Best Response

It really depends and varies significantly based on what you want out of your career. The role that offers a very high upside at the top end is PWM, driven by strong relationship skills and sales management. The issue though is that there is a large skew to the most successful folks in this field, which leads to a bit of survivorship bias. There is also the issue of not finding the work to be stimulating and ultimately churning out.

The more risk averse option to me would likely be consulting, as you essentially get a gold stamp of approval to future employers that you are a battle tested MBB consultant (same as in banking). The exits you get from consulting are also a fair bit more robust than would otherwise be the case with PWM, as you can enter into a f500 into a variety of roles, ranging from corporate strategy to sale to product management, ultimately progressing to a P&L role depending on what level you exit at and your performance from there.

Of course it's not necessarily an apples to apples comparison, as MBB is significantly more difficult to get into. If the argument OTOH was MBB vs. say BB AM, it would be a bit more of an analogous discussion, from a comp/trajectory perspective. In this case though I think if you have both of these offers, it would be preferable to accept the MBB offer due to the lower risk profile, the higher signalling value, and the greater degree of flexibility when moving forward in your career post MBB if you decide to exit to industry or to a top business school for your MBA :)

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