To leave a senior civil service job for a senior role in consultancy?

[Nonotmeagain]

I’m a senior civil servant and although I have a full on job that means long hours, I value the flexibility as I have a young daughter.

I’ve been offered a senior position in a consultancy firm. It pays 1.5 times my current pay. I am really worried that I will not have the flexibility I have in my current job in the civil service.

I want a change but would I be unreasonable to choose more money over flexibility and possibly impact on how I make time to spend with my daughter?

Big4 consultancy is ultimately all sales driven, to continue in role you need to be able to go anywhere (though this tends to be sector dependent: public sector projects more likely to be uk based than technology projects) and be at the top of your game as routine

For success, you will be judged on your ability to bring in new business.

How do you feel about that?

Do as PPs have pointed out, do run the numbers on the pension. The Big4 pension is likely to be money purchase / defined contribution while the civil service pension will be defined benefit.

You pays your money and you takes your choice.

I was big 4.

Directors are very busy people. If you're not used to business development it might come as a shock.

You will be across more than 1 project and usually the one checking client deliverables as well as dealing with client shit (well the good ones deal with it, the bad ones just hand it down to managers)

Big 4 isn't all bad though. I went because I wanted to broaden my experience and I had no desire to become a partner.

At director level though they will be expecting you to want to go to partner

Name changed for this 😊

I think you’d need more than 1.5 times salary just to make up for the pension difference.

Also make sure you are being paid enough.
Big 4 Director level salaries ranges from £120k-£250k plus benefits.

What are your plans for career path? External hire Director to Partner is a VERY difficult path, because you are competing with all the others who have been in the firm for 20 years, know how things are fine, are known and “have a network” within the firm. Internal Director to partner would be about 3-5 years, external could easily be 10 years, or might just never happen.

As others have said, there is much less flexibility (although a lot of lip service paid to it), and you will be working all hours.

I don't have experience in either of those fields, but I have a DS who is 3 years older than your daughter, and IME and that of my friends, the early teenage years can be quite turbulent and kids can need you round a good bit. When my DS went to secondary school I initially thought I could dial up my career, but I had underestimated how much he would need me. As well as emotional stuff, he also developed more hobbies that required being taken places on weekday evenings/weekends.

OP, if the thought of the pension is swaying you... my husband and I are/were CS.

Sadly he had a terminal diagnosis and recently died. He was able to retire in his early 30s on a full pension as though he was retirement age just a few days before he died (his manager and HR seriously jumped through hoops for us).

That meant that left the children and I with 5 x his salary as a lump sum, as well as his annual salary paid as a pension to me (40%) for life and the rest to the children until they're adults.

This has been a huge safety net for our family and where I'd wanted to leave the CS myself, has seriously given me second thoughts.

I don't know anything about consultancy but I wouldn't assume that private sector is less flexible than the CS.

My DH is in tech and he has more flexibility because his workload is lower than mine. I'm a G6 and find my workload restricts the flexibility.

Following. I'm G7 CS and considering the same sort of move.

I'm grade 7 but having come from private practice I wouldn't go back. Not everything I say might apply to director level but here are my reasons...

Pension has already been mentioned along with general flexibility. Also the other things that people sometimes forget to check:

Mat pay - incomparable
Sick pay - incomparable
Holidays (more days in CS plus option to buy more/borrow from next year)
Expenses - would you be expected to travel and would there be remuneration as per CS
Development days/opportunities

At my level, to move back for a salary which covered my wage plus all of the above, the private sector would want blood.

I have seen SCS in my dept (legal) do this when they want to partially retire and do a few days consulting to top up, but otherwise I just wouldn't go there.

Having done the opposite (big 4 to CS - albeit not director in big 4) I wouldn't go back for 5x my salary. The culture, flexibility, pension, work life balance and opportunity for sideways moves to keep things interesting is worth way more than 50% increase in salary IMO. If your daughter is 11 I assume you have 20+ years working ahead of you. I'd stay put, enjoy the work life balance and reassess in 5 years.

I did this, fell out of love with the civil service and left for a senior consultancy role. I've not looked back, really pleased I did it, but admit it's not for everyone. Pros: lots of pace, variety, learnt a lot especially about commercials, contracts and risk, and many brilliant and inspiring people. Many fewer toxic and annoying/ lazy colleagues. I had a busy SCS role with lots of travel anyway so that's been fine, in fact post lockdown working from home is still the norm (3 or 4 days a week often). Working some evenings and weekends when there is a tight bid or client deadline. But now much better paid and appreciated, I've been able to build an extension, get a new bathroom, send my DD to private school and book a lovely family holiday this year. None of that would have been possible if I had stayed, which just would have got more and more frustrating. I feel much more effective as a consultant, my clients pay a lot, so they listen to what I say!

What grade at the big4? That makes a huge difference

These are incredibly helpful responses. I am giving this second thoughts. I feel very guilty saying no, given so much effort they are making to get me to join them.

I want to move on from my current role but now really don’t know where next. Is it only the CS that offers a great degree of flexibility?

Director

How often do you work long hours and weekends? Can you at the drop of a hat decide to take a day off?

I think you need to speak to them and ask.

Director roles really vary. I know people who over a year work 90% at home and others who are 80% at client sites 200 miles from home.

Have they given you any indication? If it's the latter, I wouldn't do it with a child the age of yours unless you have someone at home to pick up the life stuff.

I'm with one of these companies and my husband is a stay at home day, I also work internally only. I'm still exhausted and will be going to bed tonight, for example, the minute my son is in bed!

I’m at a Big4 although not client facing. My firm is big on flexibility particularly post pandemic - we don’t have enough desks in the office and there is a lot (too much??) wfh. Don’t assume there won’t be flexibility. If you want to watch your DC play sport/go to parents evening etc that’s not s problem here. Do find out how much travel is likely. Do consider how good you’ll be at business development - and what support you’ll get. At the moment anecdotally I’ve heard we’re taking on a lot of senior CS who want to make the move for obvious reasons. Remember the big4 are about 25,000 each. There’s a lot of differences there. Good luck!

Can you at the drop of a hat decide to take a day off?.

It depends entirely on your other commitments for the day you are taking off, which I imagine is a lot like your current job.

If there’s a reason sure… my dad was ill recently and I emailed boss at midnight, spent morning driving to hospital (other end of country),monitored emails vaguely… no issues.

I can take a day off at short notice theoretically but I'm in so many meetings that I can't often justify being away and getting so behind.

As the other poster said, we also can't all go to the office as not enough desks if we tried! But client facing, you could get a client who demands you are there for 6 months!

I feel very guilty saying no, given so much effort they are making to get me to join them.

Please bear in mind that their main job is getting people to do things which will make money for the firm. Nothing wrong with that, if there is something in it for you.

if they have already got inside your head like this, before they have done anything for you, except offer limitless possibilities, which it is up to you yourself to develop and bring about, then I would advise you to be very, very wary of what you are letting yourself in for.

Agreed

I'm CS, DH is a consultant. His employers went very flexi during the pandemic and all seemed rosy, but this has gradually been taken away (and of course, it was never a contractual t&c). No more WFH, fixed start and finish times. If you rely on flexibility, check out that consultancy t&cs very carefully.

Have you looked on glass door? See what’s being said about the firm you’re considering.

This, I'm in charge of my own diary. You need to police your own boundaries, and manage your energy. I've had nothing but support in doing so.

I looked at this recently. With some pretty reasonable assumptions, I needed at least 40% more pay to make up for losing the CS pension, plus a higher risk appetite in moving from DB to DC. Even more than 40% if it took me over a tax boundary. Have you done all those sums (ideally get some advice from an actuary, or pensions expert).

The guilt is because I should have thought about this more before I got so far. Nothing has changed other than me getting cold feet based on info I could have assessed from the start.

I have a heavy workload in the CS and my day is usually jam-packed with meetings. There is a lot of big p and small p politics, so all around exhausting. However, I can without too much problem easily clear my diary and delegate to someone else. The emails will still be waiting to drown me when I get back. I currently only go into the office once a week and I can pick up my daughter from school everyday except the one day I go into the office. My husband picks her up then.

My CS job is much more flexible than my DH’s.