IB SA to Consulting

That’s fine. A lot of people come to this realisation during their summer internships.

The crazy thing is that many of them will feel exactly the same way you do and still accept a full-time role in a job they fundamentally dislike. They will hate the hours, the work, the culture, the lifestyle, and the person they become while doing it, but still convince themselves that taking the return offer is the “smart” move because it keeps the prestige train moving.

A lot of people on this forum will tell you: “Just push through, bro. Get the return offer, then think about it later.” In my opinion, that advice is often nonsense. If you already know with real conviction that this is 100% not what you want, then remain respectful, professional, and do the work to the best of your ability. But do not feel pressured to destroy your health, sleep four hours a night, and compete like a maniac against people who genuinely want the seat long term. There is a difference between being professional and unnecessarily martyring yourself for an outcome you do not even want.

The bigger question, though, is: why consulting?

Because if you were truly hellbent on consulting from the beginning, you probably would not have pushed this hard for IB recruiting. You would have been casing from freshman year, networking with consultants, joining consulting clubs, and shaping your profile around MBB or strategy roles from the start. That does not mean consulting is the wrong answer now, but it does mean you need to be honest with yourself about where this new interest is coming from.

Before you jump into “I want to pursue consulting” mode, you need to have a long, uncomfortable thinking session with yourself after the internship. Do you actually want consulting? Do you like the nature of the work: ambiguous business problems, client management, travel, slide decks, structured thinking, constant switching between industries? Or are you just prestigemaxxing into the next socially acceptable high-status path because banking no longer feels good?

That is the trap a lot of ambitious college students fall into. First it is IB. Then if IB feels bad, it becomes consulting. Then maybe PE, corp dev , VC, startups, product management, tech, whatever the next prestigious thing is. The label changes, but the underlying driver stays the same: the need to feel impressive, validated, and ahead of your peers.

And I promise you, outside of a very small bubble of college students, finance forums, LinkedIn warriors, and prestige-obsessed career circles, nobody really cares whether you are in investment banking, private equity, or consulting. Nobody normal is sitting around ranking your worth based on whether your offer says Goldman, McKinsey, Blackstone, or some other shiny logo. The people who love you will not care. The people who matter will not care. And the people who do care probably should not be the ones controlling your life decisions.

So yes, take the realisation seriously. Finish the internship professionally. Keep relationships intact. But after the summer, do not just sprint blindly toward consulting because it feels like the next elite exit ramp. Sit with the discomfort and ask yourself what you actually want your day-to-day life to look like, what trade-offs you are genuinely willing to make, and whether you are chasing a career or chasing the feeling of being perceived as successful.

Best of luck.