Hi there. Im agraduate and was wondering whether someone could fill me in on the following. If one was to work in consulting with ACN, CapG, PA etc, if one was positioned within public service line or govenment operating group, are the hours and need to travel relatively less compared to other departments or not at all. Sorry if this sounds like a naive question!

Actually, this is not a naive question. The key with any consulting opportunity is flexibility. If you are a solid consultant with well respect client decorum--and likable, you will HAVE to travel, because the firm will want you on other engagements. Public sector projects tend to be longer in tenure but require just as much travel because it is difficult to sustain work in a single location. If you are in the US, I would suggest looking at Deloitte for the California market. BearingPoint for the Texas market, for example. If you are offshore, I can not help you. Hope this is helpful in your decision making process.

Largely it depends on how flexible you want to be.From a UK perspective most departments have outstations all over the country.Again subject to the area one is working in then hours can vary, some departments do tend to have a presentee culture and a bit of a long hours culture. OTOH some don't.From a consulting perspective one of the biggest influences on the effort to be put in is the standard of personnel within the client. Not to put to fine a point on it there is little middle ground, a great many less than inspiring and a small number of extremely good people. That leads to a need to take up a lot of slack to complete the engagement within the budget.If you're after an easier life then perhaps consulting isn't for you.