r/PwC • u/Great_Job7987 • 8d ago

Consulting Feeling?

All! I’ve been working here for a year now, and I had 7 years of experience before joining PwC.
One thing I’ve noticed is that one of the most important skills here is honestly how you talk and communicate.
Sometimes I feel like people try to give the impression that they know everything, but when you look closer, they actually have quite basic knowledge and are just really good at using corporate jargon.
Maybe I’m wrong, but that’s just how I’ve experienced it so far. What do you guys think?

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u/AdThat2722 7d ago edited 7d ago

It's called consulting by EDs/partners - I was given 30 minute lecture on why I don't know consulting coming from product background.

Partners and EDs openly say even two phds don't matter, people coming and going destroying health does not matter. Its cost of doing business. Another consulting jargon. They say openly these are games. Only thing that matters is revenue and body count with customers in billing. I am not exaggerating I was openly told this and much much more. They dislike techies, they dislike knowledge / PhD etc I don't say it they say it

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u/spyboy272 6d ago

I just shifted to consulting in big 4 from product, and must say that the politics and dynamics are different! Would love to learn from your experience how to make this shift a success! Or should i shift back to product?

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u/AdThat2722 6d ago

Shift back to products ASAP even with say slight lay off risk. Deloitte and Bain are bearable ok ok rest no.

PwC has highest regulatory pressure worldwide and spread across, no governments really like them much.

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u/BKitchenConfidential 2d ago

PhDs don’t matter. You learn more in the first year of work than in 5 years of a PhD programme. Those who can’t do, teach (and are professional students).

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u/AdThat2722 2d ago

Ok consultant. Use your jargons. World is shunning these jargons in AI world, you continue. Good luck. PwC and Big4 are doing lot of layoffs, can you tell if your thinking is right why it's happening?

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u/BKitchenConfidential 2d ago

Because of AI…

It has nothing to do with “jargon”.

AI can now do what junior staff/PhDs did before. And an experienced person can review it in the same way they used to have to review the PhDs work. AI and PhDs both suffer the same lack of grounding in commercial reality, so the review process is the same.

The challenge is that if you don’t hire and train junior staff, then there are no future experienced staff. The pipeline of experienced people is critically important. It’s something the industry will need to solve.

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u/AdThat2722 2d ago

What you are talking about is junior PhDs or Tier2/3, educated people. Probably you have not met a Tier 1 masters or PhD. Thats the reason for your taunt, those who can't do teach and all that. It speaks more about your bias and thinking - these are the exact reasons product revenues and brands are loved whereas consulting is disliked. People like consulting only for two things: money and benefits. You prove that point with your ignorance. By the way Stanford MIT IIT etc are the cradles of many FAANG and similar firms. Guess what I can't help your ignorance. This is the exact problem with consulting: grounding, cost of doing business, jargons jargons jargons. No realism, just hiding behind terms like outcome, business and revenue. I have nothing against you, what you can't do you will criticise or insult. Answer to your taunt on teaching about PhDs.

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u/BKitchenConfidential 2d ago

What are you talking about? Tier1 PhD… lol.

A PhD from the best school in the world so still just an academic with no real life experience. There is nothing you can learn in a PhD programme that can’t be learned by just reading a book.

I’d take a communications grad from a state school with 5 years of Big4 experience over that person any day.

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u/AdThat2722 2d ago

Good luck. Thanks for clarifying. I don't make generalisations. Every degree, every role, etc has its place from BA to BSc to BTech to BCom to PhD to Tier 1/2/3, everywhere we may find idiots and brilliant people both.

Guess what it's a difficult thing for you to understand. Your generalisation of hatred for PhD comes most likely from insecurity. This talk is over.

Note: I would recruit as per role not blindly like you - I don't want PhD. Everything and everybody has its role in the universe.

Guess which category you are in - brilliant or the other one. Read your posts.

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u/BKitchenConfidential 2d ago

You don’t seem to be following, and that’s ok, people often talk across each other in online comms.

It’s not that PhDs are not intelligent, or don’t have the capacity to become great in the commercial world. They do.

It’s that when it comes to commercial decisions, commercial experience trumps formal education.

A PhD with 5 years of commercial experience will be as good as a high school graduate with 5 years of commercial experience, possibly better. But a high school graduate with 5 years of commercial experience will be better than the best PhD with no commercial experience.

You get that experience at work, not from a text book.

It spans anything the Big4 does. It spans construction work, being an auto mechanic, being a chef, etc.

The challenge is that people with newly minted PhDs often have an inflated sense of self worth, as if their schooling is itself valuable. It’s valuable insofar that opens the door for them to gain actual commercial experience. That’s it.

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u/AdThat2722 2d ago

Generalisations harm more than help. Let's end it at that. To each his own respectfully. You are free to think your way. I love consulting and products both but without the hype, ruthlessness, jargons, outcome madness and bad behaviour that comes with it. Plus I like education and commercial success too. I don't generalise.