Advice on BT

I've just been offered a job on the BT management consulting grad scheme within professional services. I've also got another job offer and am finding it difficult to decide.

How good and well regarded is the BT scheme and would it open doors in the future?

which is the other offer

It's for the Lloyds TSB grad scheme

Ugh.....r e t a i l (notice how I spit out that word a la LSO) banking????

what next? a grad position in a cockle picking gang?

Have to agree.

BT every time. You can work your backside off now, climb the ranks a bit and by the time you are older and more focussed about family etc, you can find yourself a nice cosy Government project so that you can knock off at 4 in the afternoon.

BT will offer you the chance to work in FS as well as other sectors. The training is first rate and the two years on the grad scheme will give you an excellent foundation for a consultancy career or provide a stepping stone into an industry position if you decide there is a particular industry you want to focus on.

I'm on the BT grad scheme (admittedly not consultant-specific) and find it terrible. However, it's all apparently changing this year, with a rotational system coming into force. This may bring about improvements, but the regular discussions I am having with my boss about him assessing me incorrectly (as reg. employee, not as grad) are typical of the experience of a grad at BT... they aren't well understood at grass roots level, despite apparent senior management support.

Admittedly, this is just my case, and some are loving it... I would say the ratio is about 50/50. I'm looking elsewhere after 6 months however.

Please make an informed decision. If the consultancy scheme is markedly different from the standard BT Global Services grad scheme, then brilliant. If not, then I doubt it would give the consulting experience you are after.

Please feel free to criticise/disagree with my views, they are just that and every person is different. I just don't feel pushed or especially valued.

Advice on BT,

I think you should think about whether what the "consultancy" role BT can offer you what you want. As posted on other threads, "Consulting" has a very broad definition, which could possibly cover anything from management/strat consulting, or implementation-type of projects where you can either do project management work or "consult" on specifc functional areas / business processes.

See what kind of projects you will be staffed on, then decide if that's what you want to do.

PS unfortunately you've been slightly miss-lead if you think you're getting on a management consulting grad scheme. You will be on a grad a scheme which has excellent training but it's quite wide ranging in terms of the type of roles you'll be doing. If after the end of the 2yr prog you're still interested in consultancy you'll need to apply to join Global Consulting which is another full-on recruitment process including assessment centres , presentations etc. even though you've been in the company 2yrs.

Investment in grads is unparalleled at BT. You get 3 two week training sessions over the course and a self managed learning programme running for 14 months in the middle. It’s flexible and allows you to make decisions to shape your own development.

You need to think about what you actually want to do. Will BT help you achieve this or would you better off at another firm. If you've already decided MC is for you then I think you'll probably get better assignments at the likes of ACN & DC. If you think about what BT does everything is associated with their network so unless it's driving traffic down it or associated with it in some way, they won't go there. No more systems integration projects like the NHS LSP. It’s difficult to be a management consultant when you don’t own any client relationship and you have to go through account teams who stick to the familiar products and networks.

The BT person posted above is on a different scheme to what you’ve been offered. He’s still “hard wired” to a line manager whereas you’ll be a flexible resource (i.e. people manager and task manager). Essentially this will give you more flexibility to escape from tedious projects. This is just some of the mess that exist after integrating a small agile consultancy firm (Syntegra) into the BT juggernaut.

To summarise… if you’re keen on management consultancy go elsewhere. If you’re not sure, you can give BT a go. You’ll get good training but some potentially mind-numbing projects (many of which are internal).

The comments from 'BT Insider' above are true to an extent albeit on the cynical side so I imagine this person hasn't got what they want in the organisation.

The professional services grad scheme is indeed excellent providing 6 weeks training, numerous courses and qualifications and your choice of rotational 6-month assignments. You manage yourself on this scheme for 2 years. In 2-years, if you are good at networking, you could do anything you want from real consulting projects to strategy work.

Remember this is a top 20 FTSE 100 company and has opportunities and budgets to match. You will also pick up the experience and skills you require for consulting and will probably develop better skills than I've seen from consultant grads elsewhere.

Over to you...