Big 4/OW/LEK/ATK vs Fintech rotational PM
Consulting seems to not provide that many attractive exits unless at MBB, and I’m trying to decide between a top fintech company’s rotational product management position (think Mastercard, Visa) and consulting.
All-in comp at this rotational program is $86K for 35 hours/week and 96K for 40 hours/week in a tier 1 city (think NYC, SF), whereas with consulting comp is near the same but with traveling my overall savings will be more.
Furthermore, since the fintech company offers a rotational program, there is a chance I would be able to do a rotation with their startup accelerator group, which is a blend of VC/corporate development and might help if I ever wanna move into VC. Thanks!
1- Big 4 vs OW/LEK/ATK is very different...unless you are talking about Strategy& or EY-Parthenon. Exits between regular Big4 consulting vs OW et. al are significantly different.
2- Exits from OW/LEK/ATK are actually good unlike you say that MBB only provides good exits. Frankly, the main material advatnage for MBB exits is that buyside gigs are easier to get but normal corp dev or FAANG is equal.
3- This is a choice about the work you want to do. PM vs consulting is different. If you are committed to product as a career, no point in delaying as breaking into product is a huge challenge in general. That being said, top fintech is debatable lol. Visa and Mastercard fall under the trying to be a tech company but arent as engineering advanced as their Valley counterparts. Still a solid reputation though and good place to start out.
TLDR; this is about consulting vs product. Consulting keeps a variety of other options open and depending on your specific offer can provige good exits into tech. If you are Big 4 non strategy, choose PM though.
What about big 4 strategy consulting vs PM
generally you can consider Big4 strategy as equivalent to OW/LEK
That being said, my slightly contested opinion is really that Strategy& = OW/LEK/ATK > EYP/Deloitte > Accenture Strategy > KPMG.
EYP has been going through reorgs, accenture strategy is good but small and KPMG i dont even know if they have a strategy arm.
Deloitte used to be good as S&O but reorgs seemed to change that trajectory.
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Mastercard associate PM rotational program
OW/LEK/ATK are miles ahead of Big 4 so they are not in the same tier and that could influence your decision
Always take OW over any other non-MBB offer unless you want to be in corporate...
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LEK has better PE exits
Would probably take T2 strat... Mastercard / Visa don't have the same "pull" for Product as better tech companies / well-funded startups. It's like comparing an offer at MUFG to an offer at Evercore..
IMO T2 strat has more brand cachet, will probably train you up better on the communication + deck-building piece / give you broader corporate world exposure and will set you up for b school (where you can recruit for far better PM roles) or a strat gig at a better tech company (where you can lateral into Product)
If this where a question of T2 strat vs top PM role (i.e. FB RPM, G APM, TWTR APM, UBER APM, PM at series B / C+ funded startup etc) then it'd be a no brainer but unfortunately don't think MasterCard / Visa quite stacks up.
If my eventual goal is FAANG, preferably in product, which of these two would be the better offer?
T2 strat keeps more doors open for top tech in general. Mastercard / Visa would pigeonhole you PM role wise.
It's hard to exit from consulting (even at MBB) to product. Go with visa/mastercard if you want to go in product. VC placements will probably be slightly stronger from product as well
bump. OP what'd you pick?
I ended up going with the PM gig
After a few networking calls with some consultants at the T2 strat firm, it seems like consulting isn’t exactly as sexy as I thought it was. That being said, the T2 consulting gig would be more prestigious than PM at Visa/Mastercard.
Since the office where I’d be working is only a few blocks from the Facebook office in NYC, I figured if I want to maximize my chances of breaking into a FAANG, getting PM experience would be the way to go. It is apparently way less competitive to get a product role at a FAANG than a strategy role, and I know people on this forum have reneged BB IB roles for FAANG PM roles so in terms of exits, I think Visa/Mastercard PM wins out.
A new decision’s emerged tho lol. I have a superday for a BB C&IB position, which risk adjusted will pay me more. I feel like taking that is very short-sighted as the potential upside from PM is more in a growing industry rather than a declining industry like IB, but as they say, another day another problem.
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