Mid-tier consulting vs. corporate finance
Hello,
I'm trying to decide between a slightly unorthodox mid-tier consulting internship and an F200 corporate finance internship. I'm mostly interested full-time in management consulting, but I'm not sure my stats are up to snuff (i.e. even with good experience this summer, I would have a difficult time breaking in).
The corporate finance role is with a great company that would offer me a great quality of life, but it's not an FLDP or a particularly prestigious program.
The consulting role is an odd mix of traditional management consulting and restructuring/financial advisory. I feel like it'd be solid experience with a decently named firm, but I wouldn't want to pigeonhole myself if I end up doing less of the management consulting side and more of the other stuff.
I'm trying to figure out if it would be better to:
1) Go the corporate finance route and do extremely well with a full time offer from the company I intern with (or try to transition to a better program during full time recruiting), shoot for a top tier MBA, and then transition to consulting after that.
or 2) Go the corporate finance route and try to leverage the name and structured role into full time consulting.
or 3) Go with the consulting firm and hope I get exposure to the more interesting strategy work that they do rather than getting tasked with less applicable work - then try to leverage that into either a good role with the firm or a tier 2+ consulting firm.
or 4) Go with the consulting firm and try to leverage that into a much better FLDP type program (not sure if the corp fin role or the consulting role would give me a better shot), do extremely well, go to a top business school, and then do top tier consulting.
Obviously some of this is a bit overzealous in the planning department, particularly with regards to B-school, but it's based on a bit of what I know about people who've followed each path. Also, I've done corporate finance in the past and felt a bit stifled by it, it's not really what a want to do, but hey, nobody really wants to do investment banking either. I know it would be decent money, solid quality of life, semi-interesting work, and has some quality exit options, so I've left it on the table and am seriously considering it.
I'd go with the consulting firm and try to leverage this into a better shop for full time. If you are interested in MC you should definitely go for it. Full time recruiting is much easier for consulting.
Take this with a grain of salt though as i'm also in college looking for my internship right now.
Go for the consulting role; your biggest worry seems to be "pigeon holing" yourself if you end up doing more financial advisory/restructuring work........wouldn't you also be branding yourself with a corporate finance role, especially since you say you've done it before? In one case, you may not get directly relevant work experience. In the other, you know you won't.
As far as landing a FT consulting gig, you can land a FT role within the firm that you like, or leverage the experience into another firm (as you've mentioned). If you're aiming for Tier2 firms as opposed to MBB, I think you are making the right choice. If you were aiming for MBB, I'd advise taking the corporate finance role.
If you end up not liking the experience, re-approach the corporate finance role for FT recruiting. As long as you exit gracefully at your current juncture, they should understand your desire to try something new with an internship. Just explain that you've done corporate finance before, and wanted to try something new to make sure it was the right choice. They want you now, no reason they shouldn't want you later. Just make sure that they actually do FT recruiting, as opposed to only converting interns. I've seen that bite people in the past.
Thanks for the response. Yeah, I'm aware that CF might brand me as well, but I feel that's still a pretty common route (I'd prefer to do consulting right out of college).
Kind of leading off of that, why do you say the corp fin role would be better for MBB? I'm interested in both tier 1 and 2, but in order of interest, tier 1 then tier 2. Is it a matter of name brand? As in F500 will be better than more relevant experience purely because of name? As I said, It's not an FDP, FLDP, or other rotational and it's not a well known program (though yes, it is a good company). Or is there some kind of stigma about doing lower tier consulting? I know, maybe more in respect to CPAExtraordinaire's point, that lateraling and even getting positions post MBA with MBB after doing lower tier consulting can be difficult, but this is an internship. Quite frankly, I don't know, so any advice you'd have would help. The impression I got from both companies was that I would get significantly more exposure and a much more intense work experience with the consulting firm. Whereas the F500 would be a regular 8-5+lunch and reasonably less challenging, if more structured and predictable opportunity (as in, they'll do things like having me complete a structured, internship-long project with feedback to address or solve a finance issue). Is that then more what they'd be looking for as opposed to something which will most likely be more relevant and diverse (ideally, though not guaranteed)?
Additionally, I recently received an offer to do equities with a major asset manager for the summer (they manage big money, but it's a middling name). That would probably be a bit more interesting to me than the CF route, but I feel it would push me away from consulting similar to CF, just further away and in a different direction.
You're right on with the stigma comment and MBB. Its very real, even for just an internship. My advice above about doing consulting is based on your desire to get into consulting and you targeting Tier 2 forms, especially because you have doubts about your stats. Disclaimer: I know someone who got to MBB from a lower tier firm. They were a wanted demographic who went to a Top 5 B school, but it did happen.
I dont know enough about the new offer to comment (finance is not my sector), but based on your read of the name, I'd say do the cfin role before that.
If your goal is to give consulting a go and you'd be happy shooting for Tier 2 and finance roles FT, I'd say do the consulting gig. If you're shooting for MBB possibly, do the cfin. Honestly assess your chances, and realize you would be going into consulting without giving it a test run first, and sacrificing the chance to have a consulting offer from the summer.
You're in a good place, so don't stress out about the choice. Just enjoy and rock whatever role you choose.
Thank you very much, I think that clarifies things a bit. Quite honestly, MBB is a bit of a long shot for me. I do believe I'd love to do consulting though (based on prior work experience), so if the low tier firm still gives me a decent opportunity to leverage it into meaningful roles at good companies, I think I'll be satisfied. Given my background, I doubt my chances at MBB would be much worse between the stigma in the lower tier firm and the lack of relevance in the corp fin though, so maybe I'll keep my fingers crossed.
Is it your opinion that the consulting role would set me up better for applying into quality FLDP programs than the corporate finance role? I think it's a done deal in my mind that I'd like to take the opportunity to do consulting of any sort given that I have it, but it'd be nice if it also gave me some more varied options.
I'm not sure who makes this stuff up but at my MBB, there are a ton of post MBA hires who were "mid-tier consultants" whatever that means. We like ex-consultants because they understand what it means to be client serving and and often times, that is the toughest thing for non-consultants to learn. If there is any stigma, it is associated with the type of work that you did. Fair or not, most often we frown upon technology implementation and heavy PMO experience. corporate finance can be good but only positions with top companies will get you into a top business school. The perception that most MBA programs have with corporate finance jobs, rotation or otherwise, is that it is not comparatively dynamic or challenging. For the goals you stated, I would advise taking the consulting internship.
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