RX consulting vs RX IB
Looking to hear more about the differences between RX consulting (FTI, A&M, Alix) vs banking.
Differences in pay, exit ops, hours, how long people stay, etc…
Any help is appreciated!
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bump. Curious to hear from people who have done both as well.
In my opinion (having done internships in both RX Consulting and RX IB)
1. RX Consulting will almost always pay less (A&M/Alix does bonuses based off billables, whereas FTI I don't believe does). Hours are better in RX Consulting, seems like people go there as the exit opportunity (make great money for the hours you're working)
2. Less hours typically means less pay. It's been an especially slow time in RX and I was out of my RX Consulting internship by like 5pm each day easily. I have less info on hours for RX IB at my firm only because my internship has been remote and I'm still in undergrad. I would say the analysts are out the door by 9pm though (again, because RX is very slow right now).
3. Definitely feel like people stay in RX Consulting longer-term. I see RX IB as a way to go to PE/HF. I don't see that in RX Consulting. Usually people don't really exit (whether that's because the exits are tough or they just enjoy the work/pay/culture, I have no idea and would love to have others chime in on this)
Hope that helps!
What are the differences in pay like?
this is where it gets a bit dicey on my end. I'm not sure if my expectations are out of this world or not so I'll give some conservative/broad ranges.
RX Consulting A1: 120-160k (You can tweak the numbers based on billables since your bonus is your actual compensation. Typically it's like $450/hr * (1400-2200 billable hours) * (15-20%))
As you can see, extremely broad but that's the nature of the beast. If it's a very slow time in RX Consulting (like it is right now), I would expect something like ($450 * 1400 * 17.5%) = $110,250 all-in. (80-90k base for A1 so your bonus is technically $110,250 - $90k = $20,250). They mentioned sometimes if it's extremely low they'll give bonuses to people just so they won't leave when it's slow. In my eyes, that's pretty upsetting and I'd be personally extremely unhappy with that. But, think about it from this perspective: 1400 hours divided by 50 weeks is 28 hours of billable work per week. I've seen first hand during a slow period you could be on the beach for weeks or even months while still clipping your base salary. That's why in my opinion it's a decent exit opp. Sure you aren't making a ton relative to IB, but you're working extremely easy hours and have plenty of time to see friends/family and do any hobbies. On the other end of the range, $450 * 2000 * 17.5% = $157,500. You're making ~$157k for 40 hours of billable work a week over 50 weeks. Or, 50 billable hours for 40 weeks. You get the point. Still very good money in any industry other than like IB. Multiple A1's told me that they made around $180k during COVID ($450 * 2000 * 20%). I didn't want to mention that because it was obviously a crazy RX year and more so an outlier, similar to how this year's banking bonuses were arguably an outlier as well.
I would say $150k-200k seems reasonable for RX IB even in a slow period. Slow time around $150k, great time closer to $200k+ for A1. Again, that's sort of a guess. For the hours I'd be working in IB, I'd consider $150k a slap in the face. At that rate I could go do operational turnarounds for the largest companies in the world at a top RX shop and clip around the same (albeit on the lower end) while working way chiller hours.
Again, only did a summer at a top RX Consulting firm and a brief, remote RX IB stint so take it all with a grain of salt. Would be great to hear from others.
Thank you! Would you say for people coming out of undergrad one is better than the other? Really appreciate the info.
One thing to note in my own personal career pursuit is long-term thinking. Something I've been juggling for a while now when looking at RX Consulting vs RX IB (with the eventual goal of PE/HF).
To me, the only finance job paying more than RX Consulting is IB and barely PE/HF. I would argue that yes you may make a little less in RX Consulting than PE, but post-tax it definitely isn't worth the extra time and headache. I have no idea if RX Consulting is some sort of promise land where you make great money for great hours, or if there's a particular reason why people do it and not just do IB to PE. A lot of recent hires in RX Consulting are like TAS at Big 4, and the occasional banker. In my eyes, this seems like a step up for TAS in terms of comp and a step down for IB. I'd argue you'll absolutely break $200k in RX Consulting ($550 * 1800 * 22.5% = $222,750), and you'll make maybe like $250-275k in PE. Sure there's carry, but plenty of firms don't offer that and good luck breaking your way to the top - you basically need to start your own fund to really see the money.
RX Consulting seems like a great way to have an income-producing job and then go out and do your own ventures on the side (whether that's a startup, traveling, whatever). In IB/PE, you're basically putting all your eggs in this one finance basket since you're working so much. Just my 2 cents, still curious to hear others thoughts.
Thank you makes sense and very good points. Any insight on salary progression into higher positions within RX consulting?
I'm not an expert but I worked at one of those top RX Consulting firms, albeit not in that group. Based on what I saw my colleagues doing, this definitely isn't some chill job that gives you a ton of free time. MAYBE if you're creditor/UCC-side where the work is more cookie cutter. But my friends who were on debtor deals worked pretty crappy hours too. It seemed like they were routinely cranking till 12 AM plus traveling to client sites weekly, which really takes a toll on you, especially since it's considered admin/non-billable time unless you're working (working on a plane sucks ass, btw).
This is beyond the scope of this thread, but I don't think you'll find too many, if any jobs, where you're getting paid $200K+ to coast and have a ton of time to do other things. $200K is a lot of money, even though it seems like chump change to this forum, and most of those jobs will come with a lot of responsibility, expectations, etc. if they're paying you that much.
I also realize your post probably wasn't that extreme, but just wanted to point out that restructuring consulting can be a very, very demanding job from what I've seen. If you think about, you're literally working with firms that might not be able to keep the lights on in any given month because they're so strapped for cash. Your job is to turn that around, which can't be an easy task. It's a far cry from running monthly variance/budget reports in FP&A or something like that.
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