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KPMG has the worst brand name out of the big 4 for strategy consulting. Very little prestige associated with it. If it's your only option go for it but id shoot for Deloitte, OW, S&, etc if you can.
Agree with harvest_ched. Deloitte has the strongest Big Four strategy practice and then I'd rank Accenture Strategy ahead of PwC, KPMG, and EY. Strategy& at PwC can be a strong competitor but Accenture is recruiting a ton of MBA's from top schools. Worked with a couple of Wharton MBA's at Accenture on my last project.
My former roommate worked at KPMG Strategy, not sure if that's what you mean by KPMG S&O (perhaps it's a different group though). I strongly disagree that KPMG has "very little prestige." I work at a boutique strategy house and, frankly, I view all of the Big Four as pretty similar, with Deloitte probably having the best practice since they didn't shed their consulting division post-SOX (the S&O folks on this forum will probably kill me for this comment....). Our firm generally goes up against the strategy groups of the Big 4, namely Parthenon-EY, Strategy& and, to a lesser extent, Deloitte S&O (due to my industry focus). Based on the input my roommate gave me (full disclosure, it's a year or so old), KPMG was also competing against these firms but were just much smaller and so you didn't hear about them as much... they don't even have a footprint in all verticals yet. His group was mostly ex-Booz who jumped ship after the PwC acquisition and he really liked it there, said he did some great work and pay was pretty good (on par with other Big 4 firms but below what my firm and MBB pays). However, he did warn that some vertical groups are better than others and that many projects are operational or commercial due diligence, so make sure that's your thing. Since it's a small group you may be able to be extremely entrepreneurial and be heavily involved in recruiting, company events, organizations, helping opening new office, pitching new clients, etc.... business school AdComs will love this and it might actually give you a leg up on consultants from more established firms that have more typical profiles.
In terms of MBA recruiting, I doubt AdComs will strongly differentiate between the Big 4 firms - remember, AdComs generally never worked in business but see big consulting firms (MBB + Big Four) as well as elite boutiques (ATK, OW, LEK, Mars & Co., etc.) in the "M7 is viable" category, with MBB obviously offering the biggest advantage. That said, H/S/W have students from all of the firms listed above. Case in point - former roommate who worked at KPMG now goes to an elite MBA business schools ">M7 biz school with a 720 (aka non-stellar) GMAT and only average-ish grads (3.4 GPA). So, to answer your original question, I'd think you will be fine.
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They are definitely not all the same. Deloitte & PwC/Strategy& are a tier ahead of EY & KPMG. Those firms are better represented at top business schools. They pay considerably more than EY and KPMG. And pretty much nobody in business school would turn down Strategy&/Deloitte for EY or KPMG in terms of cross offers.
Use pay statistics off of TransparentMBA.com, they are up to date and accurate. I can confirm with offers received personally and from peers. EY, KPMG have lower base but the real kicker is their bonus. They say they pay up to x amount but in reality, you're looking at 10k for annual bonus. Total comp first year out of business school for either firm is going to be sub $150,000, , probably more like $140,000 not counting signing bonus. Strategy&/Deloitte are both pretty much on par with MBB and you're looking at up to ~$180,000 without signing bonus.
They're good firms, I'm not shitting on them by any means. My friends headed to either are excited about their career prospects and both do high level consulting work. But Big 4 are definitely not all the same.
This is a pretty fair breakdown about which firms are more sought after, but I do want to point out that the base salaries for even the top consulting firms are not much more than 140k. They really don't have much of an incentive to raise base salary given that the main benefit of working at a top firm is your exit opps, i.e. you get something out of it other than the salary. Most firms that hire out of MBA programs have the same base pay of 140-150k.
https://managementconsulted.com/consulting-salaries/2016-management-con…
Some of this is right; however, a bit wrong on the EY front. People fairly regularly turn down Deloitte and / or PwC Strategy& for EY-Parthenon. Parthenon is certainly harder to get into, didn't hemorrhage people after they were acquired, and now pays the highest post-MBA base (Parthenon only, not general EY) at $172k.
That's a good point; I forgot about Parthenon. Thanks for clarifying. One quick note - their all-in comp is the same as the rest of the tier. Parthenon doesn't really pay a bonus.
Big 4's are all the same in my opinion. Don't get caught up in all that rhetoric around Deloitte being the only Big 4 to not divest from consulting after dot-com.
What's key in considering which company are: - addressable clients - their budget - what programs of work are budgeted - partner, director and teams alignment to demanded work (I.e mature vs start up/ scrambling to build competency, team and reputation)
There is no use working for a company where your skills and network cannot be leveraged due to the above reasons.
Big 4 are not even close to being exactly the same. Why bother posting if you have no idea what the heck you are talking about.
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