5 most important things I learned when exiting consulting

I left consulting a little over 6 months ago and was recently doing some reflecting on my time in consulting, finally exiting after 7 years and where I want to be in the future. As I look back, I wanted to share the 5 most important things I learned through exiting

My brief background: Spent 7 years in big 4 strategy (think S&, EY-P, Deloitte S&O), left at the manager / EM / Director level to take a leadership role at a portfolio company of a MM / UMM PE firm

1. Prestige is overrated (to an extent), your experience is going to drive your exit

Throughout all of my time interviewing, the biggest thing I realized was that at the end of the day, the majority of employers see the consulting shops as relatively equal and really your experience matters. Early in my career, I was much more of a "yes man" and took on whatever project the partners who I worked with wanted me to. My advice to early consultants is find a balance - if you want to do strategy at Spotify, make sure you're working on TMT strategy engagements. In my experience, the consultants that pushed back may have seemed high-maintenance, but I don't think it ever actually hurt them during reviews or compensation. One caveat - You likely will not get looks at the most prestigious consulting exit ops (e.g., PE deal teams, KKR capstone, blue-chip strategy, etc.) if you aren't MBB

2. Patience is a virtue - wait for the right exit

Over my 7 years in consulting, I saw a number of people take exits because "they needed to get out of consulting." IMO that's a fucking loser attitude, be patient and make sure you find the right opportunity and are compensated well (no pay cuts here). My framework for evaluating a lot of opportunities really came down to one question "could I have gotten this job if I didn't slave away in consulting for 7 years?" If the answer was no, I didn't pursue it. This job requires a lot of sacrifice, make sure it was worth it in the end in terms of the role and compensation

3. Where do you want to be in 1, 3, 5 and 10 years from now - how does this exit get you there?

When I was evaluating a lot of opportunities, one really helpful piece of advice was to think through how each opportunity put me on the right path for what I wanted to do. For me personally, I was really interested in learning how to be an operator and running a company or organization, and my current role allows me to do that

4. Do extensive due diligence on who you'll be working with

Consulting isn't like other careers - you don't typically have a "boss" and if you don't like working with somebody, you can probably avoid them in the future. "Industry" will be different, and your relationship with your superior(s) will be one of the largest factors on if you enjoy your role. Additionally, if you're going to work at a smaller company, start-up or PE port co, I would really think about if the executive team are people you trust and think can deliver - a positive outcome (i.e., a good sale / exit) rises all

5. If you were a high performer in consulting, you'll be a high performer wherever you exit. Make sure that exit gives you a piece of the upside

This will largely depend on where you exit to, but I can confidently say that extensive consulting experience will transfer really well to just about any role. If you were a high performer in consulting, you should feel confident that you will be able to exceed in your next role. When people say 1 year of consulting experience is 1.5-2 in industry, they aren't wrong. Also, find a role that gives you a piece in the upside - one of the things I hated about consulting is I was always grinding to fund some partner's pension

Would love to hear other thoughts as well