Yes. My first job before Enron and before Arthur Andersen split into two (Consulting and Accounting and eventually consulting into Accenture). Good thing they did, or those consulting partners would have lost all their wealth like the accounting partners. As I recall, a partnership is not like a public corporation and most of the partners wealth was tied up in the equity of the partnership. I "think" a lot of the accounting partners got wiped out financially through no fault of their own due to Enron, but I was long gone and not an accountant, so I don't really know. This is probably one reason why Accenture is a public company.
I loved/hated it. I didn't hate the company as much as the work/structure etc and my personality fit. Back then I had to wear a suit every day. One project manager, when asked if we could have flex time said "You can come in any time before eight and leave any time after five" . She would notice whose cars were in the parking lot when she arrived and when she left hours after 5pm. People used to stay at the office, but not bill the client, well after 5pm, well after 8pm, to be seen. They would balance their checkbooks, make personal calls etc. Some would take on additional work which is the ultimate goal for the billable hour.
Working at a client as a consultant is always harder than working as an employee, but it gives you some good perspective in terms of making yourself valuable. This is not a bad job skill to have regardless of any technical skills.
I figured the math. In my office there were 100 staff/seniors/managers....and 2 partners. So we have a pyramid of 50 people working for one. My coworkers were all talented, many more political, and many more driven by money and titles than me. I also realized staying with the company met a lifetime of travel and not seeing my family. Making partner, the money would have been outrageous and early in my career , but it was not a game I wanted or was necessarily even good at.
So..I got my resume stamped after four years. I also got an independent consulting job at 2-3 times the money for a year while I made the transition to another company. Independent consultants can do quite well too, much better than most consulting firm employees, but then again you have the travel issue if you are not in a large market.
There were no slouchers among the employees, and if there were, they were quickly run out. I made some great friend there, and I still keep in touch with a few. Some of the managers were d**chebags and hardly tolerated. Absolutely an up or out culture. I learned some good life lessons, but they weren't always pleasant.
