LEK vs. OW vs. S& Deals Strategy

Hi everyone,

I am evaluating offers between LEK, OW, and S& Deals Strategy. I am curious as to what everyone on WSO MC thinks about these offers and which you would pick if you were in my situation. Specifically, I am trying to compare and contrast each of these firms on the following categories:

  • Work life balance
  • Business school placement
  • Exit opportunities (Specifically into an operational role at a growth PE fund or a cushy corp strat gig)
  • Quality of work (I would like to be doing strategy projects)

If there is anything else I should be considering, please let me know.

 

This is a tough question to try and answer, for a couple of reasons. First, it depends entirely on your exact situation, which nobody reading this is going to know about. But beyond that, the insight on the categories you laid out are pretty unlikely to be known by a single person for all three firms.

I interned at LEK this summer (MBA intern). But I have no idea what it's like to work at OW or S&, so my perspective isn't really that meaningful. Instead, here's what I would do if I were you:

  1. Work-life balance. Find alumni or connections at all three firms at the post-undergrad level (you should have plenty if you received offers from each). Don't ask them what their "work-life balance" is like, because that's pretty heavily dependent on each respondent's personal expectations. Ask them what their typical week looks like, with low cases and high cases. Get a few data points and compare across firms accordingly.

2 & 3. Business school placement and exit opportunities. LinkedIn is your friend here. Whenever some firm says "oh yes, we place into X school or Y industry," go find the bodies. Sometimes "we place into PE" means there was one analyst in the last six years who found a job in your target industry, and sometimes it means there's a half dozen every recruiting cycle that make the jump. Pour a cup of coffee and spend some quality time on LinkedIn and count the stats.

  1. Quality of work. Reach out to your contacts at the firms, and don't ask things like "what % of the firm's work is strategy," but instead ask "what were your last few projects like." Create your own data set and compare accordingly. I'll save you some time on LEK-- it's no secret that they bill themselves as a "strategy-only" shop, so if you ask them, they will say all of their projects are either corporate strategy (usually growth) or PE DD.

Are the offers for the same city? Do you care about industry mix? These might move the needle depending on your personal preferences and goals.

"Son, life is hard. But it's harder if you're stupid." - my dad
 

How was your summer internship experience? I heard LEK is no longer the sweat shop it was known to be and folks are averaging ~60-65 hours a week instead of the 80 hours.

Will you be returning to LEK? If so, what drew you back in? I would love to PM if you don't want to disclose this information on this message board.

EDIT: I see that this is a 2 year old thread.. Layne Stanley are you at LEK now?

 

LEK Chi, OW NY, S& NY.

I think I eventually want to jump to PE. I want to be in NY but I hear LEK hours are hellish, especially NY even if I got switched. I would take OW but I worry I'll get stuck in risk modeling/stress testing and can't get in their diligence group. I would take S& since the Deals Strategy group is all growth strategy and diligence, but the pay is substantially less than the other two.

Do you think I could get to PE if I do a kick ass job at OW? Do you think there's a chance I get stuck doing risk or stress testing? I'm not too good quantitatively but definitely a shake hands, smile, personable guy.

 

There us no doubt about it, LEK absolutely WILL beast you, though Chicago is a bit less intense than NYC. OW FS is pretty solid and has a strong reputation in banking circles. They also sponsor a fair number of MBAs, so OW-M7-PE is hard, but doable.

 
Best Response

I preface this post by saying I had offers from LEK & OW at the same time 5 years ago. I still have friends in both.

Go LEK if you (1) are into strategy (2) think PE/Aviation/Operational type projects might be your thing (3) Might want to try out London later (4) think you'd be good at those strategy ppt slides (5) might wanna exit to PE later.

Go OW if you (1) kinda wanna make a lot of money, cos their bonuses are excellent (2) are of a highly analytical bend and think you can crush them financial models (3) find risk/stress testing/LGD EAD models kinda interesting (4) are not really thinking about an MBA later or prefer to focus early on FS/Banking (5) are OK with living on excel vs. making ppts, (6) crave global office mobility including coming over to Asia.

--

In summary, LEK gives you a more typical consulting / strategy experience, while OW gives you cash & you work with some seriously smart people. LEK is a little less global and primarily a NA/UK play, while OW is way more spread out, and has been killing it in Asia in the last 3 years.

 

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