MM IB Analyst vs T2 Consulting Analyst
before i start, let me just say that no, i dont have offers from both, although i will be working at a t2 consulting firm this summer. anyway, the question is simple. MM IB (William Blair, Raymond James, Baird, Stifel, we can even throw Wells Fargo and Houlihan Lokey in) versus T2 consulting (consulting from big 4 accounting shops aka Deloitte/PwC/KPMG/EY, Oliver Wyman, Accenture, Strategy&, really anything that isn't MBB). although i'm not gonna have to make this choice, i'm just a bit curious since i see a bunch of BB vs EB vs MBB threads but nothing comparing some 'lower tier' options. will probably post in the consulting forum as well at some point.
things to consider: - b-school opportunity - exit opps within finance (PE/VC/HF) - exit opps outside of finance (industry + public sector?) - prestige - work-life balance - let's not consider compensation too much, since pay probably isn't amazing on either path.
thanks
Good thread to start. I'll side with T2 consulting (i'm in consulting so am bias). Here's my (very personal) opinion:
B-School: It depends on the name of the firm and where you want to do an MBA. If we go Big 4 vs some of the MMs you mentioned I think some MMs would win (e.g. Wells Fargo Securities or HL) based on the name. OW, S& or Parthenon-EY are very strong firms and place well in MBA programmes. Plus, OW is a bigger name in the consulting world than the MMs you mentioned are in the banking world.
Exit Opps: For PE, VC or HF I would imagine MMs but some T2 consulting firms place well and OW has a very strong finance consulting practice which would arguably match the MMs. Outside of finance I would say T2 firms place better than MMs. You will have done a more varied set of tasks and projects across perhaps more geographies and with bigger clients. Again, it's also worth looking at which T2 firm (as before OW, S& and Parthenon-EY would place better than the MMs and the other T2s).
Prestige: Totally subjective and depends on the geography you want to work in. I have a feeling that the MMs mentioned would be strong in the US and UK but not in other parts of Europe compared to the T2s mentioned. Not sure about Asia, LATAM or Oceania though
For b-school, would you say that a brand-name MM IB is better than a T2 firm? My thinking is that, since M7 schools have a clear preference for finance profiles (PE/IB is by far the most represented profession in their class), you might be at a disadvantage if you don't go do consulting at a MBB (both because all MBBs will go get their MBA while a lot of finance folks won't, and because there are more finance spots than consulting spots)
Booth, Kellogg, and Sloan do not have clear preferences for typical finance profiles
I think that depends by that specific year's intake and class. Generally, I would be cautious to say finance has such an advantage simply because brand name is still the main factor. I mean, if we're talking about LEK vs Blair or OW vs Baird, I'm still tempted to say the consultancies may have an edge. But it totally depends on dozens of other things that make up the candidate's profile.
To be honest, quite a few of the firms that pay over street are MM firms. If compensation is a bigger factor thank work-life balance you will definitely love the MM firms.
Would strongly recommend HL, Baird, WB if you can land. RJ and Stifel are still good opportunities. WF has a great culture but you should worry about city placement. Take a look at HW and PJ Solomon as well. HW is especially known to pay above street. MM IB firms will give you great MM PE placement.
Do you know what bonus ranges look like at HW
Confirmed: top bucket analyst 1 for HW is ~140, so bonus is ~60k- my buddy worked there last summer. He was literally a machine
Compensation at the MM firms you mentioned won’t have much (if any) variance in pay to BBs.
What if the MM firm was Jefferies?
MM IB especially at one of the places you named is much better, comp is definitely on the mm side, work life balance is pretty decent at some of the shops you named, working a place like Jefferies is much more competitive to get into than a t2 consulting firm and probably more prestigious. Most of these firms that are nyc based have pretty good exit opps to mm pe firms. Maybe I am biased but some of those consulting firms are known to be pretty easy to get into at my school especially compared to some of those mm ib firms.
i'd say MBB > top MM(Jefferies/HL/WB/HW) > (Parthenon/OW/Deloitte/PwC/Strategy&)>Accenture/EY/KPMG
Non S&/Parthenon/S&O Big 4 roles are Tier 3.
From what I understand, Parthenon and S&O are getting diluted to such an extent that they are probably Tier 2.5 rather than T2 where you have LEK, S&, A&M, OW, Alix Partners.
T2 Consulting (OW, LEK, K, S&) is a lot harder to get than MM IB. Can get finance exits and non-finance exits from T2 while MM IB is more restricted to finance
This isn’t true. Tier 2 consulting is not difficult at all.
oliver Wyman more difficult than Blair or houlihan? No chance
What makes you say that? Have you even gone through the consulting process?
+1 to this, though I am speaking anecdotally, I have seen people who are very subpar in critical thinking (from working with them extensively on case competitions or casing them directly) land offers at T2/T3 consulting firms. These people were not at all impressive at casing or even analytical thinking in the longer time frame project work we spent together and I was appalled at the offers being handed out to them. They didn't even meet what people tote as the consulting GPA min (3.7/3.8?). From that, I realized how easy it is to memorize frameworks and solutions for a case. I worked with people in the same capacity who eventually went into MM IB and thought they were significantly more adept for the projects we worked on.
Again, just from my experiences anecdotally, but we were working on consulting case competitions and the ones who went into consulting were far less adept.
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