Choosing between MBB/Kearney and Big4 Advisory for London IB
Dear WSO community,
Im in a bit of a situation and I would like to ask for some advice.
For background, I studied at a non-target university in CEE and I am pursuing a masters in finance in a semi-target university in the Netherlands. I have worked in Audit at Deloitte, then Private Equity at a very popular shop in the region.
My goal is to get to London, presumably IB. I have around 7 months left here before leaving for my masters and I was looking for a job for this period.
Here is the dilemma: I have offers from McK, Kearney, and also EYP and PwC in M&A and Valuation. Big4 in the region has more or less no traction and no prestige. I was thinking of joining consulting for prestigious brand-name and competitiveness in recruiting in order to enhance my CV. My issue is that though its harder to get into consulting, its not that relevant for IB.
Should I go for the Big4 position and assume lower salary + prestige but relevant work for IB or consulting for prestige and salary but less relevant work for IB. End-goal is to get an internship in London IB and then move there.
Thanks!
If you want to break into IB, I would advise to apply in the M&A arm of a Big4. They are very well respected in the UK and have strong deal flow.
Just make sure to end up in M&A and not in a due diligence or valuation team.
Second that, due diligence skill set is a nice to have but if you’re aiming for IB then deal advisory / M&A would have the most transferable skills. But do make sure your accounting technicals are on point
I see. For my case, my sole purpose of the job until I leave for my master's is to strengthen my CV in order to be able to land a job in London.
Compared to what's going on in the market I am in right now, where Big 4 is very disregarded, I am surprised to hear that neither McK nor Kearney would help me.
Thank you.
Go for McKinsey, it is much better prestige and exit
In McKinsey CDD and VDD team you can work on multi-billion transaction from consulting side, while in big4 it is random small cap deals. McKinsey opens you the opportunity to join large-cap funds.
Through PE funds recruits bankers more, but we are talking about BB/EB level bankers, not big4 or MM level bankers unless some smaller funds.
The big4 M&A direct exit I saw is MM M&A
My plan is to work in IB London after my masters, not join a PE fund (though that would be nice I dont think my 8-month experience in consulting would be enough)
My question was whether consulting or Big4 M&A is more relevant for a job in IB
Read the last sentence of the answer
there is zero path from any of those places to ib (unless doing mba)
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