Bain AC vs McKinsey Digital BA Offers

I think your Pros and Cons for Bain are absolutely correct, and your Pros for McKinsey sound correct as well. To summarize, Bain has less technology work and also doesn't give you as much choice into doing technology work due to their forced generalist model.

I'll address your Cons for McKinsey too:

1. "Digital has some less interesting work." Yes, there are a lot of very cool digital projects as you listed under pros, but also some boring ones. Generalists also have some cool projects, and some boring ones. This is natural. The thing that makes McKinsey so great is that you can turn down the boring projects. Trust me, what's boring to you will be interesting to some other people. Thus, I wouldn't weight this too heavily.
2. "More corporate culture." It's certainly not an overly formal place or anything, but you're right that it is more corporate, relative to Bain. Whether this is good or bad depends on your own preferences. People at McKinsey certainly are stil supportive, kind, and helpful though so don't think otherwise.
3. "Internal perception of Digital." Not really sure where your thoughts here are coming from. Digital is not viewed even slightly differently internally. That's why 50% of Digital BA projects are from the generalist pool. As you suggested, Digital is actually one of the strongest and fastest growing segments of the firm (around half of all McKinsey projects are now involving Digital, which is absurd). Nobody thinks of Digital BA's as better or worse than regular BA's, and few even know the distinction since it's not a meaningful one. A Digital BA is just more interested in technology on average, so it gives you a community of similar people in that sense. You can do 0% of your work in Digital, or 100% though. There isn't an actual limit. You have all the flexibility and choice of a generalist, but you get first preference for the Digital cases and join a community of people interested in technology. There is literally no downside. If you're wondering about how it's marketed externally, nobody asks or cares if you're a Digital BA when you leave the firm (partially because nobody knows to, but also because nobody cares since it's the exact same). Digital positions at McKinsey like Agile Coach and stuff are a tier below the Consulting positions, but Digital BA is 100% just as prestigious, selective, competitive, and well-regarded internally as Generalist BA's! This is also why the application for Digital BA's is the EXACT same as for Generalists, and your cases aren't focused just on technology (mine personally had no technology). You're expected to do the same work as generalists around 50% of the time, and you can make it 100%, but your choosing to be in Digital just means you're INTERESTED in technology. Bottom line: it's not a meanintful distinction and should not be a factor in your decision. Was amused to see your assumptions about it though haha

For someone interested in tech, I would pick McKinsey hands down. They have way more technology work, you can choose to focus on techology projects since you don't have to be a generalis, and the alumni network in technology is meaningfully stronger (in part because it's way bigger, but also Bain is PE-focused so they have far fewer tech exits proportionally speaking anyway).

Of course, don't forget to consider the culture and where you'll be happy as well. As much as McKinsey may align better professionally for you, these benefits are not big enough to be worth your happiness.

Congrats on the two offers, and tough choice.

I think you have given this a lot of good thought already, and you have been provided with a lot of good info as well. One thing that I'd like to add, is: look at where the people of the office exit towards and where their network is.

If you want to go back to the US for VC/FAANG, it may be different. I'm located in Western Europe, and have exited to VC. Thus cannot speak about FAANG, but the PE/VC market in my country is not large. I think there are a lot fewer from the 'other' MBB in PE/VC in my country at least.

Also consider the digital skills you want to eventually acquire as the whole concept of digital varies per geography and compnay type.

Good points have been made. I would also add that both firms will allow you to do commercial due diligence work, which is a valuable experience to have for VC (rather late stage than early, but still). Bain has a slight edge in the field, but McK does a really good job here as well.

what did you decide? also curious on this discussion--- is there even any downside on choosing digital BA over generalist BA if you have total discretion over what project split you want (e.g. can do 0% or 100% in digital)?