Can someone please explain the difference between Advisory and Consulting?
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My patience for this job is waning… I’m 35, single, no debt - Made some decent investments last year in some AI chip stocks and now they’re coming to roost.. my brokerage account is now more than my 401k. I feel like my life is 90% work and 10% everything else. I wonder if I should take some extended time off (6mo-1yr) as I would love to actually have space for things during the week again and explore / grow in other areas of my life. Is it time?
I like my job alot. I work with smart people. I have a ton of flexibility. All in (salary, bonus, equity) I make $300k mcol. It's kind of a dead end, I'm not gonna make partner and it's PE backed so I could lose my job at any time. At some point I'll probably be laid off because that just seems to be the new reality. I struggle with looking for a new role because I like my role. But also I feel lazy just chilling. Sanity check if I should try to jump and get back on the escalator or enjoy it?
I can explain in the context of Deloitte. Also, if there are other people at D, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. Advisory is usually longer term projects. 6+ months, sometimes years. They tend to revolve around an Audit, Tax, other accounting related work, or "Risk" (risk is thrown around a lot at D and usually falls within Advisory). It is similar to consulting but the underlying objectives and scope of work are different. Consulting is a lot more open ended. Consulting tends to revolve around strategy, implementation, change management, etc. These are all things that companies consult for. The projects are usually shorter (although some can span years). You can get some of this in Advisory but generally the work in Consulting will be more separated from the typical accounting work I mentioned above. (M&A Consulting may be an exception) Also, Consulting at D tends to pay more than Advisory. (Although I'd also argue that Advisory folks are more immune to lay offs during hard times)
Well explained.
Advisory means accounting advisory services that aren’t specifically Tax or Audit services. Consulting is more open ended in type of services eg can be tech consulting, strat consulting, ops consulting, etc.
EY use the term interchangeably forever, before finally switching to consulting recently (or just dropping any name off all together in the case of SaT) For the old guard who loved the term, it represented that we were advising clients on what to do, versus just being consulted.