Deloitte S&O Partner Track vs. BCG Expert Track
I am currently evaluating whether to stay at Deloitte or take an offer at BCG. Here are some facts:
- Currently a Senior Manager at Deloitte in the SF office and am 2 years from making partner
- BCG offer is for the a Principal level in their SF office in their expert track
- Money at Deloitte is favorable if I make partner
- Deloitte to some extent is moving to the Accenture model...needing to feed the beast so only 50% of the work is cool or sexy
At the end of the day, the optionality that BCG gives me as well as the opportunity to make a lot of money on a non-partner track is enticing. Having the opportunity to make Partner at Deloitte is also enticing. Lastly, having to re-start and build a brand at BCG will be a lot of work. Welcome your thoughts.
What makes you think that anyone on these forums will have more insight into this particular matter than you do? How many consulting partners do you think contribute here? That said, making partner at Deloitte is notoriously difficult. It almost never happens. They string along senior managers for years.
If you have your platform built up - I'd stay at Deloitte.
The expert track offers pretty good money and it's reasonably lucrative once you make Associate Director. Still, I hear it's not the most organized and I'd reckon the more common route is to take the generic principal title (where outsiders won't know if you're a normal principal or an expert track one) and leave for an external SVP position after a few years in that role.
I guess the question also becomes: who makes more, Deloitte partners or BCG Associate Directors and Directors. Deloitte partners start at about $450K, then make about an additional $100K each year so don't get to $1M till about the 6 or 7 year mark. At BCG, directors make a cool million almost right away. Deloitte has the pension though. If you are in it for the short term money, brand name, and optionality to exit into SVP roles, go with BCG hands down.
Having worked at Deloitte S&O, I don't think it is accurate to say that Deloitte partners make 450K + 100K for each year they have been a partner. The $450K starting salary sounds about right, but partner comp quickly becomes highly variable based on performance (e.g., sales, managed revenue). I saw some newly promoted partners who started killing it right out of the gate by selling a number of huge projects. I am sure those partners will be making $1M+ quite quickly while others might struggle to ever consistently crack $1M. The bottom line at any firm is that at a certain point, comp becomes tied to the measurable value you deliver to the firm. If comp is all that matters, I would go wherever you think the support system will allow you to deliver the most value.
Assuming this is a serious post, you should be asking other Senior Managers you trust at Deloitte for advice. A lot of things can change in two years, don't assume making Partner is a given.
Are you ok being tied to Deloitte for the rest of your working life? Why aren't you looking at industry jobs? It's not like your options are only BCG or Deloitte. I wouldn't think there is really that much difference between the two, a little more strategy work at BCG, but do you really care?
The cases that Deloitte and BCG do are very different across most industries. In high technology, consumer packaged goods, and a number of other industries, BCG does a ton of strategy from growth strategy to restructuring. Deloitte does a lot of IT (ERP enabled) process improvement type projects. In pharma and med devices, Deloitte is ok. The work is night and day. This decision comes down to: 1. Do you want to be doing boring work for a bunch of mid level and CIOs for the rest of your life while you roll in the money, while being the smartest guy at Deloitte or 2. Do you want to take a risk and build yourself up (iron sharpens iron) and do C-suite work with possibility that you won't be the hot shot. Personally, most people would choose #1. The great choose #2.
I know what they both do. I worked at one and my best friend works at the other.
OP never even said what he does, so assuming what kind of work he would be doing at either shop is a stretch.
I don't think OP moving to BCG is really much of a risk, he'll still make a lot of money at a new company, most likely serving the same industry. If he bombs out he can go to industry or back to Deloitte and still make a lot of money. That doesn't seem too risky to me.
"Feeding the beast" forever can be quite miserable. Think about the type of work you'll be doing and how you're set up at Deloitte and decide if that is really what you want to be doing. Without all the comp details I would suggest strongly considering BCG, I'm sure there are some reasons you pursued it in the first place.
Would you or others be able to provide some details on the expected comp in the Expert track? I think this is a bit less understood and would love details.
Would also like to know the comp in the expert tracks of both McKinsey and BCG. I hear it's about equal at the principal level, something like $400K base + bonus. At the Associate Director level, it's closer to $600K. At the Director level, it can be $1M. Without equity ownership and business development ownership, that's pretty good.
At McK there are a couple of flavors of "Expert"
1) Most people cap out at "Senior Expert", though they have started creating titles like "Master Expert" for a select few above that point. As a Senior Expert you basically cap out at AP compensation 2) There is also the "Expert Principal" track, which is basically where you are elected a Partner for having globally recognized expertise on something (can be functional or industry-focused). Here you get all the benefits of being a Principal but at least up until I left you were not eligible to be elected as a Director.
My opinion is that McK has a problem with the perception of those two Expert tracks. On one hand, the track is viewed favorably in that many of those people have really strong expertise that a generalist EM like myself is thrilled to be able to tap into for a study. On the other hand, these roles are perceived to also have those who tried to get elected as generalist-track Principals but failed, so now fall back on something to stick around.
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