The choice 
(Senior Chimp, 28
Points)
on 2/15/12 at 3:41pm
Hey guys, right now I'm choosing between ZS and a medium sized management consulting firm for my entry level job. I intern at the consulting firm now, the people are great, the opportunity to stand out is great, and so far I have worked some impressive clients, one a $2b sized PE, the other a huge financial news publication we all swear by.
I can tell staying with the the consulting firm is going to take me far, especially since there is a steady stream of private equity clients who outsource their acquisition due diligence to us. But how does ZS size up against this firm, in terms of exit opportunities a few years down the line, in industries like big name consulting, PE/IB, and high tech?
Please PM or reply!! Thank you!!
How the hell are we supposed
How the hell are we supposed to compare ZS to a "medium-sized MC firm"? Either give the name or just take the time to think through this yourself. You can use LinkedIn to where past ZS people have exited to and same for your firm. Just from the way you phrased your post it seems that you're clearly favoring "medium MC firm."
You have to give more color
You have to give more color about the other firm. With that said, from what I've heard from people I know that work at ZS, the lifestyle is beyond belief awful. People literally get worked into the ground and are, for the most part, miserable. With that said, the work itself can apparently be interesting and is fairly quant-ey.
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@Darkstar19 You have probably
@Darkstar19 You have probably never heard of the unnamed firm.
@TheKing I think most consultants get worked into the ground, are you talking about 60+ hr weeks or something?
From what I understand,
From what I understand, people get brutally burnt out with hours that rival banking when projects heat up. Also, the work doesn't sound like it'd help you get into PE.
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You're talking two very
You're talking two very different types of work. I don't think either of these really gets you into PE/IB. The people I know of from my MBB that went to PE were going into ops groups which work to improve the bottom line of the portfolio company.
ZS has a rep as a very quanty/niche marketing and sales shop. I don't think they really compete with the MBB because all three of the MBB have strong marketing and sales functions. Can't comment on lifestyle there.
Can't comment too much on the other consulting firm (you really need to provide more colour), but I also think that after a while doing straight diligence work will get boring. You are providing an opinion in most cases and aren't making any strategic recommendations outside the investment decision context. Just my two cents.
TheKing wrote: You have to
You have to give more color about the other firm. With that said, from what I've heard from people I know that work at ZS, the lifestyle is beyond belief awful. People literally get worked into the ground and are, for the most part, miserable. With that said, the work itself can apparently be interesting and is fairly quant-ey.
Second this. Lifestyle is beyond awful. Also based on knowing people who've worked there.
If you want to switch to those other industries, you'll have to MBA it.
I worked in PE at an MBB a
I worked in PE at an MBB a while ago. I'll wager if you're a PE focused consulting firm, I've heard of you.
1. The only firms with really great immediate exit into private equity from the consulting world are McKinsey and Bain...Bain probably just slightly more so than McKinsey due to the deal flow that goes through them but it is near as makes no difference. LEK/BCG/Parthenon get a few each year into middle market but few into the megafunds. To the extent that your firm is smaller than LEK/Parthenon, (say Investor Group Services size, which is a Parthenon spin off), I'd say your chances of moving into PE are pretty low even if you're working on active PE deals. Moving into IB from consulting seems...strange but probably is a post b-school event. Big name consulting recruits even less off cycle, so it sucks regardless of where you would go.
2. Do you like healthcare? If so, go to ZS. If not....don't.
3. Without knowing the name of your midsized consulting firm, you'll be much more advantaged coming out of ZS with regards to business school than not. ZS Associates has a pretty strong recruiting/alumni presence at major business schools, particularly Wharton. I'm told they have a very strong line into the Wharton Healthcare program, but you'll have to confirm that independently.
4. I don't know the hours at ZS Associates. I imagine they're consulting standard (~60-75 a week). I do, however, know the hours in PE due diligence. It is 4-5 weeks of shit (80-100 hours a week) interspersed with a week of beach time (30-40 hours a week). I imagine that the hours thing is a wash.
Hope this helps.
I'll add some more as I
I'll add some more as I talked to my friend who worked at ZS a little while back:
--Absolutely brutal hours and overall lifestyle
--Very quant-oriented, not operations focused. It's really all about building quant models to test tons of variables to pharma companies and other healthcare companies can build a sales team (I'm probably oversimplifying it, but it's the kind of shit I just couldn't manage to do)
--Hours apparently don't get better over time. There are 30+ year olds working monster weeks left and right.
--He has never heard of anyone going into PE after ZS, but there are definitely opportunities for interesting corporate jobs. Not M&A focused, but interesting stats / quant positions in corporate firms with better lifestyles
--Overall, he said he actually liked the work he did (he's a real stats / math type), but that the lifestyle was too much to handle
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