My Big 4 consulting graduate scheme: what it's really like

First, the thing people still get wrong

The Big 4 are not just accountants. They are consultants — and, believe it or not, that's a revelation to some of their own clients.

They run consulting, M&A, financial advisory, tax, accounting and audit. And in the UK, consulting is among the biggest revenue drivers — for Deloitte and PwC, bigger than audit. Their consulting divisions are also larger than MBB by headcount and revenue. That's precisely why they hire so many graduates every year, and why I was one of them.

If you're weighing the firms up, I've written about what's actually different between MBB and the Big 4.

The induction: two parts, both useful

UK schemes start in September, and my induction came in two halves.

The general induction took a few hundred new graduates to the Cotswolds. Intense, and honestly a lot of fun. The first week taught core consulting skills — how to present, how to run a project, the methodologies.

Here's the bit worth hearing if you're worried about your degree: I did physics, and by the end of that first week I was level with people who'd done business degrees. The gap you're anxious about closes in about five days.

The second week put it into practice, with a bit of competition, and socials in the evenings. Some people got too drunk. Don't be that person.

Then a second induction, specific to your type of consulting — tech, digital, human, strategy — for another couple of weeks. This was where I actually met the people I'd be working with, and where I finally understood what tech consultants did, which I genuinely had not known.

The professional qualifications nobody used

They pay for you to study, and the investment in your development is one of the real benefits of the Big 4 — the volume of training is enormous, and few firms spend on you like they do.

But I'll be honest about the qualifications specifically. Unlike accounting, where you need ACCA to be qualified, consulting qualifications didn't affect my job at all. I didn't use them, didn't use the knowledge, and nobody ever asked about them. Some Big 4 firms have scrapped them for consultants entirely; others have moved to more tailored curricula. When I was applying, I built them up enormously in my head. They mattered far less than I expected.

Then you're on a project, and it's fine

At the end of training you find out your first project and simply start. I was extremely worried about whether I'd be good enough.

The people were open, friendly and easy to work with. No question felt stupid. They took time to teach me things.

And this is the underrated advantage of a big firm: it is a genuinely safe place to fail. You're an analyst, you're Bambi on ice, you'll make mistakes constantly — and there are enough senior people around to catch you. I made plenty. It was fine.

Don't let them box you

Moving between service lines — consulting to audit — is hard. Moving between teams within consulting is much easier, and you should use that.

I came in determined not to be pigeonholed, so I met as many people as I could, simply to find out what existed and what sounded interesting. That's another quiet benefit of a firm with a few hundred thousand people in it: there is always something you haven't heard of.

No team I worked with in my first two years was the same. I did over five projects in that time and eventually started choosing them. One honest caveat: there's a lot of client contact, but often senior people do most of the talking and presenting.

Work-life balance

It is not a nine-to-five, and it depends enormously on the project. But the flexibility is real, and it's the biggest difference I notice against friends outside the Big 4 — if I want to leave early for dinner with my family, I can, and the firm is genuinely accommodating about people's commitments.

That flexibility is, in fairness, reflected in the salary.

Is the Big 4 right for you?

It's a good fit if you don't yet know what you want to do, because the sheer variety of projects lets you find out on someone else's payroll. It's a good fit if you want a wide base of transferable skills, a name that opens doors, and a career path that's mapped in front of you.

It's a bad fit if you already know exactly what you want to be expert in, or if you'd resent months on a single client.

The unexpected part, for me, was the people. I learned salsa, ate samosas at Diwali events, joined retail communities — and made actual friendships, not just colleagues, which I never expected from work.

If you're applying and worried you don't look the part on paper, read how I got in with no business degree and no consulting internship.