<p>Oh, it is different consulting work. And they are “primarily” accounting firms. But it is consulting work, and the consulting arms at each of them are HUGE, far larger than McKinsey and BCG. </p>
<p>I don’t know much about McKinsey. I have (American) acquaintances that work for BCG, in Germany. Met them in Stockholm. Surprisingly, perhaps, all accountants! The two I remember best had undergraduate degrees from Boston U, and from George Mason. (Maybe I hang out with the wrong people…)</p>
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<p>These two statements should be read to every person on cc who chants that there is no value in any non-STEM course of study. Critical thinking will never go out of style much as some might wish it.</p>
<p>And yes a consultant at that level has to be prepared to live the life which can mean home is wherever your rollaboard is.</p>
<p>I have to be honest - in my line of work, if someone said “consulting” to me, I’d never, ever think of Pricewaterhousecoopers, KPMG, etc. in a million years. I would indeed think - oh, this person is talking about McKinsey and BCG. Generally speaking, the work I do is marketing / business strategy for Fortune 50 companies. I would think of those other companies as being the people who handle the books and maybe advise on some financial matters, but not management consultants.</p>
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Only Deloitte has a large consulting/advisory arm. The other three’s consulting revenue is only about 20% of the total revenue. Audit/Tax are still the main service lines for big-4. But as others have pointed out already, the consulting in big-4 is different with MBB.
With that said, although big-4 recruit audit/tax position at many schools, they’re picky for their consulting/advisory position. They’re not limited only to the few ivy-ish as MBB do, but definitely not recruit at every school either. I couldn’t remember which one of the four, that has a webpage to check the service line position they would recruit from the “target” campus.</p>