Consulting > Banking?
Let me lay out the stakes of the age-old debate for you:
Benefits of Consulting:
-Much wider variety of exit ops than for banking
-On average, better chances at business school, especially top schools like HBS
-Fewer work hours than banking, even if it is still grueling
Two factors that, in combination, should bring you an untold amount of 'tang if you're not a total nerd:
1. Development great communication and social skills
2. Constant travel and meeting new people
Benefits of Banking:
-Higher Salary (However, this is somewhat irrelevant if you believe studies that say that you get very little marginal happiness past 70k/year)
-Higher chance of getting into HF/PE, IF you're absolutely sure that's what you want to do
Downsides of banking:
-Sacrificing two or three years of your 20s, what should be the best time of your life, to work miserable 100+ hour weeks.
-Become pale, chubby, and totally lose your game.
-Not have skills that apply outside of finance
Why would you ever choose banking?
No comment, but I like your
No comment, but I like your user name.
this should pretty much sum
this should pretty much sum things up for you:
http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com/banker-vs-co...
cheers.
Capitalist
Do you like what you
Do you like what you do?
Parts of banking are great, parts of it suck. Parts of consulting are great, parts of it suck.
Just do what you want to do and don't care about what the other things are.
Although, some of my most fun was working a a good banker friend on a deck where he wanted some insight on op. improvement options etc.
TT
here is another look at the
here is another look at the argument written by a former consultant. Just posting it to get the other point of view opposite the M&I link above.
Personally if I had to choose between the two, I would go with Banking, I just think the travel would get old fast. But hopefully it won't come to having to choose between these fields.
http://managementconsulted.com/consulting-jobs/que...
Most consultants who've
Most consultants who've worked longer than 2 months would disagree that constant traveling and "meeting new people" is actually a pro.
-Become pale, chubby, and totally lose your game.
-Not have skills that apply outside of finance.
Yeah, this isn't subjective at all, and totally valid points.
I have no idea why anyone
I have no idea why anyone would call travel a plus for consulting, regardless if they were working for 1 week or 6 months. Even if you weren't travelling to Bumblefuck, Midwest, you're spending 10-12 hours a day at the client site, sitting in conference rooms and ordering food. Yeah, maybe you'll go out a few times for drinks, but there's no time to see the sights. And regardless how much you enjoy air travel, all that jetting around gets old. Fast.
You'll meet people, sure, but they're professional relationships, some of which are hostile ("Oh look, upper management brought in these douchebag consultants to tell us how to run our division, now they're going to suggest we cut costs and fire people. Big deal, my high school son could have told you that.")
"Accept no one's definition of your life; define yourself."
Currently: quantitative marketing/business development
Previously: management consulting, investment banking
The hours consulting people
The hours consulting people say they work 60-70 are only marginally worse than what most bankers do about 80 a week. There is no travel which is a huge plus. Comp is better, branding is equally good i.e. McK vs GS. Exit opps are more defined in banking, but is that really so awful?
I think the marginal
I think the marginal difference on happiness between 60 hours, 70 hours and 80 hours (not including non-productive travel) is huge.
60 hours allows me to sleep ~7 hours a night during the week and not do any weekend work.
70 hours allows me to sleep ~6 hours a night during the week and do a bit of weekend work.
80 hours allows me to sleep ~5 hours a night and requires at least an afternoon of weekend work.
It's been repeated ad nauseam that banking bonuses are down, and combined with the costs of living in NYC, the purchasing power of a BB analyst isn't much different than an MBB analyst.
That said, I think the communication and travel parts are horseshit.
Meeting new people - somewhat interesting to work with clients across functions and industries, but you build very few lasting relationships as an analyst. You're seen as an outsider, and a somewhat uncredible one at that, by many people.
Travel sucks unless you're using the points to go somewhere during your vacation, or taking advantage of alternative travel and going somewhere else for a weekend - which most people won't want to do all the time because it's hard to have any semblance of a normal life if you're never home, not to mention basics like doing your laundry.
Pale and chubby, and/or PE exits are both very viable from both banking and consulting.
Life, liberty and the pursuit of Starwood Points
TylerT: Do you like what you
Do you like what you do?
Parts of banking are great, parts of it suck. Parts of consulting are great, parts of it suck.
Just do what you want to do and don't care about what the other things are.
Although, some of my most fun was working a a good banker friend on a deck where he wanted some insight on op. improvement options etc.
TT
This is very true. If you are interested in things outside of finance, such as strategy, operations, etc, consulting is likely a better fit. The other point i would stress is that you have a chance to do more writing in consulting than you would in banking, and depending on how large or small your firm is, your work may actually get read by senior people.
You also have the opportunity to sit in on some high-powered meetings that have real-world implications, such as closing/opening plants, changing branding, and even making acquisitions. Like everything else in life, though, no one can make the decision for you.
My comments refer to management consulting as I'm unfamiliar with other forms.
Did a banking intern last
Did a banking intern last summer and figured out that banking was not for me. Consulting on the other hand seems much more interesting.
Even within consulting there
Even within consulting there seems to be differences in travel time, for example some encourage client site visits more often than others.
Mostly depends on your goals.
Mostly depends on your goals. I want to learn about finance, but I find the strategy and entrepreneurship exit opps provided by consulting to be much more appealing. I agree that travel sucks, but I think the work in consulting can be more interesting, but depending on the project, I expect it can be almost as bad as finance.
You make more in banking than
You make more in banking than you do in consulting ∴ banking > consulting
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Comparing banking to
Comparing banking to consulting is like comparing apples to oranges. With that said, everyone is different when it comes to choosing a career. Although salary, compensation package, and money may be an easy way to measure one's self worth, that's not all there is...
Choose the career you think you will succeed in, and not just the one you think will be better for you. Most importantly, choose the one you like. If you don't know which one then try them both and find out.