I wish I did consulting...
Before I get into this rant, to premise, I finished my summer at a top group in a mid-tier BB in NYC. I actually enjoyed the work and the people and there wasn't too much to complain about when signing the offer.
Whenever I thought about consulting I would always rid myself of doubts by saying that there is too much travel, the pay isn't as good, and that all they do is fluff work. So, I never did apply for the full-time roles at MBB firms. In hindsight, I wish I did. Like many people on here, I was prestige obsessed and wanted to do everything to have that prestige. Later to find out that people who didn't do as much work (LinkedIn based) were upgrading their banks for full time or getting FT MBB offers without any insane internships.
Now thinking back, I wish I did. The hours would've been less, travel isn't as much as it used to be pre-pandemic, and base pay is actually more (saw $112,000 for entry level consultant at Bain). In addition, the work that they do isn't that fluffy and actually could be better for understanding how businesses function.
Lastly, I found out that you could become a partner in less than 10 years (good luck with that in IB) and that they give you lots of paid severance (think 3-9 months). Even McKinsey has something where you can take your full 4 weeks PTO in addition to some sort of 80/20 mechanism where 20% of the year you can work less and still get 80% of base pay.
All in all, I wish I'd known about this sooner and not sat on a high horse saying IB>Consulting. For all prospects in college out there, PLEASE keep your options open until you graduate, you never know what could change especially with people taking summer offers before they even finish 1.5 semesters of college.
If anyone disagrees with me, please let me know, I'm really regretting a lot right now.
For consultants: how different is a BA position at a Fortune 500 from BA at McKinsey and how many of you love it (every consultant I've talked to says not to do it)
Dude or dudette you aren’t even out of college
my advice would be start at the BB. It’s great to show you were invited back. And then later recruit for MBB as a lateral.
you can also switch after an mba
finally you can do BB -> Sr manager corp dev, or sr manager strategy
wanted to offer my perspective as an incoming at mck - i will say wlb is better in that there is no expectation for you to be online after 6pm on fridays (at least in my office) but there can be weeks where you are working late nights till 1am depending on the project (typically on due diligence projects). avg hours per week tend to be 55-60 and 70 on more intense projects. howver i have heard ib ppl can have down time during the day, this is not the case in consulting, it tends to be a very packed high volume of work 55-60 hours rather than a 55-60 hours w random down time in btwn. also have heard of people being able to set up “don’t contact me” time on weekday nights, e.g 2 hours at night for dinner & a work out. travel is somewhat within your control in that you can be vocal with your staffing manager that you don’t want travel and they can help you find locally staffed projects. in addition i think the exit opps are just extremely diverse - ppl have p much exited to anything you can think of, but most common exits tend to be corporate strategy. also you can network your way onto projects in industries you are interested in, and esp at mckinsey you have more control over who you work with (by building relationships with leadership that you vibe with and you can get staffed with them again) however the comp progression is not as crazy as IB but the promotion track is a similar timeline imo. first years out of undergrad can make somewhere in the 130-150k range at mbb. if you only care about compensation i would say do IB but if you want more dynamic work, protected wknds, and a little more control over industries/who you work with do consulting
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