Consulting Firms Provide the Best Career Opportunities

Do consulting firms provide the best career opportunities?  Well, according to Glassdoor, it seems so.  Every year Glassdoor publishes a list of 25 companies that are rated best for career opportunities.  Glassdoor is a US-based job and career site where employees anonymously provide feedback on the pros and cons of  their companies and bosses.     These 25 companies are selected based on those anonymous votes and comments by the employees.

Glassdoor does not go into detail regarding how they define career opportunities.  I assume by career opportunities they means

  • Employees’ ability to get a variety of assignment to build transfer skills
  • Level of investment by the company in training and mentoring
  • Company’s culture – whether it rewards high performance and supports those who wants to advance faster

Below is their list re-categorized by industry and my observations

Nine Professional Service Companies – Eight of which are Consulting Firms) – This is not too surprising since professional services firms’ biggest assets are their people. I have worked at two consulting firms and one agency.  I can tell you consulting firms are far better at this than most agencies.     Consulting firms invest in general a much higher percentage of their budget on training and coaching their people, as compared to agencies or corporations.  These firms by nature of their business also provides a greater variety of client projects that can help their employees build out their skills quickly.   It’s interesting to note that Accenture is not on this list.  I wonder why?

1. Bain & Company – Consulting
2. Boston Consulting Group (BCG) – Consulting
3. McKinsey & Company – Consulting
5. Edelman – Public relations agency
6. Booz & Company – Consulting
10. PwC – Consulting
14. Ernst & Young – Consultin
15. Deloitte – Consulting
18. Synygy – Information Technology & Consulting

Four Oil & Gas and Three Manufacturing Companies – This list was surprising.  Glassdoor does not publish exactly how many companies were initially considered, whether the companies are evenly distributed by industry and whether they all had statistically significant responses in order to get on this list.  Given this, it’s hard to say whether these companies are truly the best in the US for career opportunities overall or just the best according to Glassdoor users.

9. Schlumberger – Oil & Gas
13. Cameron International – Oil & Gas
20. L&T – Oil & Gas
24. Chevron – Oil & Gas
7. Suncor – Manufacturing
16. Eaton – Manufacturing
22. GE – Manufacturing

Nine companies in a variety of other industries

4. Guideware – Information Technology
8. Four Seasons – Hotel Management
11. CareerBuilder – Career Services
12. UniFirst – Consumer Goods
17. Northwestern Mutual – Financial Services
19. Gartner – Research
21. Proctor & Gamble – Consumer Goods
23. HEB – Retail
25. Fluor – Design and engineering

One thing is clear from looking at this entire list.  Work life balance was not considered in the criteria.  Otherwise, they would not have nine professional service firms on this list and three in the top 3.  I can tell you from personal experience having worked at Deloitte and McKinsey that while there are a ton of career opportunities in Consulting, be aware of the lifestyle you choose with such a profession as there are usually constant travel and long work hours.

If you don’t want to have your life be completely about work and still want great career opportunities, then perhaps look at the other 16 companies on this list as a starting point.    For more information about this list, go to Glassdoor article.

Your comments: What do you think about this list?  Add you comment below

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I am always in your corner.

Lei

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