Deloitte Consulting

My experience with Deloitte comes straight from the Student Leadership Conference in Pittsburgh, PA. This site contains information about career at Deloitte, etc. Any misinformation or incorrect names, etc. is not Deloitte Consulting's fault. I made an honest effort to get everything right, but if you notice any thing that's wrong, please notify me. Thank you! :)

Now I'd like to thank Deloitte Consulting for the wonderful experience. Thank you Sandy, Paula, Jenny, Ms. Cunningham, Angie, Cindy, Lisa, and Brian for all your effort. Special thanks to Paul for the wonderful workshop on CORE. Last but not least, thank you all the student attendees because you made it real fun!

Currently, I haven't developed any pictures from the conference, so for now, the site has no pictures. I plan to add pictures soon. :)

Day 1, April 7, 2000

Fantastic weather in Charlottesville, and I couldn't wait to get to Pittsburgh. But of course, I couldn't find my ID, so I had to go to the nearest DMV to make a duplicate, later to find the original one in the bottom of my purse. *sigh* But everything's fine. I found the airport without a problem, and I must say the Charlottesville airport is new but sterile, i.e. no bookshops or anything.

What scared me the most was the tiny planes. They weren't the "real" planes you typically see at the bigger airports. But since I'm a brave woman (or so I think), I was fine with that.

I looked for Justin Marsh since Sandy told me about him. I emailed him before, but he hasn't emailed me back, so I'm guessing that he was either really busy or my server failed to deliver it to him. Ah, I see a young guy with a laptop (typical Comm School thing), and I asked him if he was Justin. Of course, I was right *smile* so we talked for a while.

The flight was slightly rough, but not unbearable. I was in a worse situation before, when the pilot had to land despite strong wind, etc. Actually, the place was in the middle of tornado season, and guess what? Yes, we were trying to land when the weather people issued tornado warnings! So the big plane had shaken like a leaf in the storm. But Pittsburgh was fine. No tornados. Just freezing cold weather in 40s. I should have checked the weather, instead of assuming that since it's April, it's going to be spring. You know what "assume" does, right?

Justin and I rode a cab together to the hotel. Westin was an excellent hotel with very friendly staff members. I was surprised to see that I was in a single room because most of conferences and workshops put you in a double room with a roommate you've never seen before. But hey, who's complaining?

I unpacked and ironed my suit and dresses. I wore a black spring dress and then wander around the hotel, wondering where everyone was. Then I went back to my room and watched the Simpsons for a while until the reception time.

When I arrived at the reception/dinner room, Sandy and Paula were working diligently to get everything ready. Sandy was surprisingly petite. For some reason, all the recruiters I've dealt with were tall, so maybe I expected her to be tall, too. Sandy was from the west region, and she was very fun to talk to. Paula was from New York office, except when she said she was from NY, I assumed she was from NYU! She looks incredibly young. :) Actually most people from Deloitte looked very young and energetic.

The student attendees were also very cool. I met a few people from UCLA,, and the first thing I asked them was "Have you met Michelle Kwan?" I'm a figure skating fanatic, and MK is one of my fave skaters, so I had to ask. *g*

One of the funniest moment that night was when Ms. Cunningham, a partner from NY office, said "You're all getting an offer." We all perked up, thinking, "Cool." Unfortunately, she really meant to say that we were getting a first round interview for a position at Deloitte, which is just as cool. I prefer a company to be a bit more selective about the selection process because I want to work with great people.

Then there was dinner. It was excellent, and we had a chance to ask a ton of questions to Deloitte people sitting at our table. Cindy talked with us, and the poor lady couldn't even eat because she was too busy answering all our questions. I loved it that she was so honest and down-to-earth about a lot of things.

After we were completely stuffed, Paul took over. Paul is from PEAK Learning, and he had a lot of interesting things to say to us around quitters, campers, and climbers. As I listened to him, I wondered about my personality. I'm a climber in most aspect of my life, but I think I'm a bit of a camper in the other few aspect. Overall, Paul's speech was very inspirational and motivating.

Then the evening ended. We all had to get up early, but since we were college kids, we went out. At least a few of us did. Angie from Deloitte went with us, and she was really cool. And just like I said before about Deloitte people, she was intelligent, full of energy, and looked really young. She told us a story about how a stewardess mistook her for a 15-year-old girl! @_@

Day 2, April 8, 2000

We all got up early to go to the Pittsburgh Office of Deloitte. Unfortunately, it poured outside, and we all had to call multiple cabs to get there. The office building was very nicely designed, and I loved the layout of the office.

And we were fed.

I'm not complaining about food or anything, but we were fed often and well. Since I love food, I was in heaven. ^_^

The managing director of Deloitte Consulting discussed the success and the future of Deloitte. I was impressed with the growth rate of Deloitte (approx. 35% or so per year), and the atmosphere of Deloitte was very friendly and friendly. 32% of Deloitte's clients are from manufacturing industry sector, while 12% came from financial services, which is something I'm interested in since I want to be able to lever my finance and MIS.

Deloitte expects e-business to create about 50% of its revenues in the future. It actively engages in ventures, alliances, influencers/thought leadership with leading corporations.

Then Paul took over to talk about CORE and LEAD. His CORE/LEAD session was fun because he used examles we college kids could relate to easily.

Because I think Paul's CORE/LEAD materials are copyrighted and I think he deserves to be able to use the materials to do consulting, etc., I'm not going to post my notes from his session. Suffice to say that the whole point of the session was to let you know that you should take control and accountability and understand the realistic overall long-term reach of the situation and NOT quit!

During lunch, I had a chance to talk to Jenny Southern, and we discussed how Deloitte could have stronger presence and build awareness among UVA students. I think UVA has great students, and they'd love to go to Deloitte if they were more aware of the company. So I volunteered to give her contact info to career directors at UVA and the management consulting professor. I felt comfortable about doing that because I liked the company and the people. *smile* (I would not have done it if it wasn't so.)

After lunch, Ms. Cunningham talked about the consulting engagement cycle and the career at Deloitte. Since I think many people would be more interested in career at Deloitte, I'm going to talk about that.

Deloitte has two different career tracks for consultants. You can be a business analyst or a system analyst. If you're a BA, you're expected to get your MBA after 2-4 years of work. Since Deloitte would love to keep its top performers, if you performed exceptionally well, Deloitte will pay for your MBA tuition. This is a real good deal IMO because MBA is an expensive degree. Furthermore, during your MBA years, you can come back to Deloitte for internships or intern in a different industry as long as you do not go to another consultancy.

If you're a SA, you don't have to get your MBA unless getting an MBA is your goal and something you want to do. Just like with BA, if you're a top performer, Deloitte will pay for your MBA tuition, but the company will expect you to do studies in technology so you're up to date.

All consultants get career advisors/mentors who will help them with career strategies and planning. Cindy told me a lot about it, and she was very happy with the company. I could tell why Deloitte was selected as Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For for three years as I heard her talk about the company and how the company is doing everything it can to help you be successful and happy with your work.

Then they had to feed us ice cream... ^_^

And since I get sugar high very quickly, you can just imagine what happened. We did a skit to present our solution to a problem, and I was literally bouncing all over the place. People said it was funny, but I felt slightly abashed after it was over. *sheepish smile*

After that we got some free time. I went to see Kim and then back to my room to watch figure skating. I'm a figure skating fanatic, and I think this year's figure skating season was a bit bizarre with freak accidents and injuries, etc. to figure skaters.

At around 7:00, we went to the Andy Warhol Museum. Warhol is the guy who did the Campbell Soup drawings. He's an interesting character, who not only did art, but did movies, etc. The museum was modern in looking, esp. inside to reflect the type of art Warhol did.

At the museum, we also had dinner, and Deloitte people from Pittsburgh office came to talk to us. I can't remember the recruiter's name right now, but a recruiter from Pittsburgh came to our table to talk to us about Deloitte, etc. It was really fun to talk to her, and she was very honest about Deloitte and what it's like there.

When we got back to our hotel, many of us decided to go clubbing, while Sandy continuously reminded us that we have to get up early tomorrow. ^_^ I decided to stay in since I don't have any winter clothes. Cindy wanted to watch American Beauty, so a few other people and I went to Cindy's room. We ordered some food and kicked back and watched the movie after a major American Beauty shortage crisis. Oh, yeah, and we ate Mozarella nuggets. Don't order room service without asking for description of what your food looks like.

Day 3: April 9, 2000

I got up bright and perky the next day. I was kinda tired, and so was everyone else, but everyone was very energetic and we were ready for brunch at Grand Concourse. My word of advice: If you're in Pittsburgh, go to Grand Concourse for brunch! They serve great food.

We all sat together, ate a lot of food, talked about our weekend in Pittsburgh, and took a ton of pictures. When it was time to leave, I almost felt sad because it was so fun in Pittsburgh. When we got to the airport, we hung around and chatted until we had to board the plane. And despite some rough weather, I arrived safely in Charlottesville. ^_^

Conclusion

What do I think about Deloitte?

I think it's an awesome place with great people. I can't say enough good things about the people I met from Deloitte. I'd definitely recommend the place to anyone thinking about going into consulting.

How about the conference?

It's one of the best opportunities to meet bright people all over the country. I highly recommend you attend it if you can. Also talk to your school's career center and deans to see how your school can participate in the event as well. ^_^