Money money money. If you’re a graduate about to dip your toe into the enticing warm waters of consultancy you may be dreaming of a holiday in the Bahamas and a new Ferrari.

Hold fire, counsels Tony Restall, the director and co-founder of Top-Consultant.com. “Consulting is a lot leaner than it was back in the last boom. In the dot-com era, when they had a recruitment issue they just threw money at the problem. That’s a stark contrast to today.”

Top-Consultant.com’s latest report puts average graduate starting salaries at £31,500. Salaries vary depending on the firm and the type of work you do. For example, Accenture, the largest recruiter of graduate consultants, hires about 400 people a year to work in IT consulting roles. Data from the latest graduate market survey, collated by High Fliers, puts its starting salaries at £28,500 a year, plus a £10,000 bonus during the first two years. Graduate salaries in strategy consultancies such as McKinsey & Co and Boston Consulting Group are not publicly available, but are in the £32,000-£40,000 range. And salaries in professional services firms such as Deloitte and KPMG range from £25,000 to £35,000.

One way to increase your salary is to get more letters after your name, says Nunzio Quacquarelli, the editor of topuniversities.com. He says there is a significant uplift in salaries for those with an MBA: “It’s a great time for graduates – there was a 30 per cent increase in demand in the sector last year.” But, he says, some people in the industry say that graduate expectations are too high. Plentiful jobs and high salaries mean that firms are competing on cultural, not cash, differences. “Recruiters are trying to emphasise the interesting dimensions of the work, or the fact that they allow candidates to progress rapidly,” he says.

Restall agrees. “Firms have to sell careers in consultancy in terms of the broad business base it will give a graduate. Most people who join a consultancy leave the industry a few years later, so firms are offering packages that give you incentives to join now, but not to stay with them for 25 years,” he says, citing a dearth of pension benefits as an example.

www.Top-Consultant.com; www.qsnetwork.com; www.highfliers.co.uk

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