Do not recommend Deloitte for experienced hires - Consultant Deloitte Employee Review

2.0
24 Nov 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Good brand name on your resume. If you're a recent college graduate, I'm sure you'd learn a lot (although that could be said about most kids who enter the workforce with their first or second job).

Cons

Deloitte - like many consulting firms - use a "churn and burn" business model. Deloitte is successful because most employees do not stay for more than 3 years and are replaced with new hires who are cheaper and are willing to drink the Kool Aid. Deloitte is especially predatory with experienced hires. Their pitch, essentially, is: 1. You'll be hired to perform at your level of experience (false, Deloitte promotes from within and preference is given to those that have been there the longest/have the best connections); 2. You'll be promoted quickly (false, you'll constantly be disappointed by the structural bureaucracy that is designed to keep people as long as is tenable in the lowest paid position - their starting salary). The single most important negotiation you'll have at Deloitte is when you receive an offer letter with their lowball salary. If you're disappointed with your base salary or whatever you negotiate, you're essentially guaranteed to be disappointed during your entire tenure. Those who are promoted are only given the minimum within the pay-band for their level and aren't eligible for a bonus at the time of promotion. (There are other very real systems in place that keep your promoted salary below - trust me, unless you're 23 and never had a real job, you'll be infuriated by your new salary at promotion). Ask yourself how Deloitte can be profitable with massive overhead (their answer to low salary levels is that "we invest in you" with happy hours and trainings) and an ever evolving offerings in the marketplace (ie dubious client ROIs that are grossly overpriced)? The answer is that their business model (like most consulting firms and law firms) is to keep talent costs low and the PPMDs (Principals, Partners, and Managing Directors) skim their contracts, while providing little-to-no value add. I would recommend Deloitte or any of the Big 4 to recent college graduates as you'll learn a lot and can then leave for a better salary and more responsibilities. Experienced hires are the real suckers at a place like Deloitte and I would strongly discourage taking a position, unless you negotiate a competitive salary.

Explore other reviews about Deloitte

5.0
19 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Flexible with work time, ample time off, and well-being.

Cons

Strict on firm policies and challenges in finding openings.

5.0
4 Aug 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

These folks know exactly what they are doing. They set high standards, and consistently deliver. Their project expectations and planning is excellent. The top level management folks are extremely smart and have a great sense of vision and planning. If you go to company social events (which are very frequent by the way), it is quite easy to have conversations with upper management people (Partners). Deloitte's hiring pattern is very consistent. For the young starters, they hire smart, well spoken, and subtly aggressive candidates. They have excellent training and knowledge management. They have a well oiled and empowered HR and Tech Support group. Things get done pretty fast. Their paid time off program is really great, and pretty straight forward. No messing about. They have a big social responsibility program that encourages volunteering. It also presents a great opportunity for youngsters to take event organizing responsibilities. This can be very very useful. Once, I volunteered for an event where we painted rooms for an orphanage center. There was a young guy who did the organizing. We were 10-12 people, with 3 senior executives actually doing paintwork. Quite unique. I have personally seen that Deloitte's top talents tend to start young, spend a 3-4 years, then take a hiatus to pursue a Graduate Degree (typically an MBA). The firm sometimes re-hires these consultants after their MBA with generous financial incentives. They offer much better packages to folks graduating from top universities. Sometimes they can offer huge joining bonuses. I worked in the IT consulting division.They tend to get top-end projects. On projects, the average age seems pretty low. A lot of 20-somethings, then there are a handful of 30-40 year old people and some senior Management folks. Beginner salaries can be a bit low. (which is expected. It takes some time to build credibility in the Consulting business) Overall, a great place to start your professional career. If you pay attention, you will get seasoned very quickly.

Cons

Work-life balance can become poor, especially during tight project timelines (This is expected in the Consulting Business). The employees have a significant amount of "firm-internal" training and knowledge contribution tasks. There are annual goal expectations. It can get tedious if you continuously work on high demand projects. There is intense competition, especially during targeted promotion/milestone years. There can be some backstabbing. It's part of the experience. It is not as bad as it sounds, and seems manageable. A lot of times, being young and inexperienced has it's flaws. The company has a simple way of seasoning consultants. They get pushed into high pressure situations, and they learn fast, and quickly start managing their own work. But they tend to be blind towards intricate details, especially in complicated IT product implementations. This has an interesting effect. If someone is able to do the hands-on work, everyone else tries to piggy-back on that person for their actual work. The hands-on guy gets overwhelmed, and others try to use him/her as a key resource. -- I personally went through a crunch project, and found a number of people "managing expectations" (piggy backing), while a handful of people actually knew the end-to-end solution and did the hands-on work. This created a lot more work and mental anguish than needed. Because of the expressed pressure, the hands-on guys have a hard time building and growing their reputation and subsequent performance evaluation rating. This also affects the project execution timelines. IMPORTANT: Make sure you thoroughly read through your employment agreement and understand the implications. In recent years, they have started hiring for specific projects ONLY. This falls under a particular "AMS service line". In this case, if your assigned project gets into a problem, you are exposed to the risk of employment termination. Their HR and Management are very helpful, and they will try to get you a new project. But there are several constraints like location, your skills, and limited time. I went through this, and it was somewhat unnerving. This was one of the reasons I ended up leaving the company.

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