Option 4 may not necessarily be in W. Europe, however it could be in a global hub (UAE, Singapore, etc) + add int'l experience to my profile.

I am particularly conflicted between Option 1 and 2, as this is the choice I've to make this week. Not sure how skills/experience from Middle Office with a fancy title at a major bank vs. Commercial section of an embassy translate to consulting. Which one do you think I should go for?

 

I am particularly conflicted between Option 1 and 2, as this is the choice I've to make this week. Not sure how skills/experience from Middle Office with a fancy title at a major bank vs. Commercial section of an embassy translate to consulting. Which one do you think I should go for?

 
Best Response

I am working FT in consulting and found that government experience (similar to your internship at the embassy) was a positive. A lot of posts on WSO recommend having F500 internships on your resume for FT recruiting, but at my undergrad, that was not necessarily true. We had people with a variety of backgrounds (banking, tech, F500, boutique consulting, government, non-profit, etc) who all did fine in FT recruiting at top firms. In fact, the running joke on campus was that both law school and consulting allowed you to do "anything you want." Unlike banking, consulting doesn't require a specific set of experiences before you get an offer, so you have flexibility to pursue different experiences.

That said, I'm based in the U.S. A lot depends on your country and your undergrad; see what firms tend to prefer in your area and go with whichever option seems best. But I do think all of your options are promising (and more importantly, interesting!), so I might just choose the option that you're most interested in.

 

Again, I don't think either experience will make that big of a difference in terms of your competitiveness for consulting, at least it wouldn't have at my undergrad/MBB (keep in mind that I am in the US). The position title and industry should not matter much because consulting, by nature, involves exposure to many industries.

As for quantifying public sector work, it's not too different - some variation of "Wrote # reports on XX resulting in XX" works fine.

I think people here will say different things, and you can only predict the "system" so much because it varies. There's no right or wrong answer when it comes to embassy vs. bank. Good luck!

 

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