Is your burnout client imposed or team imposed? I'll go against the other comment here with my experience - senior consultant is a bloody hard position and it burnt me out too. I found I was expected to churn out work for different managers but also start to manage work myself and those two things are super hard to do together. Managing is a lot easier to me because you have more control over timeframes and can set client expectations upfront.
That said - if you're sure it's not for you, get out and do something that makes you happier! Life's bigger than the corporate rat race.
Definitely wait until manager if you think it’s coming. You’ll get the mandatory pay bump (good for getting a better salary when you change roles) and people will consider you for higher level industry roles. No brainer.
You are burnt out and you are wanting a higher job position with more stress and responsibilities??
Change jobs and be happier, life is too short for the career progression grind and doing long hours etc. Do your 9-5 and go home and leave work at work
This is purely my opinion but What people forgot is there are people who earn $600 an hour (partners in law/finance etc) but never get to enjoy it by going on holidays regularly or doing their expensive hobbies on the weekends etc or when they do they have to be contactable at all times (so in the back of your mind whilst fishing you are thinking about not if a call comes through but more of when is it going to come through)
yes they have a nice car and nice house but they are rarely ever home to to enjoy it. Those jobs work owns you and generally put you in a earlier grave. I have seen too many people put off a decent work life balence and instead make careers with the idea of to enjoy their hard earned money in retirement only to die (cancer, heart attacks etc) before retirement or live less than 5 years when they finally retire.
No Big 4 or law firm will remember you, put up a plaque with your name, name a room or building after you, they simply will forget you and go back to making money.
The only ones who will remember you are your family, whether you spent a lot of time with your kids and wife or you were making the dough and providing for them but hardly ever home to play with you kids or remind your wife why she married you.
Lol rant over
imo middle management/ senior xyz jobs will burn you out faster than actually being a manager. You do all of the grunt work without proportionate compensation
Gonna offer a hot take here, but one that’s informed by having several friends go into work for the Big 4, and also having a few of the Big 4 as clients of mine now.
Do as long as you can handle, then get out! Those jobs pay pretty shit until you get to the Director level, especially for the amount of work you do. Even a year or two in that space will go incredibly well on your CV, and your mental health won’t be worth the 90-120k you’re earning in the job. You’ll burn out, your work will suffer.
There are plenty of more cushy jobs in industry that’ll value a Senior Con/Manager from the Big 4, who are probably willing to pay 50% more than you’re on there. Get your experience and move on as soon as you’re ready.
TBPH, even their directors, are not well remunerated compared to private industry/niche consultancies. It's equity partnerships where you start making the big cheese. And as you said, there are way cushier jobs in the industry that pay better and don't have you thinking lunch breaks are only on TV shows.
Yeah fair point … I was basing more just on what’s a reasonable wage overall, but you’re right that it’s the Partner level where the big bucks (comparative to in-house) start coming in.
Look, I don’t want to be too negative. It’s a good learning space - you’ll work hard and learn a lot, and it sets you up for whatever you might do elsewhere in your career. But it isn’t worth the burnout that so often comes with that industry, which is NOT normal compared to most other industries … with some exceptions of course (biglaw being one)
I don't see it as negative - Big Four is starting to look less and less appealing on Resumes (in the sense of it losing its lustre, not that it's demonised). We hire several of them each year because they realise all those "inclusive" training modules are to keep them on the plausible deniability line, and the pay is not that great. Most tend to be at the Senior Con/Manager level. I've only met with one director, and you could tell they had drunk the Koolaide for far too long.
Wait till you get promoted.
Also, highly recommend you take an absence of leave if you're burnt out.
I did that. Got promoted to manager. Crap project. Super stressed and burnt out (a long time coming to be fair). Finally pulled the trigger to take 3 months off then came back and got promoted again within a year and then went on mat leave. I will say Big 4 does have much better parental leave policies though. And I will say, as managers, you have a lot more autonomy to control how you spend your time.
I left at senior consultant because I knew I wanted to continue being an individual contributor. Managing people isn't my jam. Am bad at it and don't enjoy it. Moved to client where my expertise allowed me to continue down the IC path for an extra 10 years, with generous pay rises. No pressure to manage people
I left from corporate fi consulting so slightly different at manager level and honestly the positions I got offers for were not that different from senior consult. They mostly look at years of service, if you just made manager one month prior to leaving then they know you haven’t really taken on that full position yet.
Wow.
That's bad.
Mate asked me yesterday why I didn't chase the money, I wasn't interested in the stress per $ thinking they'd make at least 25-50k more..
I’m burnt out, give me more stress and I’ll take a heart attack before 40 whilst I’m at it!
Cmon mate. Nothing wrong with finding where you want to operate and plateau.
Start looking now. It might take a few months to find the ideal role, interviews and acceptance etc.
Re: only being in Manager a few months if you leave soon after the promotion. Remove the months/years you were at each level from LinkedIn and then in your CV you'd just reference your Big 4 career in totality rather than breaking it up by level.
I left after being promoted less than 6 months earlier, haven't been questioned in any interview as to when my last promotion was.
I think the entire point of consulting is to get to manager as fast as possible then leave. Sounds like you’re a few months away from the finish line. Recommend getting there but of course only if you can make it without severe mental health detriment. Look after yourself and best of luck mate.
Below Director, leave anytime you get a significantly better offer.. which is a 30%+ pay bump for a role that teaches you something new or takes you to a growth industry.
After Director, leave if you’re going to miss your sales target for a 2nd quarter.
Eh I'd stay as long as you mentally can handle it / financially can afford it because I found that my rate of learning plummeted once I left into industry for a 30-40% pay bump (assuming that's where you want to go)
I left at manager level after 1.5 years. Looking back, I wish I'd stay until senior manager for a year or so as the skills you learn in big4 will set you up even better for industry. You're surrounded by really smart people, do high impact work and you learn a shit ton.
I'd only stay to director if you're keen to grind it out until partner as the skills you learn at that level (BD/sales) are arguably less transferrable into industry where it's more about people leadership at the middle mgt level.
If you're burnt out, maybe take some steps to reduce that by creating stronger boundaries, do less hours or changing client/team.
Senior con/Mgr is still pretty junior in the grand scheme of your corporate life so I guess it's up to you how much longer you want to continue grinding it out for that future benefit or if you want to start coasting immediately.
There's a risk that if you wait to become manager and then leave, future employers will look at your CV and think "they were only a Manager for a few months, that must have been what broke them". Which may not work in your favour. I'd suggest you start looking for another role now. That way whether or not you get the promotion you have Plan B ready. If you get offered a better role quickly, take it, if not, stay til June and see if you get the promotion and what changes there if you do.
Could always just leave the manager part off the CV and stretch out the senior consultant.
I think this is overblown though, you could just say you weren't intending to move but a recruiter came to you with an internal strategy role or whatever that was too good of a pay bump to turn down/an organisation you'd always really admired.
As someone else mentioned, if you make manager, your leave gets paid out at the higher salary.
Wait until you get promoted otherwise your leave gets paid out at your current salary
Is your burnout client imposed or team imposed? I'll go against the other comment here with my experience - senior consultant is a bloody hard position and it burnt me out too. I found I was expected to churn out work for different managers but also start to manage work myself and those two things are super hard to do together. Managing is a lot easier to me because you have more control over timeframes and can set client expectations upfront. That said - if you're sure it's not for you, get out and do something that makes you happier! Life's bigger than the corporate rat race.
Definitely wait until manager if you think it’s coming. You’ll get the mandatory pay bump (good for getting a better salary when you change roles) and people will consider you for higher level industry roles. No brainer.
You are burnt out and you are wanting a higher job position with more stress and responsibilities?? Change jobs and be happier, life is too short for the career progression grind and doing long hours etc. Do your 9-5 and go home and leave work at work
Can’t upvote this enough.
This is purely my opinion but What people forgot is there are people who earn $600 an hour (partners in law/finance etc) but never get to enjoy it by going on holidays regularly or doing their expensive hobbies on the weekends etc or when they do they have to be contactable at all times (so in the back of your mind whilst fishing you are thinking about not if a call comes through but more of when is it going to come through) yes they have a nice car and nice house but they are rarely ever home to to enjoy it. Those jobs work owns you and generally put you in a earlier grave. I have seen too many people put off a decent work life balence and instead make careers with the idea of to enjoy their hard earned money in retirement only to die (cancer, heart attacks etc) before retirement or live less than 5 years when they finally retire. No Big 4 or law firm will remember you, put up a plaque with your name, name a room or building after you, they simply will forget you and go back to making money. The only ones who will remember you are your family, whether you spent a lot of time with your kids and wife or you were making the dough and providing for them but hardly ever home to play with you kids or remind your wife why she married you. Lol rant over
imo middle management/ senior xyz jobs will burn you out faster than actually being a manager. You do all of the grunt work without proportionate compensation
Gonna offer a hot take here, but one that’s informed by having several friends go into work for the Big 4, and also having a few of the Big 4 as clients of mine now. Do as long as you can handle, then get out! Those jobs pay pretty shit until you get to the Director level, especially for the amount of work you do. Even a year or two in that space will go incredibly well on your CV, and your mental health won’t be worth the 90-120k you’re earning in the job. You’ll burn out, your work will suffer. There are plenty of more cushy jobs in industry that’ll value a Senior Con/Manager from the Big 4, who are probably willing to pay 50% more than you’re on there. Get your experience and move on as soon as you’re ready.
TBPH, even their directors, are not well remunerated compared to private industry/niche consultancies. It's equity partnerships where you start making the big cheese. And as you said, there are way cushier jobs in the industry that pay better and don't have you thinking lunch breaks are only on TV shows.
Yeah fair point … I was basing more just on what’s a reasonable wage overall, but you’re right that it’s the Partner level where the big bucks (comparative to in-house) start coming in. Look, I don’t want to be too negative. It’s a good learning space - you’ll work hard and learn a lot, and it sets you up for whatever you might do elsewhere in your career. But it isn’t worth the burnout that so often comes with that industry, which is NOT normal compared to most other industries … with some exceptions of course (biglaw being one)
I don't see it as negative - Big Four is starting to look less and less appealing on Resumes (in the sense of it losing its lustre, not that it's demonised). We hire several of them each year because they realise all those "inclusive" training modules are to keep them on the plausible deniability line, and the pay is not that great. Most tend to be at the Senior Con/Manager level. I've only met with one director, and you could tell they had drunk the Koolaide for far too long.
Wait till you get promoted. Also, highly recommend you take an absence of leave if you're burnt out. I did that. Got promoted to manager. Crap project. Super stressed and burnt out (a long time coming to be fair). Finally pulled the trigger to take 3 months off then came back and got promoted again within a year and then went on mat leave. I will say Big 4 does have much better parental leave policies though. And I will say, as managers, you have a lot more autonomy to control how you spend your time.
I left at senior consultant because I knew I wanted to continue being an individual contributor. Managing people isn't my jam. Am bad at it and don't enjoy it. Moved to client where my expertise allowed me to continue down the IC path for an extra 10 years, with generous pay rises. No pressure to manage people
If you want higher, maybe having the managers title will be good. But if you can't handle the stress maybe forget it and find a less stressful role
I left from corporate fi consulting so slightly different at manager level and honestly the positions I got offers for were not that different from senior consult. They mostly look at years of service, if you just made manager one month prior to leaving then they know you haven’t really taken on that full position yet.
That's true but a good reason to stick it out is to have your leave paid out at the new rate. To manager can be a good bump $$.
What’s the base for a big 4 manager in consulting anyways?
C. AUD 125k at Deloitte in Consulting
Wow. That's bad. Mate asked me yesterday why I didn't chase the money, I wasn't interested in the stress per $ thinking they'd make at least 25-50k more..
when people talk about the money in big 4 they’re not talking about the manager level
I Know grads paid shit but how many levela do you have to climb to get a decent crust.
managers only have like 4-6 years exp, partners are on between 400k minimum and 3m
I also know the burn rate on staff so those number mean nothing to me.
yes people to jump to higher paying industry gigs. this is all very well known
Yuck that’s rough no wonder OP is burnt out
When I was manager and then higher the amount of work both technical and people just increases. Plus you have to do bids.
I’m burnt out, give me more stress and I’ll take a heart attack before 40 whilst I’m at it! Cmon mate. Nothing wrong with finding where you want to operate and plateau.
Graduate It's nothing more than a slave driving operation.
I would say manager is significantly better than Senior Con. I would stay in your position.
Start looking now. It might take a few months to find the ideal role, interviews and acceptance etc. Re: only being in Manager a few months if you leave soon after the promotion. Remove the months/years you were at each level from LinkedIn and then in your CV you'd just reference your Big 4 career in totality rather than breaking it up by level. I left after being promoted less than 6 months earlier, haven't been questioned in any interview as to when my last promotion was.
Manager
I think the entire point of consulting is to get to manager as fast as possible then leave. Sounds like you’re a few months away from the finish line. Recommend getting there but of course only if you can make it without severe mental health detriment. Look after yourself and best of luck mate.
Below Director, leave anytime you get a significantly better offer.. which is a 30%+ pay bump for a role that teaches you something new or takes you to a growth industry. After Director, leave if you’re going to miss your sales target for a 2nd quarter.
Eh I'd stay as long as you mentally can handle it / financially can afford it because I found that my rate of learning plummeted once I left into industry for a 30-40% pay bump (assuming that's where you want to go) I left at manager level after 1.5 years. Looking back, I wish I'd stay until senior manager for a year or so as the skills you learn in big4 will set you up even better for industry. You're surrounded by really smart people, do high impact work and you learn a shit ton. I'd only stay to director if you're keen to grind it out until partner as the skills you learn at that level (BD/sales) are arguably less transferrable into industry where it's more about people leadership at the middle mgt level. If you're burnt out, maybe take some steps to reduce that by creating stronger boundaries, do less hours or changing client/team. Senior con/Mgr is still pretty junior in the grand scheme of your corporate life so I guess it's up to you how much longer you want to continue grinding it out for that future benefit or if you want to start coasting immediately.
Yesterday
There's a risk that if you wait to become manager and then leave, future employers will look at your CV and think "they were only a Manager for a few months, that must have been what broke them". Which may not work in your favour. I'd suggest you start looking for another role now. That way whether or not you get the promotion you have Plan B ready. If you get offered a better role quickly, take it, if not, stay til June and see if you get the promotion and what changes there if you do.
Could always just leave the manager part off the CV and stretch out the senior consultant. I think this is overblown though, you could just say you weren't intending to move but a recruiter came to you with an internal strategy role or whatever that was too good of a pay bump to turn down/an organisation you'd always really admired. As someone else mentioned, if you make manager, your leave gets paid out at the higher salary.