Similar to large law firms; a senior partner closes the deal, and then they shuffle you off onto an associate fresh off the bar (who often still bills out at the full senior partner rate!)

Sometimes law firms don't even really disclose who's doing the work, and sometimes in their invoices they'll have a paralegal's initials under the "Atty" column.

This is sometimes true even for very large and reputable law firms.

Hello, it me! Or was anyway.

Every solution architect/ pre sales engineer you talk to before the ink is signed isn't there to do the work, they're there to build trust and confidence that the other folks who can't talk to a client are just as talented.

Also you definitely hear from us again as we bill 4 hours a week or what have you for "Quality Assurance."

That is normal - you have to add to the interview a requirement that you interview and have to approve each person assigned to work for you.

It is amazing how many managers I have worked for who don't do that.

This is standard operating procedure with large Indian outsourcing-companies.

Get the contract using great people. Before the ink on the contract is dry, send in hopelessly underqualified staff. By the time the client finds out, their "old" internal resources are long gone, bonuses have been paid out to management for reducing cost etc.

I experienced this first-hand with Cognizant.

i work for a consulting company and prefer to cradle-to-grave my projects but it makes it hard to move up the corporate ladder. I'm working on a proposal now for a large project that will span at least 3 years. If I ask to get staffed on it then i know it will get delivered as sold and I may get promoted at the end but definitely won't get promoted during the project. On the other hand, if i'm an author on three or four wins for large projects over a year then i'm much more likely to get promoted regardless of how those turnout at the end of their schedules.