Deloitte internship to MBB?
Hey WSO folks, I am at a cross-road here and I would love to hear your opinions.
Stat: Rising senior at a top 50 national university, top 10 undergrad business school with a Management Information Systems(MIS) business degree.
Current: Deloitte BTA summer internship.
I am currently in the BTA program for one of the front offices of Deloitte. I like the program and the people, but the work isn't that interesting, or at least I don't see myself doing it FT for more than 2 years... I am worried about exit ops with Deloitte BTA.
The tricky part is that the Deloitte FT offer for BTA will expire in August(deadline non-negotiable), but MBB campus recruiting doesn't start until September.
Note, I am in the BTA program, which is more on the technology side, not the BA program, which Deloitte calls it S&O.
I am definitely more inclined to do more strategy work as all of my school involvement as well as my entrepreneurial efforts dealt with strategic work.
I want to attend a top 7 business school a few years after undergrad, Deloitte's technology practice actually sends many candidates to top schools such as Tepper, Booth, Dartmouth etc.
I have read a lot of negative comments towards Deloitte, both S&O and Technology. But most of those comments were pretty old. Has Deloitte gotten better since then?
Should I risk it and turn down the Deloitte offer to go for MBB or stick with BTA with Deloitte?
I am a top performer with good grades and active involvements. Case interviewers with MBB will be hard, but willing to take the challenge.
Any insights would be highly appreciated!
It sounds like you have everything you want lined up and ready to go and you are going to re-invent yourself in an MBA program. Apart from you reading a few negative comments on the internet, I don't understand what is causing your hesitation. Sounds like a great opportunity, congrats.
I have never worked for them so I couldn't tell you, others will probably have a lot more insight.
Hi, ArcherVice
My hesitation is that if I decide to go for MBB, I will have to turn down Deloitte's offer. But there is no guarantee I will get an offer from MBB. Is MBB worth forfeiting an offer from Deloitte's BTA program?
If not, is Deloitte's BTA program enough to get me into one of the top MBA program?
I understand that potential dilemma, I meant it seems like you have everything you want lined up by going to Deloitte.
I have no experience as a dean of admissions, or on an admissions committee. I know that a high GPA 3.7 or better and a GMAT of 760 or higher is going to make you competitive. That being said, you can have everything lined up perfectly and still get turned away from some of these programs.
"Is MBB worth forfeiting an offer from Deloitte's BTA program?"
You are going to have to do some soul searching and figure that one out for yourself. You haven't given much about your resume other than going to a good school that isn't a target. For all I know you could be the perfect applicant, or massively fucking lucky.
Good luck with your choice.
Take Deloitte BTA FT Offer and interview for MBB, if you get MBB offer, call Deloitte back and tell them that you have a better offer that you will be taking. If you do not get MBB offer, you still have a post-grad job. Also, after getting BTA offer, why not ask about switching into S&O? The problem is that the few people I know that had a MIS degree all went tech consulting but you could ask.
Wouldn't I burn bridges with Deloitte if I do this? Also is there a potential ethical violation here? How would MBB feel if they found out I already signed the Deloitte offer while recruiting with them still?
I mean sure you will burn some bridges at Deloitte, but ultimately, what can Deloitte do for you in terms of career advancement that cannot be done, if not in a quicker timeframe at MBB? This happens all the time and quite frankly, Deloitte will forget about you in a week's time after you tell them you aren't coming. WTF would you tell MBB that you have signed with Deloitte? They don't need to know and will never ask. The only way they will find out is if you tell them either in person or by publicizing on LinkedIn that you are an Incoming Analyst at Deloitte.
This is only a path you should take if you are 100% dead set on MBB. Otherwise, I would strongly advise against this.
As far as switching to S&O, it is not easy to do from the Technology practice, unless you already have quite a bit of S&O experience or you are clearly going to leave without being switched into S&O -- a path that burns bridges and isn't guaranteed to yield a switch. You need to be a top performer to have that kind of weight, and being a top performer is much easier said than done. There was ONE case that I know of where a candidate (who was a BTA intern with a FT offer) said, "No, I don't want to be in the technology practice -- I want S&O." He actually turned down the FT offer, and the firm came back and offered him a FT offer in S&O. This candidate's background was incredible though (solid entrepreneurial experience, great grades/leadership, prior c-level experience at a F100).
Back to the point of the thread though, I would take the FT offer, do whatever project you're assigned for the first six months - year, and then switch to an S&O project. THAT is much easier than switching into the S&O practice at your point, and you'll get the experience and exposure that you want anyways.
Remember one thing too: in the long-term, it's your experience that counts. If you have the technology badge on your resume, that can be a powerful thing. If you have both the technology badge and strategy experience, then you're going to be dangerous from a competitive standpoint.
As I've been going through networking to get onto an S&O project, my technology background has consistently been a key reason why different S&O projects want me. Hell, a decent amount of our S&O projects dive into the technology space in some key way anyways. There are a couple of senior partners I've meet in the S&O practice who basically sell the same kind of work that technology partners do.
Also, on grad schools. I have multiple BTA/consultant friends in the technology practice who are going to all the top schools-- H/S/W/M7.
i agree with brooj14
as for the part about accepting Deloitte excluding you from MBB recruiting...complain to your on campus recruiting department. it should not be setup that some offers explode before you can finish interviewing with others.
if this is the case, accept with Deloitte, don't tell the school, interview with MBB, get an offer, turn down Deloitte.
it's a bit shady, but i assure you, if their business went south in a hurry, they would delay your start date and/or have a very stringent performance review early in your tenure. It's nothing personal. It's business.
Still don't advise reneging on offers from any reputable firm, Deloitte, MBB or otherwise.
To the point about business going south in a hurry, this is highly unlikely to happen at Deloitte right now. I've seen our pipeline for the next six months to a year, and the numbers are absolutely nuts. And this doesn't look like it's going to change any time soon (at least enough to impact the OP). This is, however, something that I'd be more concerned about at the smaller, non-MBB pure strategy firms that might not necessary have as much growth to help fuel work for incoming analysts.
It sounds as if you're interning with Deloitte currently this summer.
Just as an fyi (I'm not sure about BTA but I can't imagine it being that much different):
For S&O the FT offers for summer interns expire sometime in November but it's an exploding offer with the first batch of signing incentives taken away 2 weeks into September.
I can't imagine it being that much different for BTA.
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