Strategy& Deals Team vs AT Kearney?
Coming out of undergrad and trying to decide between full-time offers with Strategy&'s new Deals Team and AT Kearney (generalist offer), both in NY. Would love to get any thoughts/opinions! Thanks.
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Deals team is where its at.
Haha why do you say that?
I disagree - I interned at an ATK, LEK, Parthenon level firm and chose that position over a Deals team spot at S&. I also ended up committing to an MBB post internship as well. IMHO the Deals team (while interesting) provides you with a limited skill set compared to the more generalist models at other firms. ATK will give you a broader experience that is more traditional "management consulting." You'll still be able to get on Due Diligences at ATK and will also be able to work on broader corporate work.
If you're thinking about switching to some sort of financial services role down the road (e.g. PE) than the generalist experience + the DD work will be more valued than if you only did DD work. There's a reason strategic DD gets outsourced - much of that work is just glorified market research, and having a broader understanding of how companies actually operate will get you farther than your ability to do quick 3 week market assessments to validate an investment thesis.
ATK is a strong firm and gets lots of respect from folks in the industry as well. S&'s future is questionable (as noted everywhere on this forum) - they may pull out and end up being extremely successful, but that is TBD at this point.
Agree pretty strongly with consultingquant here. ATK is a pretty solid firm with a good reputation, while S& is having some significant integration issues and an uncertain future. Generalist experience vs just deals team means you will get much broader experience and have more opportunities to figure out what you really like to do.
It's pretty rare on this board that I give definitive advice, but in this case I think ATK is a no brainer.
Awesome, thanks all for the input!
Agreed. In my current role, my team occasionally commissions the type of reports mentioned, although we are often sent reports that others have had done to help bolster a thesis. While sometimes insightful, they're just as often used as a double check to validate an existing thesis; I think broader MC work would be a slightly better initial experience.
Humbly disagree with CQ. The Deals Strategy team and PwC / S& does killer work. About 50% Commerical DD 50% Growth Strategy. Head to ATK at the risk of doing a lot of operational improvement and PMO work - take The S& role if you’re more interested in working with PE to look at growth prospects for their investments and work with corporates real top-line Strategy. I’m working now with a PE guy who joined out of S& Deals team so they definitely recruit Associates
Echoing what CQ said - I perosnally don't think doing lots of CDDs is a good way of breaking into PE, as said before it is more or less glorified market research. Where PE firms can get the real value from people after consulting is in the post-deal work, which would be operational improvement, carve-outs and merger integration etc. There is a reason why most of respectable PEs outsource DD work. ATK offers a much better balance between DD work and Ops work.
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