Corp Strategy is not a great exit
Correct me if I am wrong but I feel like I heard corp strat was a chill place to go after consulting. But in reality I think the hours and culture suck because they hire a bunch of ex-consultants that don't know how to chill. In addition, the pay can be extremely low. For instance- Comcast pays $125k TC for a strategy manager with 3-5 YoE. Doordash is only 145k.
My question is, has it always been like this? Or is the market bad/permanently cooked? Seems like the value prop of consulting is going down.
Bump
This is one perspective. The other is that Corp Strategy is actually an incredible exit.
A close friend made >175k all in his first year as an Analyst / Associate in a MCOL/LCOL city. To be fair she had >3-4 years of FT experience. She said work averaged out to about 45 hours a week. Group leadership was all very smart and credentialled, mostly M7 + MBB experience. Really interesting projects and the ability to make a long term impact. Sound too good to be true? I rolled my eyes at some of this, but it was only out of jealousy.
Like all roles, there are >5 bad ones for every good opportunity. It takes a lot of patience, looking, and luck to find the good ones.
Def possible- have not heard of that combo of hours + comp but good for her. The other issue is the long term trajectory is a lot worse once you leave consulting. There is not really a defined path upwards in these roles but you can sometimes switch teams.
I think luck played a huge part in her journey, and it takes a lot of time and diligence. I also think one of the bigger challenges you described is the upward mobility. From what I understand, you essentially need to report to a director or VP that will loudly pound the table for you at the end of each year, demanding your promote (remind you of consulting?).
Paths forward in Corp Strat can certainly be pretty opaque and a lot of orgs have pretty freshly minted corp strategy teams, so unless you verbalize the importance of career growth and let it be known that if thats not a viable option, youre going to be looking (once youve proven your worth of course), people may not consider upward mobility as much as they would in other industries.
My last thought is that once you get the offer in hand, you can always negotiate. Maybe you know they wont budge on their bonus range, so you need to push hard for 20-25% base above their initial offer. It can lead to a lot of work to ultimately just walk away, but the background of the Directors and VPs should let you know how good of a team it is. And if a good team really wants you, they usually find a way to make it work comp wise.
You are generally correct but I know a few people from MBB with 3-4 YOE who left to corporate strategy roles paying ~300K. These are rare competitive opportunities though, and working hours are not as low as you suggested (e.g., Netflix FS&A, Google AI BizOps, Citadel Strategy).
I think that most DoorDash stuff you see out there is more S&O than true Corporate Strategy. Their pay in S&O also sucks across all levels from what I've seen and has a reputation as being a sweatshop.
Would be interesting to hear the differences between corp strategy and s&o. Always assumed they were interchangeable. Startups and growth stage companies tend to use S&O more it looks like.
Technically, corp strat just focuses on strategy, whereas S&O is a hybrid of strategy and execution. But in reality, they're pretty interchangeable.
Tech companies/startups use S&O more, while larger/more mature F500 companies use corp strat more. Not a hard rule, but generally what I've seen.
It all depends on the role/team/company. Some companies aren't paying top dollar for their strategy teams because they aren't necessarily targeting MBB talent (or are not in HCOL areas). Often the best corp strat gigs aren't at the 'sexy' companies, so you might have to dig deep into LinkedIn to find stuff.
3 years ago, I exited MBB at the 1.5 year mark and got ~150k TC in a corp strat role at a company nobody here has ever heard of.
~3 years later I'm making ~185k TC + additional long term incentives.
I work ~40 hours/week. Rarely (~5-10% of weeks) done >50 hours. Slow weeks, I sometimes put in ~30-35 hours.
Also want to note that at many companies (especially tech) the bulk of the money is made via equity. So you might see '$145k base' and think that's low, but the bonus might be 10% and the equity might be 40k/yr, which brings the TC up to 200k.
But unfortunately, outside of consulting, strategy roles aren't revenue generating, so it really depends on how the executives at your company view the team.
What COL is is this comp in? I feel like I'm being underpaid doing strat at a large F500 in a MCOL 4 YOE of IB 150k?
HCOL area. Is the 150k the base, or the TC?
I'm not too familiar with the comp levels in MCOL areas, but you can probably get a pay bump if you move somewhere like SF or NYC, but not sure if the lifestyle would be better.
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Good corp strat comp is only in finance and tech. I'm 3 YOE at my T2 firm on track to make 220-240K this year. My practice is in industrials and I can tell you for a fact I will clear more this year than my 10 YOE director at my old legacy industry F500 and they wouldn't even look at me for that role with 3 YOE. Best I could exit to this year is a corp strat manager and in my industries that would be around 160K which is a decent pay cut.
Bit confused by your post. You're saying you're doing corp strat at a smaller industrial company rather large public industrials co doing the same role? That comp is excellent for your YOE. Are you in a VHCOL / NYC?
I'm saying at my consulting firm I work in a traditional industries practice group where if I exited to 99% of my clients including my former F500 employer I would take a 30%+ pay cut. Only TMT, FS, and maybe some Pharma teams have corporate exits that match or beat consulting pay.
I exited MBB post-MBA with 1 year of consulting, 3 years finance pre-MBA, and went to a "true" corp strat team (i.e. we did M&A DD and board decks) at a F500. They matched MBB pay (190 + 20% bonus + a handful of stock), and now I'm making more like MBB manager pay (high 200s)
I work 9-5 except when on DD (maybe 10% of the time), 3 days in office at most, and get awards every single year for top performance
as others have identified the problem with these roles is its very hard to move up over time, there's no escalator up - I had to claw my way into a BU promotion to a role with direct reports
the advice I generally give is to only make this exit at a level you'd be comfortable topping out at for the rest of your career. For most I would suggest staying in consulting to manager, and exiting at a director level where you have a team of analysts under you - it can take a very long time to achieve this in industry
So what do I do if I am a strategy associate in tech? Starting a role soon, luckily the comp is good (200k tc, 4 YoE) but what should I do in 2-3 years to maximize my career? Get an mba, switch jobs, etc?
try to get promoted to manager as fast as possible!
-overdeliver in your first 6 months
-push to do projects you have experience in
-be proactive & try to do the job above you
if the company is doing ok financially, should be able to get promoted in ~2 years...
then recruit for a different company!
Is strategy the best way to get to a unit head type role? Or should you be looking at something else?
Everything gets easier after director (assuming you’re smart)
Prior to director it’s hard to get a big enough mandate
The key to corporate careers is really that it’s a race to director ; then you have an open playing field
Is it better to stick in IB/PE until you can lateral then to corporate at a director level or is it worth it to lateral in as a manager (after being an IB associate) and work your way up?
It just becomes hard to stay in consulting and banking after awhile. If you aren't being promoted the attrition or lay offs will get you. But I think generally, the advice would be to stick in them for as long as you can hold on until director/you have to start selling. Then decide if you want to sell or move to industry. The exception is moving to PE ofc.
Been at this tech corp strat role for a few months and it is awesome...I stand corrected. Doing cool M&A targeting lists, dd, strategy etc. Pretty sick, highly recommend a strategy + corp. dev role if you can find one.
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