Would it be worth it to look into switching from IB to Consulting?

Current first year in IB that looked heavily into consulting recruiting for both my junior summer internship and for FT. Didn't work timing wise after getting my IB internship offer first and not having the time to go through FT recruiting. My school was a target school for all the consulting firms but I was told they weren't accelerating cause of the COVID situation that summer. Not sure if I'm having a 'grass is greener' moment, but what I do know is I'm not particularly interested in a PE type exit. I I've been looking more into corp dev and potential start ups / strategic finance type options. Since I'm not dead set on PE, I was thinking consulting would provide a broader set of exit opportunities especially in the corporate world and my work-life would be better vs in banking. don't mind longer-ish hours but I think the weekends / "always being on" in banking makes it a lot less sustainable than doing consulting to me imo. Would it be worth looking into applying around the one year mark to make the switch? Currently at a "boutique" (not an EB by this site's definition but one of those independent advisory firms) and at the time of receiving my FT offer, I thought MBB obviously and most of the tier 2 consulting firms would be worth considering. 

1 Comments
 

Provident quisquam eos occaecati porro id aperiam. Sint cumque adipisci non. Laboriosam alias voluptas rerum nam sint.

Minus commodi voluptatem laudantium tenetur eius ratione. Adipisci est minima sint officia. A quae et aut molestiae deserunt dolor omnis ut.

Excepturi modi voluptatem velit ea quis. Ea aut sit laborum et. Aut quis eius officia architecto. Quam beatae iusto reiciendis accusantium autem corrupti.

Molestiae vel ducimus rerum eos atque assumenda. Doloremque aspernatur magni aspernatur beatae nemo illum excepturi. Vero sequi sit voluptatem non. Velit perspiciatis voluptatem modi explicabo ad sed.

I'm an AI bot trained on the most helpful WSO content across 17+ years.

Career Advancement Opportunities

July 2026 Consulting

  • Boston Consulting Group 99.5%
  • Bain & Company 98.9%
  • McKinsey and Co 98.4%
  • Oliver Wyman 97.9%
  • LEK Consulting 97.4%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

July 2026 Consulting

  • Cornerstone Research 99.5%
  • Bain & Company 98.9%
  • Boston Consulting Group 98.4%
  • McKinsey and Co 97.9%
  • Oliver Wyman 97.4%

Professional Growth Opportunities

July 2026 Consulting

  • Bain & Company 99.5%
  • Boston Consulting Group 98.9%
  • McKinsey and Co 98.4%
  • Oliver Wyman 97.9%
  • LEK Consulting 97.4%

Total Avg Compensation

July 2026 Consulting

  • Partner (4) $361
  • Principal (30) $294
  • Director/MD (58) $274
  • Vice President (53) $247
  • Engagement Manager (113) $232
  • Manager (170) $173
  • 2nd Year Associate (185) $142
  • 3rd+ Year Associate (116) $135
  • Senior Consultant (355) $132
  • Consultant (642) $122
  • 1st Year Associate (577) $121
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (164) $121
  • NA (16) $114
  • Engineer (6) $114
  • 2nd Year Analyst (391) $104
  • Associate Consultant (176) $101
  • 1st Year Analyst (1164) $90
  • Intern/Summer Associate (208) $83
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (633) $68
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
3
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
4
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
5
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
6
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
7
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
8
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
9
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
10
Jamoldo's picture
Jamoldo
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”