Big 4 advisory vs boutique firm?

Which boutique? There's a big difference in prestige and exit opps between lets say Parthenon and some local consulting firm.

What area of advisory? This really matters as there are quite a few segments. Some maybe great or awful, depending on your career goals. Is the boutique in the region/city you are interested in staying in for awhile?

S&O at Big 4 versus Partners in Performance. PIP seems to be bigger internationally/in europe vs USA and they do more remote consulting, traveling 2 weeks+ at a time

As mentioned it depends on which role within Big 4 Advisory (Management Consulting, IT, Risk), what your career goals are and compared to which specific boutique firm.

I'd start my career in Big 4 over a boutique for the following reasons: Training, clients, network. You'd always be able to venture off to a boutique firm later in life. Working in Big 4 is good early on in your career because you can put up with the long hours, travel demands and collegial environment. Once you do a 2-3 yr stint in Big 4 you will carry the brand name with you forever, you can always return if you leave and you can ask for a generous salary from a boutique firm once you leave Big 4. Overall, joining a Big 4 is typically the best move to make right after college for brand name, training and industry exposure.

However, working in a boutique has plenty of benefits; some may provide you with profit share, higher salary, it will be a much more entrepreneurial environment (you may be asked to bring on clients), smaller teams, greater responsibility (could learn more than Big 4 from a gaining and retaining clients perspective such as partners at Big 4), possibly better hours than Big 4.