I was called up by one of the MBB to do an interview with them and was invited to attend this dinner reception prior to actual interviews. At the event the partner of that office started roasting IB after learning my past internships were primarily banking related. He himself is responsible for consulting PE clients so I was pretty shocked hearing things like "IB contains mostly menial and unintellectual work", "300 columns in your spreadsheet and you got this number, but what does it mean in real world" etc. He was then joined by his principal who basically reinforced the whole IB sucks idea.
I mean personally I do not see IB as "high finance" or ever bragged about working for a big bank, but I take pride in the work I do like in a 300+ column multitab model. Was my experience just an isolated case or does consulting actually look down on IB?
*edited company name&wording that got some taking the mickey out of
They're just butt hurt because their checks are so much smaller.
Take it from me - people who are very secure about what they do in life never have to denigrate other occupations to bolster their self-worth. How often do you see great CEOs diss their competition? They let their work speak for itself.
Just trying to convince other candidates not to go to IB
"300 columns in your spreadsheet"
lol clearly a consultant
As a management consultant who previously worked in a very quantitative field where I used Excel every day for years...I am absolutely horrified by the workbooks that I see my colleagues produce. It's especially surprising that we have a very good culture around deck writing and making sure that your story is consistent, that everything is clearly laid out, etc. but it's harder for consultants to apply that logic to Excel by applying basic best practices to keep your workbooks organized, clean, and easy to follow
"Oh, so you think darkness is your ally? But you merely adopted the dark. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn’t see the light until I was already a man, by then to me it was only blinding. The shadows betray you because they belong to me.”
INTIMIDATE your competitors with your SUPERIOR movie QUOTES
I would say that sets the precedent for the whole relationship. In my experience, whenever I have a coworker/boss that says things like that right off the bat, they usually have a superiority complex and it will be visible in your employment long term.
No one should feel so inclined to hate on IB unless they have a chip on their shoulder. Good thing you caught on early!!
As others alluded to above, these consultants most definitely have a chip on their shoulder.
Maybe the partner and principal didn't want to come to terms with the fact that I only use their industry research and deck to substantiate a few inputs into my "300 column spreadsheet". That same deck that took them months to churn out.
"Bankers and Consultants, it's time to squash the beef. Gonna settle this now... right here on the Street."
Still can't buy Cristal with Starwood points.
On another note -- as a consultant, I never really think about / compare myself to bankers. I suspect that the only places where people do that are on forums like this. In the real world people are too worried about their job, hobbies, families, and the rest of their lives to compare themselves to other careers like that. I suspect that the person you overhead say this was joking around, very insecure, or very early in his/her career.
Have you seen the work consultants do? It's shit. They all want out. Have you seen the work bankers do? It's shit. They all want out. One is better paid than the other - I know which one I'd pick...