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.

It's been a while, but I went straight into Accenture out of school (Andersen Consulting at the time actually). It all depends on your manager. If you have a good manager/partner, then once you show you're not just another cog, you'll have plenty of opportunities.

And if you're technically good and put in the hours, and your senior manager/partner has pull among his/her peers, then you will be taken care of in raises/promotions/etc. As soon as you notice the senior management can't go to bat for you for the things you want, then IMHO you should look to make a move. Ideally you can make a move internally, but you dont want to be stuck.

A couple options:

- Work as a fulltime employee doing the same type of work you want to be paid to do as a consultant. It's a legitimate way to get the kind of experience you want to sell.

- Be your own first client. Build something that interests you, and sell that experience.

Cold call. Cold talk. Networking events. Developer meetups. It's honestly so easy. Handout business cards, have a decent site with a portfolio + some sort of automated contact form, maybe even an automated quote generator. Have one buddy do all the networking and bring you clients, you do the work, make money, reinvest in remote employees, keep doing this, get an office, hire some in person staff and boom, you have a consultancy.