McKinsey vs Bain London for post MBA? (2019)
Hi everyone! I'm looking for your advice as I just finished my MBA recruiting process and now have to decide between McKinsey and Bain offers in London. To be quite honest, I like the Bain team better, prefer their local staffing model, have been offered a higher salary, and feel there is greater support for consultants based on conversations with their HR team. However, I don’t know if turning down an offer from McKinsey is a smart choice due to the prestige of the firm and the potential future opportunities that may derive from that. (In other words, am I really crazy for considering turning down McKinsey for Bain? A lot of my MBA colleagues think I am!). This is also confusing given that I am not set on any post-consulting industry, and would love to do both finance / PE work and government / social sector.
Therefore, I’d sincerely appreciate your insight on whether the McKinsey reputation can have tangible value for my future career, and / or whether the team and lifestyle differences between both are large and relevant enough in day-t-day life to consider prioritizing Bain for lifestyle reasons.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts!
P.S: I know this question has been asked before, but I checked the forum and the last time was in 2011, so I expect an 8 year difference will have changed the answers in some way
In terms of breaking into finance opportunities, I think Bain have more of a history and reputation in terms of PE/IB. I’m not extremely knowledgable on the topic, but, consulting is a team oriented environment and you tend to succeed more when you enjoy your team. If you were to take McKinsey it would be for the wrong reasons, in my opinion.