i must say...i am truly grateful i found you😭❤ you give such great advice and i love your personality too😊..Have an amazing day

Did enterprise software consulting for 2 years at one of the 2 big Enterprise software(The German vs the American) upon getting my graduate. Can tell you the hours are really tough... 72 working hours on a busy week is expected. Gone are the public holidays and have to use leave to work. Left because well... the customer value you more than the employer. Anyway employer also wants to outsource all jobs to partners. Can you imagine that my colleague and I nearly got suspended because we were helping the customer and our boss actually audit through the customer account and found our login. WORST sheat ever. Went to a partner for 2 years. Great boss, great environment but the software principal played us partners out again. Could really see sometimes my employer was really darn pissed... Thats it, thats the last straw. The money doesn't dance for the effort you put in. Not worth it anymore. I decided to work in cyber security. Much happier now.

Wow thank you so much! I am a senior and I am considering different types of jobs that I might like, and your videos are super helpful at painting the whole picture of what working as a consultant could be like. Or at a big 4 company for that matter. However, despite me not knowing yet what I want to do, I know for sure that I would love to have the freedom to try these different roles. Maybe not forever but for a while it seems like a good idea to work there.

EY the worst company ever!

so what is the opposite? a product company?

correct, its not for me! Toxic.

Thank you Mika for such helpful insight. My first networking event was really intimidating due to which I missed many upcoming networking events. After watching this video, I realized the best way to cope with these kind of situations is to face them. Thanks a lot for such informative videos.

I’ve been a consultant for over 30 years of my career. Mika’s comments are a good introduction to consulting. What she does not mention is that there are large cultural differences between consulting firms. Publicly held firms (like Accenture) behave very differently than partnerships (PwC, Deloitte). Also, government consulting is very different than consulting for private firms. Anyone who is interested in a consulting career should understand the differences between the firms and the kind of consulting they do. Additionally, there are specialized boutique consulting firms that are very small and very profitable. And she is right, the winning of a contract is different than executing the contract. A good consultant always knows the contract and how it makes money. Scope creep is a killer for consulting careers and for projects that don’t hold the client accountable. It can be a very rewarding career, but a consultant has three masters: the client, the contract, and the firm they work for. All three legs of this stool must be there or the project and your career will fail. And finally, you will do better if the client likes you. Gaining the client’s trust is of utmost importance. Finally, being likable is important because if you can deliver the hard news to clients and if they still like/trust you become gold.

That sounds even more toxic then I thought... I am ok with doing more work as long as it is not intentional planed... I was thinking about consulting....but now I know that I will rather clean. Less stress... probably equal pay considering the hours you work and I still have more of the most valuable resources of all... time.

Yep not for me, glad I switched to engineering :D I get alone fine with my workmates but it takes time

Low-performer

dangggg i'm going to take the preliminary test for business consulting at big 4 tomorrow and now this video scares me...

good

As someone with 4 years of experience in management consulting, I would say that starting your career in consulting is incredibly helpful. Consulting instills in you structured thinking, frameworks, analytical problem-solving skills, time management and most importantly the art of storytelling. These skills are highly transferable and sought after in almost all corporate roles. Will be rejoining it after my MBA as I absolutely love it!

The culture is different at some big 4

What if you want to be a consultant but are nervous about AI's impact on consulting. Try being at the forefront of technology adaptation in management consulting. Here is an AI platform designed specifically to improve strategy consulting. It does about 75% of what a McKinsey, Bain, or BCG does in an extensive/expensive consulting engagement and does it in 90% less time. This will likely arm small to midsized consultants (and companies) with the data collection and analysis tools that the big houses (McKinsey, BCG, and Bain) have used and do it fast: czcams.com/video/R9UujbDZ_dU/video.htmlsi=Qj7BasEBucdOMi2D

Consulting firms = crazy life 😢

Don’t consultants also cheat a lot due to all the stress and travel.

Really helpful and authentic tips!!

“Billabillity above all else.” Don’t know what that means? You will.

I worked in one of the Big 4 as an Audit Associate, and yes the POLITICS was Insane. Still in Therapy because of what it did to my mental Health. 💔

Consulting is the worst industry to join. You will do 2-3 times the amount of work, for almost no pay and Im saying this as somebody who gets paid more than anybody else. You are basically unemployed and constantly pushed onto client projects where you have to have 75% of your time billed to clients at worst. Clients obviously work in different industries with different requirements and environments that you constantly have to adapt. Too much work, too much slavery, less pay for nothing. Most people exit within 1-2 years. You are providing a highly creative, high IQ service, for multiple clients at the same time for almost no pay whatsoever. I think about quitting every single day. Being unemployed was way better.

Most of this I can approve. Nevertheless it is important to set up boundaries, learn to say no, learn so find the things to say yes to, don't work all day - if you do those things it will most likely just a short adventure before you burned down your candle from both sides. And remember - a few people within all those suit wearing consultants still have to do the work. We are always happy and need the quiet hard working people. The client facing people support the techies and the other way around - only presentations will help no one after all.

Since you are a know it all telling us not to join consulting firms what do you suggest that we do for work instead?

Thanks Mika......really appreciate it 👍

I know i would hate the environment lol but as a fresh graduate, I really want to give it a try, at least the internship program.

Whenever I see a manager in consulting with a PMP certification, I call them pimps 😀 If you want a life, don't join consulting. I know, I've been there. Money can't buy your health, relationships, and sanity.

No i think your hat analogy is spot on

Thank you Mika. Very inspiring and insightful knowledge

I was w one of the Big 4 for 30 years. While there were some bumps along the way, for the most part it was a terrific experience

What qualifications did you need to get into tech? Any advice on how to get into it?

Seems like a degenerate industry.

This was super helpful! Thanks for sharing Mika :)

I didn't hear high salaries💔💔💔💔😭😭😭😭

interview in the states sound like joke. What a disrespect for the candidates.

You get pimped out at 1,000 times your salary and you get worked to the bone. No thanks. Choose a career like law or medicine instead.

I just stumbled across this and while I agree with some points not all of them are correct. I used to be a manger at Deloitte and absolutely loved it. Deloitte is a fantastic employer and really looks out for its people. Yes you have to like working with people, you definitely need to like change and be adaptable but that is what makes it so interesting and rewarding as you get exposed to so many different people, industries and experiences. As for underselling and overpromising - it is the client and not the firm who try to undersell - yes there is competition with other consultancies but the more people you can staff, the more profit you make - it’s usually the client that has astronomical expectations and thinks we are some superhumans. Consultants are expensive and therefore it’s in the clients interest to have as few of us as possible on the project and that for the shortest period of time. It’s down to your manager to draw and stick to a bottom line. After all it’s not in the firms interest to burn its resources out. It’s a great career but you have to be realistic whether it is for you and what you are prepared to invest - or how ambitious and work minded you are. You own your career and decide how fast you progress. The evening or weekend work is usually not client related but based on how much you take on internally - I was always told to look after my work balance more and not take on so much extra stuff but I was very ambitious and really loved what I did. I can only speak for Deloitte of course but as previously said - I really loved my time there and only moved into a different job for personal reasons.

I wonder which of these problems are American problems, and which ones would also occur in their European offices.

I have had a very similar experience: 1) extreme micromanagement 2) underpaid and feeling very undervalued in general 3) people meddling in my work duties, competing for projects, career ladder, etc. 4) simply working good enough is not enough, trying to squeeze everything out of me 5) constant bombardment of messages made my nervous system dysregulated, started to have insomnia

thanks, would do

May I ask how often clients ask you things to lightly sautee the books?

2:30 That's how Accenture for example, sees their employees, as object and a number. I don't really recommend consulting. At least avoid Accenture.

How do you consult about things you barely have any experience of? I never understood the “consulting” world. In my head when someone is a consult, it’s because they directly have experience or knowledge about a subject. How do these 20 something year olds who never worked a job in their life go and consult other people’s problems is nuts to me. When I was working at consulting firm for a summer internship it gave me the impression consultants only knew how to talk they were actually completely useless

Isnt the biggest con that you dont do anything valuable to Society?

Not in consulting. Everything else is the same as what described.

Thanks so much for making this video! This is super helpful