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Why do people leave Deloitte?

Before you read my answer there are certain things you should know:

1. Deloitte USI and Deloitte India both are very employee friendly companies, and promise innumerable opportunities.
2. The purview of my answer is restricted to only a particular role and service line. It’s not a holistic coverage of the firm as a whole.
3. Last but not least, its my viewpoint , although I am writing this answer after lot of unbiased discussions with my colleagues and batch-mates.

The role I am talking about is that of Functional Consultant for SAP Package Technologies, Tech Consulting Service Line of Deloitte US India.

Deloitte USI hires for the above-mentioned role from campus and lateral. Lateral hires are generally people who are graduates in engineering disciplines with close to 6–10 years of SAP and Process knowledge. Campus hires are from B-Schools that range from Tier-1 to Tier-3, yes you read that right. The only differentiating factor between the talent is salary

1. Tier-1 colleges get the salary close to 16 L.P.a. ( NITIE, some new IIMs)
2. Tier-2 colleges get the salary close to 12–14 L.P.a. ( IMT Ghz, SIBM Pune, XIMB, etc)
3. Tier-3 colleges get a salary max of 12 lacs L.P.a. ( TAPMI, Great Lakes, IMT Nagpur & Dubai, SIOM Nashik)

The above salary figure is not accurate but indicative.

As a trend, I have seen people from Tier 1 & 2 B-schools leaving Deloitte USI within 1–2 years of joining. I have listed a few reasons below.

1. During Pre-placement talk in these campuses the leadership presents a very vague picture of Consulting profile where the interested candidates are told about Client facing roles they are going to work on. In reality, the same candidates as employees have to wait for a minimum of 2–3 years to get an actual client facing role.
2. As soon the new hires join the firm they are inducted into a boot camp training in SAP in various modules MM & WM, FICO, PP, QM, APO, SD & LE. etc. Who gets staffed into which module is solely based on the firm’s decision.
3. Apart from Project work the employee is expected to do a certain bit of Firm Initiative which can vary from working on a Client Pursuit RFP. RFQs, Creating Pre-Configured Solutions for customers, to even organizing dinner parties, and dancing or performing in annual SAP Party events. Yes, you read that right, I have seen people get spot awards for the latter part also. Unless you have a sizable Firm Activity hours ( close to 100) in your time bucket by your appraisal, no one is going to recommend you for a good rating.
4. Above mentioned point also plays a great part in defining work-life balance for the practitioners. Staffed in a Client Service project and firm initiative sometimes takes a toll with working hours extending up to 14 hrs a day. And since all clients are US based then there are scheduled client calls in their day time which means calls till late night IST.
5. Many times the firm doesn’t seem to have projects, SAP Consulting Business is just like another typical IT Consulting service line which actually supports the Deloitte US offices, so there are times when an employee is without a project. This hampers his/her utilization for the fiscal year and hence takes a toll on the appraisal. We all know, it’s not the employee’s fault.
6. Even though Deloitte USI has an internal mobility program in place where employees can move withing service lines, Deloitte USI SAP Service Line doesn’t allow employees to move to other Service Lines. I have seen employees who were eligible but the Director blatantly refused them transfer.
7. Deloitte USI emphasizes a lot on networking, so much that it actually has become a euphemism for boot licking. It’s not enough for your reporting Manager/Snr Manager to know you, you should build “ Eminence” in your forum. So, people resort to all kind of activities to be more visible in the eyes of leadership.

Deloitte US India hiring talent from Premier B-Schools ( NITIE, XIMB, IMT Ghaziabad etc) for its SAP Service Line is like buying hockey sticks to play cricket. This is the reason the campus recruits are dissatisfied with their jobs at a very early stage and thus leave.

Original Link to the source is here.