IT Consulting: Vault.com Ranks Best Places to Work

Working for a consulting firm has long been considered a smart career move for IT professionals. The major benefit a stint at a consulting firm gives IT professionals is variety, says Phil Stott, Vault.com’s editor of consulting industry content. 

“Unlike working for a traditional company, where IT professionals are often hired for their expertise in a single area—and expected to utilize that expertise every day—in consulting it pays to have a wider range of skills,” Stott wrote to CIO.com via email. “Put simply, the more things you can do, …the more types of engagements the firm can send you on. That gives the consulting firm a vested interest in helping you to develop and maintain new skills. … It also gives you the opportunity to meet a lot of different people—including key decision-makers—inside a lot of different companies. For someone who’s really committed to their career development, that’s the equivalent of being able to audition for a permanent job on every single engagement.” 

If that isn’t a good reason to take a job with a consulting firm, I don’t know what is. 

Vault.com recently ranked the 25 best places to work in IT consulting. The job search Website asked 1,100 IT consultants at all levels to rate on a scale of 1 to 10 their peer firms (that is, the firms with which they compete) based on prestige. To try to prevent bias in the ranking, respondents weren’t allowed to rate their own firm’s reputation. However, they were asked to rank their own firm on the basis of 16 quality of life indicators that included compensation, firm culture, training initiatives, promotion policies, travel requirements and hours spent in the office. Vault then applied a weighted formula to the data to come up with its ranking of the top 25. 

Here are the top 10 firms: 

1. Deloitte Consulting
2. Booz Allen Hamilton
3. Clarkston Consulting
4. Smartronix Inc.
5. Accenture
6. Cognizant
7. Capgemeni
8. Infosys Consulting Inc.
9. Wipro Consulting Services
10. Perficient

You can find Vault’s full list of the best places to work in IT consulting here.