Deloitte S&O vs Oliver Wyman

Hi,

I know this topic has been posted before, but prior posts are now relatively outdated so more recent advice would be much appreciated. I am hoping to gain advice/perspective about how to choose and what you think the most important factors should be. My reasons for leaning either way are as follows:

Deloitte: PROS: really like the people (initial gut feeling seems would be better cultural fit), GSAP, more structured training, larger network (exit ops) CONS: lower comp, may be too big (get lost in the crowd), staffing is network based, relative impact/responsibility is less

OW: PROS: smaller firm, higher comp, staffing manager makes staffing easy, marginally higher prestige, more traditional strategy work, no need for MBA to progress, lots of responsibility CONS: hours are longer, may be too specialized, MBA sponsorship worse by design, less cultural fit (have not meshed with people from local office as much)

One of my biggest concerns is cultural fit, but I'm not sure how important that factor is since these are purely my impressions from my local office and may not be representative of the rest of the people (given both have national staffing).

Thank you!

2 Comments
 
Most Helpful

Disclaimer: I've worked at neither, so I don't reallllly know what I'm talking about but here's how I'd think about the decision:

Not really a cut-and-dry "right" answer here because there isn't too much of a prestige difference, so fit is probably what I would be focusing on most. Specifically:

Culture: Totally a personal decision, but don't undervalue this - There's both professional and personal advantages to getting along with the people (especially seniors) in your office.

Industry: If you really want to do PE during/after your career, OW seems like a much better fit. Otherwise, it's a bit of a wash with a possible slight edge to D in everything but life sciences.

Work-Life: For myself personally, work-life is pretty indicative of how long I can imagine myself staying in consulting - I'd rather work 50-70 hours a week and stay in consulting for 7 years than work 70-90 and burn out after 3.

Again, take my advice with a grain of salt - I don't want to push you one way or the other, this is just how I would be making my decision.

 

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