Comment by kurtmansperger

I have interned at PWC and Deloitte and then after graduation, I worked at Deloitte for 5 years. I found that I was able to do valuable work right after joining and even as an intern. As an intern at PWC I did ethical hacking and had a good deal of oversight, but was able to own writing up documentation and participated in client calls. For a later project that summer, I had direct client contact and was seen as a strong contributor to the team. At Deloitte, my experience was similar as an intern but with slightly more ownership. Once joining Deloitte after graduation, I was holding one on one meetings and design sessions on a regular basis with the client about 4 months in. Initially, my project was more focused on data analysis and while I did have interactions with the client, they were limited as I did not need to interact with them much. Experience will certainly vary from person to person as the responsibility given to someone will change by project and also with how well management knows you, at least earlier in your career. After about a year or two, it is not uncommon to be owning an entire piece of the project and it goes up from there. They probably wouldn't hire you if they didn't feel they could put you in front of a client early on.