What is the difference between "specialist master" and "manager?

There are two job postings that seem to be the same job but have two different titles.

Is one a better than the other? Do they have diffent career paths?

I know the career path for manager at big 4...what is the next step for a "specialist master"?

I worked for Deloitte once upon a time and I would personally slap someone for coming up with the title "Specialist Master". A, the pic above is spot on for what comes to mind with the title. B, cannot believe the PC police allow this. So if you are a Specialist, you work for a Specialist Master? If the junior is a minority, that seems perfectly great they work with someone called master. Hell, in homebuilding its now called an Owners Suite and not Master Bedroom just to avoid the potential of negative connotation.

All that being said, here is a quick link going over it: https://www.quora.com/What-is-does-a-specialist-master-do-at-Deloitte

Based on my knowledge / experience, it seems like specialist would have the focus on project delivery and being a complete SME without the pressure to sell. At the top level, this was delineated at some firms as difference between a partner / principal and a director. Director did not have the equity but also did not have as much demand on sales / growing the business / etc (though Director still needed to sell to an extent).

I would be wary of the specialist type role if you want to grow within the firm. At some point you either max out on the specialty or the opportunities for grand master dragon specialist of the highest order are few and far between.

Thanks. My first thought was "how the hell does "specialist master" translate into exit opportunities "?

That's another point. Explaining odd titles in future job interviews can be difficult. And thats assuming someone did not discard resume cause they did not think your current title match the job opening you are applying for.

For instance, I led internal audit function for the US portion of a global company. Title was Director - Risk & Controls which was meant to reflect the risk-based IA approach and focus on internal controls. Applying to internal audit roles I often got asked if I handled insurance at previous company too or if I was even in internal audit.

I would imagine Specialist Master may get you a "yea, Specialist Master of what son...".

Why not Principal SME or Senior Practice Fellow or something not as slavy and weird?

Is it just a technical path vs a managerial path?

I am 5 years removed from Deloitte, but this guy summarizes my recollection of the specialist roles (from the quora.com link above).

"Peter Williams, former CEO at Deloitte Digital (2007-2012) Answered Jul 17, 2018

I am a retired Deloitte partner and still work there part time. The role of Specialist Master emerged to provide a career pathway for people who are very deep subject matter experts who want to focus on mastery of their "technical domain" rather than move into a partner role which is focused on clients, revenue and team development as well as commitment to a technical domain."

cjo03 said:

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I am 5 years removed from Deloitte, but this guy summarizes my recollection of the specialist roles (from the quora.com link above).

"Peter Williams, former CEO at Deloitte Digital (2007-2012) Answered Jul 17, 2018

I am a retired Deloitte partner and still work there part time. The role of Specialist Master emerged to provide a career pathway for people who are very deep subject matter experts who want to focus on mastery of their "technical domain" rather than move into a partner role which is focused on clients, revenue and team development as well as commitment to a technical domain."

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Agree with the summary and want to qualify my comments in that the role is not only legit but valuable and needed. I do think there is some limit in the consulting world with such focused specialization. Have to choose wisely. Comparing to medical, a Cardiologist is highly specialized, well-titled and the opportunities are broad and deep. Being the only person in the world that can repair a broken pinky toe not as much. So SAP Security Specialist or iOS Developer Specialist may work out okay, but OS/2 Warp developer may not be ideal. Point being, why limit yourself to a specialty unless the limitation allow for sufficient opportunity that exceed those limits.

Agree! My interests and value proposition are more closely aligned to people than product - so specialist track was not appealing to me.

Nice they give the choice. When I was at KPMG it was "up or out."