I have applied to the big four and i am waiting for interviews for two. However i have been waiting for a few months so i am not hopeful they will give me an interview in the end, especially as I got through to the interview stage for internships last year before they ran out of spaces. The reason i have an offer from a non big 4 firm is because i did an internship with them over the summer.
The reasons i have not applied to management consulting firms are 1) i was late deciding i want to do consulting rather than audit, so many application rounds have closed and 2) i would like to obtain the ACA qualification as it provides a safety net as well as learning core skills about business.
So therefore i have applied for a few consulting firms that offer the chance to study for the ACA or other qualifications, though these seem very competitive.
My main question is if i end up qualifying with this non big 4 firm am i going to find it seriously hard to move into consultancy after and is there anything i can do to limit this detrimental effect?