JPM IB in New York vs. McKinsey in Philadelphia for summer

Where do you want to be? IB or Consulting? Keep in mind recruiting FT for JPM is almost impossible as they take on almost all of their summer interns.

McKinesy is gold on any resume. Will provide best exit ops overall, but JPM will probably set you up better for PE recruiting. No one will ever doubt your intelligence if you work for McKinsey.

Philly? Seriously? I'd much rather live in Botswana...

I cannot believe this is even an issue. IB in NYC, all day, every day. McK is pedigree to the fullest, but Philly and consulting fluff-work is a losing combination.

Both are great experiences, so you have a privileged decision to make. I agree with Kanon that it comes down to you figuring out where you see your career in 2-4 years. JP Morgan investment banking will provide the best finance learning experience. Investment banking work will teach you how to value a company and look through financials better than any other summer experience. JP has a great name in the industry, and NYC is all but a must for high finance. If you know you want to be in finance, you'd be remiss to turn that offer down.

That being said, McKinsey offers the best general business and problem-solving education. You will be looking at business problems on higher, more strategic level (think CEO problems vs. CFO problems). For exit opportunities, management consulting likely offers a better starting point to eventually run a business. If you see yourself as a future entrepreneur or CEO, McKinsey is likely the better option.

I'd also downplay the NYC v. Philadelphia debate. If both internships were in finance, clearly NYC reigns supreme. But consulting work is not near as consolidated as finance, and McKinsey projects are globally staffed. It's very possible your summer case will involve travel, taking you outside of Philadelphia frequently (possibly 4 days per week). And to respond to another comment, there's a lot of "fluff-work" on the lower rungs of both industries. Endless reformatting of pitchbooks hardly constitutes "hard-work" either, so I don't think that's a differentiating factor at all. In fact, one could argue that you are more a of a thought-partner, engaging in real work, as a young consultant versus a young banker (granted, this opinion is merely my own).

Well, congrats on the offers and good luck with your decision.

JPM IB in NYC

If you're pretty sure that you want to do the IBD--->PE/HF--->B-School--->PE/HF then I would do JPM. If you aren't that sure, then do McKinsey, because it's more applicable to a broad range of industries.

Just ask yourself what person you want to be in this vid...

Thanks for all the advice- I know consulting hires some people for FT that didn't intern, but would that be unreasonable to expect, especially after declining an offer to summer?

Why don't I have problems like this? Congrats none the less.

Unless you're absolutely set on Consulting, I would suggest JPM IBD. Why? Because getting FT offers without being a SA is extremely difficult. Do not underplay this. Besides, getting a McK internship is more difficult than getting FT. I myself was dinged for McK internship, yet landed a FT offer, and have watched countless others do the same. Best of luck.

Would the answer to this change if it was say UBS or MM IB vs McKinsey?

Both with McK and JPM IBD on your resume you're gonna be able to FT interview with probably all consulting firms out there.

With McK on your resume you're gonna have a hard time interviewing for FT IBD because it's generally more difficult in the fall and bankers don't like consultants.

So you're gonna keep your options more open with JPM. That being said if you want to do consulting, it's a no-brainer.

Thanks for all the advice. I ended up getting my office switched for McKinsey so I could live in New York, and went with them over JP Morgan.