Drewidia

I officially wrapped up working for Deloitte about two weeks ago, the firm which I’ve dedicated most of my personal and professional life to over the past three years. Seven projects and five clients later, I led a rather precocious upbringing within the firm from the start. I’ve seen both sides of the fence having workied on highly business/management-oriented projects that were very client-facing to deep-dive technical projects with no client interaction at all.

This was first really ‘proper’ job, which I realized when I had to write a letter of resignation. My job during school was spent creating Flash applications for a rather immature startup who often had issues paying its employees on time. Other than that, I’ve only worked in either grocery stores or factories.

Anyway, consulting. Would I suggest someone take this job? I’ve historically suggested against it to my friends. It can be an incredibly demanding job if you’re good, underwhelming if you’re not. You fly every week, so it’s difficult to maintain relationships with family, friends, and significant others. Girlfriends and spouses are often lost to a consulting career, the children of consultants can be an even sadder story. Specifically speaking of management firms, consulting can be professionally limiting unless you are interested in obtaining an MBA or continuing down a management path.

Otherwise, the perks and pay are great. Free flights and hotels means free vacations on 5-star properties. Expense accounts and per diem mean free food and accommodations while traveling. The salaries almost always exceed industry.

Specifically speaking of Deloitte, as consulting firms go it is one of the best in its tier. If I were deciding between IBM, Accenture and Deloitte I’d go with Deloitte any day.

The most important thing to understand if you decide to start a career in consulting is that you need to drive your career from the start. Partners and managers with their own goals in mind may push you in a direction your not happy with; push back. Personal and professional happiness starts and ends with your initiative.

Only you can decide your level of commitment to your work versus your personal life. Amplification of one will always sacrifice the other, and I’ve found there’s little middle ground or “work-life balance” as is often advertised.

Quick story on managing your career and happiness:

In my first two years with the firm, I made myself physically and mentally ill doing work I hated 12+ hours a day, returning to my hotel at night to work on proposal decks. I never slept, gained a lot of weight and psychologically I was a mess (ask any of the girls I dated at the time, it was ugly). I was checked into the hospital with a 9mm kidney stone from dehydration and exhaustion. I was gone a week from my project. The Partner and Senior Manager had absolutely no sympathy; they gave me a lower rating on my review as a result (both of these nice gents were later referred to as ‘used car salesmen’ by alumni).

Months later I began to suffer from uncontrolled muscle spasms and aches all over my body, which my doctor later attributed as a psychosomatic response to high levels of stress. “Fuck it”, I said, “I”m going to get on a technical project, do work which I love and not break my back revising some proposal deck for the 20th time.”

If you can smell trouble coming, get the hell out of the way and don’t let anybody stop you. Your personal happiness is more important than a moderately bigger paycheck.