PwC Buying Booz & Co.

Doubtful that MBB loses that prestige title, but PwC clearly just became the #4 in my mind. Booz was already considered #4 after MBB.

Consulting prestige snobs are going to have a tough time acknowledging a historical B4 accounting firm as a top tier strategy consulting firm.

The broader issue is the cultural aspect of integrating Booz into a B4. I think this sets PwC clearly on the path that Deloitte Consulting went down...run it as a separate business that rolls up into Deloitte and Touche.

You can't manage a consulting firm (pay, culture, promos, etc) the same way you manage audit and tax. It is an issue that EY and KPMG also will face in the future as consulting grows to be larger than their assurance and tax practices.

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Deloitte wannabes.

BYOB, P dubs

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I think this dynamic may have just flipped

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Doubtful that MBB loses that prestige title, but PwC clearly just became the #4 in my mind. Booz was already considered #4 after MBB.

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I had the wrong B anyways I wonder what Booz new hires are thinking?

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The audit/tax side of the business holds back the advisory practices so much. It annoys me daily some of the silly independence issues we have to deal with because we are technically the same company as the audit/tax side.

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The risk process at the B4 is absurd.

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Kinda an overly simplistic explanation don't you think?

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Yes and no. The internal struggle between the traditional accounting practice and the consulting practice at Andersen is well documented. The struggle created incentives to compromise professional standards that became evident in the Enron scandal that led to the firm's demise.

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Well, I know that our advisory side is being held back because of staffing issues. There's plenty plenty work out there, but we don't have enough people

Thus the people we do have are forced to work longer hours

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Meh, staffing issues are always just an excuse. It's not like they would stop taking on new work once they hire new people. The relief never actually comes.

I don't miss my B4 days. Best of luck to you that keep on keeping on!

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Exactly! It is a perpetual issue of understaffing and overworking. Once they hire more people, a ton of new work is sure to come. The issue they will struggle with is adjusting to the next few new hire classes that will want more work/life balance. Getting off topic I suppose.

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This isn't going to be that big of an issue. Professional services offers the most flexibility anyone out of school could ever expect. As long as I have a computer, internet and a phone, I can be sitting on the beach in Tahiti getting my work done -- as long as said work gets done on time and to the correct level of quality.

I hear about new staff that can't handle that kind of responsibility all of the time. If you need to be crammed in a cube to get work done, then I do not envy that situation...even if you are working 10 hours less a week than me.

The flexibility, executive and project exposure, perks of travel and the name on the resume are more than enough to please future generations of professional service grunts.

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Dude, that flexibility word being tossed around is a bunch of horse shite. I am sure everyone's experience is different but a flexible schedule with 65 - 75 billing hours a week means you get to run errands when you need to but work till 3 am the rest of the week to make it up. I see this 8 months out of the year. At the end of the day, work is work no matter where you are doing it from. My peers in industry work about half as many hours as I do.

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Go work in industry then. Problem solved.

Lynx speaks truth. Professional services is not for everyone. It can be brutal, but in the end you won't find very many other places with the kind of career spring board the big 4 has.