Hello everyone, I'm a long-time lurker and rising undergrad Junior at a semi-target who's received an internship offer for Summer 2018 from Strategy&. The only catch is that the offer expires on October 1st. I'm still going to apply to MBB, but in the case that they reject me or that they can't give me a decision before 10/1, I'll probably accept the S& offer because I'm pretty risk-averse.
If I'm to believe the consensus surrounding S& on WSO (which I've taken with an ocean's worth of salt), then apparently the firm's lost most of its Booz prestige in recent years, dropped from #4 to like #6 behind OW and Monitor Deloitte, and is vomiting out talent. Would taking this internship really adversely affect me? My tentative goal is to make MBB full-time, if not for an internship, and then move into PE. How hard is it to get to MBB/top BB from an S& internship? What are the exit options like at S&, should I go there FT?
How'd you get an internship offer so early? Are you in undergrad and is it your junior summer internship because that determines a couple things:
1) If it's your junior summer internship you can still recruit for MBB full-time as you said. If it's not your junior summer then take it, you can try for an internship next summer 2) I've seen Big 4 consulting interns get FT MBB offers, so if it was possible for them definitely possible for Strategy& 3) Exit opps at S& are still great. I'm not sure about PE opps, I heard it's very rare if you're not from MBB. You need to make sure you get relevant project experience (DDs) at S& full-time - but that can be said if you end up at MBB as well. 4) Location doesn't matter as much in consulting. I'd say McK Southern Office > S& NYC no question. Location may affect the industries you consult for (ex: NYC = FS) but it's a travel model you'll be on all sorts of stuff at MBB 5) S& is a bit of a mess right now (this is coming from someone who left PwC) but it's still a good consulting firm with good exit opps. You can leverage the internship experience to MBB or other great T2 firms (OW, ATK, etc).
Overall, I'd say a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, or whatever the saying is. Take the S& internship if another MBB offer doesn't come before 10/1. Maybe try to extend the deadline if you feel comfortable asking.
1) Thanks for the quick reply! I edited the post to clarify my situation - I'm a rising undergrad Junior. I received the offer through PwC's National Advisory Elevate Program.
2) So how does one go from Big 4 internship to MBB FT? Networking, strong referrals/performance, or something else? Definitely going to improve my GPA from the ~3.65 it's at. Does MBB look at GMAT/other scores? Did perfect on SAT.
3/4) I chose my office specifically so that I'd have more exposure to FS and M&A consulting deals - do you have any idea of the ratio of Strategy to Operations projects I'd be working on? I know that at S& you'd be picking an industry to focus on pretty early on.
5) In what ways is it messy? I've heard crazy things like PwC trying to absorb S& into Advisory, which seems pretty silly to me as they paid a boatload to acquire the Booz name. How well-integrated is S& into PwC - how often do they get to interact/work together?
Also, the original deadline for acceptance was 8/1, and I managed to negotiate to revise it so that it fit my school's early offer guidelines - I'm not sure that asking again would be advisable.
1) That's awesome, congrats!
2) OCR really. Seems like MBB recruits at your school so that shouldn't be a problem. They just applied, had strong GPA, relevant internship experience. I didn't recruit for MBB at my school but I heard they look at GMAT for MBA candidates and SAT for undergrad. That perfect SAT is something you should put on your resume when you apply. I'd say you have a good shot at an interview with OCR, S& internship, PwC Advisory Elevate, Perfect SAT. GPA is slightly low for MBB but isn't bad, you should be fine. Obviously, networking/referrals would be awesome if you can find a way to do that.
3-5) Don't have too much insight on S& projects, unfortunately. But from what I've seen S& isn't winning as many high-level strategy projects as MBB. There's been some cross-staffing of PwC and S& guys it's caused some resentment because you have people doing the same work for different pay (S& gets paid more).
S& has had some layoffs in the past year because they overhired (rumors of 1st year associates being let go) and aren't selling enough work (not sure which practices). A lot of original Booz partners with big clients left the firm in the past few years and are now at the Big 3 and other T2 shops.
I've heard 2 different things regarding the S& name:
Eventually, the name will be phased out and it will just become PwC's strategy arm (aka PwC Strategy) similar to what happened with previous acquisitions where firms kept names at first but then completely integrated (Diamond, PRTM, etc)
Keep the S& name because that commands the higher bill rates for strategy work. They paid a premium for Booz and they want to make it clear for clients/branding
And yeah, wouldn't ask again either if the original date was 8/1.
Yes, working at S& will completely ruin your future...
Lmao the title got me too. Username checks out
In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have come up with a post title at 4:00am in the morning.
Just take the offer and rerecruit next year with an offer in hand.
RIP your career sorry bro
Hi, I'm currently an intern at S& so I can answer some of your questions.
1) Project flow in the NY office is very good for FS and Healthcare. So good that they've had to draw consultants from other verticals (what we call industries) to staff them. I can not comment on the other verticals however as I have had no exposure to them. We've beaten McK, OW, BCG, Deloitte on some pretty big projects in the above industries recently so it's still a pretty strong practice. A
2) s for being fully integrated into PwC like Diamond, that won't happen. They've spent way too much money keeping the brand separate and building it up. Also, for example when they acquired Diamond, they literally just called the merged entity PwC-Diamond. And if I remember correctly it was absorbed within a year or so. S& has been around for 3-4 years already.
3) All your work will be Strategy, it's called Strategy& after all. So no operations work.
4) S& and PwC Advisory are still very separate, and the integration from what I can see is very slight (for better or for worse). I personally have not seen or heard about cross-work with PwC advisory except that they've had PwC partners on a case or 2, but this is the point I'm least certain about so take my word with a very small grain of salt for this one.
And for what it's worth, all the MBA interns I've seen have been from M7+Darden, and as for undergrad, there is a very large Columbia, Harvard and Princeton representation in the NY office. I don't know if that gave any insight into luster/reputation etc. but just trying to spread information. I will say that Deloitte has seemed to have overtaken it recently in the prestige game, however I myself am still unsure about how it stacks up to Oliver Wyman. Maybe others can give their input on that.
Feel free to pm me if you want, I'm willing to answer almost anything.
Take the offer and still try to get in MBB, if you get an offer just tell them that you are not coming, you ll get blacklisted for life but who cares, if you are at MBB. It's highly unethical,nevertheless it works
How bad is it really to renege on an offer? I've been told that the consulting recruiting world is small, so wouldn't there be a chance that firms talk to each other and all blacklist me?
This is just going off what older students have told me... but they pretty much just accept their offer then if they get MBB they take that. Their viewpoint is that the company doesn't really care about you, so you have to look out for yourself. Can't really speak to the true implications of reneging on the offer besides being banned from OCR from the school.
I know several people who did it with Investment Banks in a much smaller market, no downside whatsoever. I think you are understimating the number of consultants in NY or overestimating how much they care. The guys probably won't recall your name by the time they get the news
this is the most pathetic title for a post.... "will getting a top tier consulting role ruin my future if it's less than MBB" is probably more appropriate.
Dude, that's a good offer and you should be pretty psyched to take it if you don't get MBB. Still a big name with tons of deals, and plenty of exit opportunities. For references, I know a variety of recent grads working at MBB who worked at far less well known and far less prestigious places for their junior internship. You're probably right in terms of pure prestige that Monitor Deloitte and OW have probably overtaken S&, but these things are pretty fluid and S& is still a very good place with good talent and good work opportunities. Actually, the work might be better than a lot of MBB offices because there isn't any operations or implementations stuff. Ops stuff is fucking miserable.
Also, if you're really focusing on PE then you should do banking dude. With the exception of Bain which is a feeder to PE because they do so much diligence, very few MBB kids end up going the PE route. They move to industry or go to B school, but only the very top tier of well-connected undergrads end up in PE through consulting.
If you are trying to leverage your S& offer into MBB going down the road, the S& experience might be the most valuable part. Especially Bain and McKinsey really care about on the ground experiences and story-based interviewing, so if you kill it at S&, you'll have a solid story for why you're cut out for consulting. Get your GPA up though, you're gonna be competing against a lot of 3.8+ if you end up doing FT recruiting
Hey, thanks for the reality check! Guess I got carried away with the "top tier or bust" crowd; seems that at least at the entry level, differences in applicant quality between T1 and T2 firms are minimal.
So recruiting's just started for IB and other firms; in addition to MBB/perhaps other T2 firms, I was thinking of applying to top banks - GS, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Citi, and BAML. Do you think there's anywhere else that I should be applying to, so as to maximize prestige for a hopeful PE entry?
If you're set on PE just do banking. McKinsey and Bain (and BCG to some extent) also place well. Outside of them there's a pretty steep drop off. S& is a very solid place nevertheless, just be realistic about your PE chances if you don't get MBB.
If you want to move to PE, cast a little wider banking net I'd say. Obviously, those 5 are the top of the game in terms of BB, but some EB firms (Evercore, Centerview, Lazard, etc) would be wise additions. Consider maybe adding DB and CS as well (I know they're going through a rough time, but they still place pretty well in PE). Again, the S& offer is pretty good so congrats, so really, it's not MBB or bust. Sometimes starting at the most prestigious place isn't even the best for your career progression because if you can shine somewhere a little tier below in terms of prestige, that can be more valuable than being a middle of the road McKinsey BA.
So let me get this straight OP. You're distraught because you've secured an internship at a top 10 consulting firm for a summer?
That's really rough, my condolences. Looks like your options are to leave this cruel world behind and move to Guam or just find the nearest tall building so you can jump off
Your life is likely over at this point. May as well just end it now.
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