Consulting VS IB Differences

do you wanna own a rolex or an apple watch?

I would say more of your pros and cons are applicable in some way to MBB consulting too. Driven colleagues for sure, youll have fast paced moments - probably less downtime than banking (imo the hours are more "full" but there are less of them which is good). I think what you outlines in the Senior level activities is more applicable in consulting.

As for cons, MBB hours are kinda bad too but better than banking purely on the fact that youll (most likely) never have weekend work. I think the bullshit work manifests itself differently, I think there will be less of the formatting bullshit that bankers do but there will be other kinda dumb asks. And lastsly, if we are ignoring powerpoint and excel, id say consulting you get a better strategic "how to think" toolkit and probably better client facing skills, whereas banking I suppose youd get more of the pure financial knowledge which is useful if you plan to pursue that down the line.

Either way, IB makes more sense if you see yourself chasing PE or wanting to stay in a finance role, not to say that consulting doesnt keep that open, it does, but is much harder unless you tailor your experience. Both are good for different reasons.

Echo other poster that you’re a better fit for MBB than IB based on what you wrote

Hours are better, more client interaction esp. at junior levels, can elect to take on more corporate strategy cases

The bullshit work part — depends, MBB has its own. Less Excel / CIM and more PPT pedants (churning on storylines etc) but you’ll outsource a lot of the slide formatting offshore. More work around navigating corporate politics and operations work (eg PMO) depending on project — just as valuable to learn but not for everyone

Exactly — persistence and smart networking are key. Showing your skills through public models or write-ups can help get you noticed, and smaller/mid-sized shops are often more open to non-traditional backgrounds.

You'd like consulting more. I interned in MBB but had BB offers/many close friends at BBs.

The negatives you dislike are better at MBB, though team dependent: no weekend work, almost no "downtime," better hours. Travel can be tiring though. Lots of daily client interaction.

More importantly, your neutrality on finance is telling. IB is better for working in PE, hedge funds, and related areas within finance. Consulting will probably give you better exposure and possibly exits in essentially everything else. Since you're talking about startup/quant, you don't seem to be die-hard set on finance.

MBB really wins in my eyes. Downside is lower pay. The weekends are yours, you can do an externship or transfer to an office abroad for 6 months. You rotate between really intense PE cases and sometimes will have more chill corporate strategy cases. The consultant network is global and people are more social. You have exit options in many corporate, startup and strategy jobs instead of mostly just PE 

How is IB not skill-developing?

Excel modeling is absolutely a “hard skill.” Some of these models are like software in terms of their complexity and the amount of creativity required in creating them.

Understanding how business generate revenue, how businesses are valued, what investors care about, and how markets trade are “softer” skills, but skills that you glean through a more quantitative, number-backed angle in IB than elsewhere.

Ideally, you will also learn how to write well, how to come off as socially “with it,” and how to make pretty slides - perhaps not the most intellectual task, but still very much a skill.

There are also the intangibles, skills like working efficiently, defaulting to the “hard, rigorous” way of providing analyses, managing up effectively, and crisis management.

All of this, in your early 20s. That’s valuable.

I’ll concede on your other points, but firmly disagree on IB not being skill-building. This may sound harsh, but that could be more of a problem with a specific team being unwilling to give juniors skill-building exposures than it is inherent to the role.

I cannot think of another role that a 23 year-old can have that is more skill-building in a broad-based sense than IB.

A couple of notes (I don't work in strategy consulting, which is what I assume you're asking about):

1. If you hate BS formatting notes about alignment, etc., you're going to HATE strategy work. I work in turnaround/restructuring consulting, which is almost a hybrid of the two, and you have no idea how many formatting comments I deal with around Excel and PPT both. MBB is ALL about the formatting since the deck is the final deliverable and the work is less quantitative
2. I have never in my life heard someone say that Excel isn't a real skill. Putting that aside though, I think what you'll realize only after you've worked for a few years is that the mechanics of modeling in Excel or creating a PPT isn't hard. What's more important is HOW you either tell a story or model things out in Excel. Beyond that, half of the job in both consulting and banking is getting people to buy into your assumptions and story. You can do that through numbers/data (more IB) or through qualitative research / persuasion (more strategy), but the main thing these jobs teach you is how to come up with a story and then frame things out in a way that's both credible and digestible to stakeholders. 

Especially nowadays with outsourcing and maybe AI, knowledge is a bit of a commodity. What really matters and that isn't so easy to cheaply replicate, are the soft skills. I think you'll be fine either way, but just keep that in mind when figuring out what path you want to take.