Is Consulting at Big 4 Different from MBB ?
I'm currently an EPM consultant at a BIG4, responsible for implementing an EPM solution. The projects are heavily focused on technical aspects, which isn’t where my strengths lie. Recently, I received a negative performance review on my last project, and my managers have hinted that they don't view me as a strong consultant. This has left me doubting my abilities and questioning my career path.
I've been invited to interview for a Junior Associate role at BCG, but I'm uncertain if this is the right path for me or if I have what it takes to be a successful consultant.
What even is consulting?
Consulting professional help is what you should do
From what I heard pretty different. First, Big 4 typically does implementation consulting (Not including the T2 spinoffs like EY-Parthenon, Strategy&) mostly which occurs usually after management consulting firms have already been brought in like MBBs and T2s to design strategies to solve a problem. Then Big 4 comes in to implement the solution. Also, MBB tends to be more intense/ service higher "prestige" clients like F500, large PE firms etc. due to their high price tag.
To your question, interview first to see if you get the offer. Good to have MBB on your resume regardless and things don't seem to be going too well at your current firm regardless.
I haven’t worked at a Big4 and so don’t have the facts to give an informed answer.
I can tell you that I’ve never heard of EPM - and this is not work that we would do.
An entreprise performance management (EPM) consultant helps clients improve how they manage their performance and make decisions.
During projects, I worked with a tool called Anaplan, it's a cloud-based platform that allows businesses to organize and plan their operations.
To give you an example, if we’re working with an HR team as our client, we use Anaplan to build models and dashboards that provide insights into areas like recruitment strategies, employee turnover rates, and workforce planning. These help the client make decisions about where to recruit and how to optimize their overall workforce.
So my role involves understanding the client’s needs and also building these Anaplan models/dashboards.
Got it, our data scientists might do similar things to this, particularly with predictive modelling etc.
Generalists would steer clear, the type of work we do is higher level. An example based on previous work I’ve done:
The CEO is being railed by investors because of lower return on capital vs peers and calls us in to understand why. We do 4 weeks of work following which we say it’s driven by three systemic issues, one of which is poor quality talent/ resources. The current performance management system is ineffective because managers don’t have a clear view of their teams’ performance. We recommend you implement a more data driven system to measure performance more objectively, and the Big4 would be better value for money here.
The CEO would then ask his team to implement the recommendations. The Head of People/ Talent would then reach out to Big4 Partners to submit bids.
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