Deloitte Reviews in Chicago, IL Area

Pros

One of Big 4 firms, ability to obtain a broad range of experience quickly, good if you like to travel, generally talented work force, good travel policies, laptops are decent, good internal resources on technical topics, still fairly well respected by clients int he market, can be a great place to work if you are lucky enough to land in a group led by good management / practice leaders

Cons

Very weak leadership, multiple reorgs, culture is very bad for employees, leadership tolerates bad behavior on the part of management, ethical standards are very weak, very litigious company, long track record for firing employees that bring up any ethical issues, viewed as hard to do business with by customers, incentive structure encourages counterproductive internal competition vs. focus on winning projects for the firm, used to be much better run before 2005, many talented people leave due to poor work environment / lacck of leadership

Advice to Senior Management

get back to basics, focus on clients and treating employees well, get leaders in place that have actual leadership skills, change incentive structure to eliminate ounterproductive internal competition between groups so that the firm can win more projects and be more successful, reward good behavior / have zero tolerance for bad behavior

Pros

Deloitte will give you the opportunity to take on as much responsibility as you are willing to ask for, giving you the chance to truly name a name for yourself.

Cons

Recent realignment to a National model have resulted in significant "time on the road", many times unneccesarily. The Talent/Staffing organization takes a very myopic view of aligning people to projects, creating situations where specialized talent may be assigned to generalist projects and vice-versa, creating delivery challenges across the board.

Advice to Senior Management

The decision to realign to a national model, significant staffing reductions in 2008/2009, ongoing (voluntary) attrition, are restructing of the talent/HR functions were too much to address concurrently.

Pros

great place to work and grow

Cons

work / life balance could improve

Advice to Senior Management

work/life balance

Pros

1. Good carrer growth. They have mentoring and good growth till Manager positio.
2. Professional Envoirnment.
3. Good Work/Life balance.

Cons

1. Lots of competetion at higher level, hence firm politics is invlolved.
2. Too much impotance on networking and whom you know.

Advice to Senior Management

1. They should stress more on quality than quantilty.
2. Recent move has been focused as more offshored focus which can deter the quality.

Pros

Big 4 name carries weight for future job prospects

Cons

Long work hours
No recognition for good performance

Advice to Senior Management

Look after your employees

Pros

The pay is decent, and opportunities outside the firm once you leave are good. Opportunities to move laterally in the firm (from audit to tax, etc.) are limited, though, primarily because of the economy right now.

Cons

You get treated like dirt by the higher ups. Don't mess up or they'll give you a real hard time. The company is really skimping because of the economy. The company doesn't even mail offer letters anymore- they're done via e-mail. Meanwhile, the higher-ups are all driving BMWs and Mercedes

Advice to Senior Management

Management could try to not get such a high-head about themselves. Partners are just people, too. Just because they've been auditing for 20 years doesn't mean they can treat people like dirt.

Pros

Lots of vacation (provided you schedule it); flexibility about where and when you work; training on various job skills; competent people with whom to work

Cons

Long hours; lost in a big corporate juggernaut; you can get overlooked if you aren't top of mind. No salary transparency, and you can spend a lot of time on projects that don't educate you or advance your career.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep training people and hire people with greater education. One of the primary difficulties I see is that the firm is (somewhat by necessity) focused around accounting, but in fact, Deloitte does so much more than that, and all the other elements tend to get overlooked.

Pros

great people, fun atmosphere, exciting

Cons

long hours, utlization pressure, unpredicatable travel

Advice to Senior Management

I have no advice for them.

Pros

You will learn a lot of soft skills (project management, dealing with clients, building a cohesive "story", leading workshops/meetings/conference calls)
Great vacation time (5 weeks), but often can't use it all
Very good health benefits

Cons

You will learn very few hard skills
Every comment is project dependent, can be on a great/easy project and love life, then get stuck on a horrible project working 80hrs/week for a year...working your butt off on a hard project is almost never recognized...get the same rewards taking it easy on a laid back project
The travel is a serious grind, and unless you are in NYC or SFO offices, often very few opportunities for local projects
Easy to get stuck on long term projects with no opportunity to get out
Oftentimes are made to feel expendable, ie they could replace you with anyone so why should they go out of their way to keep you

Advice to Senior Management

Find a way to reward people who are burning the midnight oil on tough projects...you don't have to discredit people on easy projects, but those that are getting slammed should be recognized through bonuses instead of a pat on the back

Pros

Good benefits, competitive salary, access to latest and greatest technologies, great company name to have on resume, decent training available

Cons

Too much off-shoring of jobs to India, unrealistic expectations from management, easy to burnout with workload, opportunities for advancement are limited

Advice to Senior Management

Create a clear career track for advancement. Stop treating U.S. workers like crap. Stop off-shoring all the jobs to India.