A day in the life: management consultant at Deloitte

By Florence Ware

I graduated from Hatfield in 2011 with a Psychology degree, fantastic friends and memories. Despite having racked up a few weeks of internships and work experience while I was at Durham, I had no solid career plans.

I was attracted to apply for Management Consultancy after a friend started at Deloitte and raved about it, and on further research it seemed to be the ideal career for me. I was attracted by the variety of the job – the work you do, and the teams you work with completely depend on the client you are working on, and this often changes numerous times throughout the year.

After a year of finding myself (which actually consisted of a lot of career research, job applications and some travelling), I started at Deloitte as an Analyst in Customer Consulting in September 2012.

The first few weeks were spent being inducted in to the firm and included two weeks in the Cotswolds which was a bit like Freshers Week with quite a lot more work and a bit less fancy dress.

We were taught core consulting skills and more competency specific skills (Consulting graduates choose to join one of Finance, Customer, Technology, Strategy, Operations or People & Programmes) as well as completing an intense case study. Deloitte places a huge emphasis on the importance of building one’s professional network, so there was also a lot of socialising and a great opportunity to make 280 new best friends and useful contacts for the rest of our careers.

This induction was followed by 3 weeks of training for Chartered Institute of Management Accountant exams. The ability to gain a professional qualification within six weeks of starting work is something unique to Deloitte, and something which I know will stand me in good stead wherever my career leads me.

I was worried that my lack of experience with Economics, Business and IT could be a hindrance to my consulting progress, but in reality, new Deloitte analysts have done a whole variety of degrees and a lack of experience definitely is not a problem. I was surprised at the number of people in my cohort who had done Masters or a few years of work experience after university; this results in a group a huge variety of skills and experiences which can be utilised across Deloitte’s extensive and prestigious client base.

At the moment I’m working for a client on Oxford Street which is incredibly convenient. I get in to the office for 8:30, check my emails and catch up with the project team for updates on the different workstreams. I am part of a team of fifteen, as well as a group of developers based in India, which is implementing a Customer Relationship Management system to allow the business to record, track and plan around its customers.

My role mainly involves mediating between the developers and the business to define what the system needs to do and how we can best interpret, report on and build strategies around the information held by the business. On a day to day basis, this means creating slide decks in PowerPoint, managing the project Risk and Issue Log, some basic testing and meeting with key stakeholders in the business.

One particular highlight so far has been the travel. Despite having being at Deloitte for less than four months, I have already been fortunate enough to travel to New York and Hong Kong with the project team to hold a series of workshops. I have friends who are based on projects around the UK and the world, ranging from Swindon and Glasgow to Chicago and Moscow – an openness to travel is a key attribute for a management consultant because on the whole you are based where the client is.

On top of project work, everyone does a bit of internal work which ranges from graduate recruitment to internal newsletters and event organising. I have also got involved in some community and fundraising work and there are a huge variety of sports teams and societies.

I leave the office around 7 but this is very flexible and can be earlier or later depending on the stage of the project and any approaching deadlines. Most weeks I’ll go out for drinks either with the project team or with friends from my Analyst intake.  As mentioned earlier, Deloitte is big on networking and they keep us wined and dined well. For example on the first Friday of every month they organise drinks for all the first and second year Analysts which is a great opportunity to catch up with friends on different projects.

My application process took around 8 weeks in total but there can be as little as a three week gap from application to offer at less busy times of the year. The application form required relatively short answers which was a welcome change from some of the other companies I applied for, but it is important to remember that every word counts – you need to make yourself stand out! My first interview was competency based but my final Partner interview was much less daunting than I expected and more of a general chat.

There are quite a few Durham graduates in my Analyst intake but when you think about it, this is of no surprise. Durham graduates tend to be driven and enthusiastic with full CVs of extra-curricular activities, attributes which are supported by the collegiate system and highly appreciated by Deloitte.

I can highly recommend Management Consultancy as a career, and can even more highly recommend Deloitte as an employer. The clients, networks, support, training and opportunities I have been exposed to since September far surpass those of any other graduate schemes which I am aware of. If you don’t know where you’re headed after graduation, just give the application a go, you never know where it might take you.