Microsoft vs. Boston Consulting Group
Hi Everyone!
So I basically have two job offers right now and I have to decide on one very soon. One is from Microsoft in their prestigious Finance Rotation Program and the other is from BCG. Microsoft is paying a decent amount more but the salary isnt that important to me as of now. I talked to some admissions counselors from M7 business schools to get their opinion and they said they view both of these opportunities at the same level. Personally, I kind of want to either go in the corporate development or product management route which Microsofts Finance Rotation Program promotes you to either a Corporate Development Manager or Product Manager in one of these areas after two years. Obviously, BCG is very prestigious consulting firm and probably has better exit opportunities. I'm not quite sure I want to go into Consulting though as of now. I see myself probably going into the FinTech space long term and maybe even at a startup. I would like to get peoples opinions and see what they think. Thanks!
Microsoft if you want to be a PM. Corp Dev can be both from BCG or Microsoft, although the Finance rotation probably given you a stronger fundamental underpinning, vs. BCG giving you more of a longer term less tangible "strategic" lens and transformation/change lens.
they're doing a finance grad scheme.. how would that prep them for product? bcg arguably preps them more and gives them a much stronger stamp of approval than microsoft's finance department. anecdotally i haven't heard of many people switching into product from corp fin but i have seen multiple examples of ex-mbb types in product.
"Personally, I kind of want to either go in the corporate development or product management route which Microsofts Finance Rotation Program promotes you to either a Corporate Development Manager or Product Manager in one of these areas after two years."
Product Management from MBB is not a usual exit at all and it doesn't set you up well for it to be successful even if you get an offer.
Both are amazing options. I think it really comes down to what you're looking to do in the medium term. If it's corp development or PM at a top tech company (such as MSFT)...then I feel like you should go with the Microsoft offer, easily. Corp dev / PM at a top tech company would be considered a top tier exit coming out of a firm like BCG. I think the real value of the BCG offer in this case would be the potentially greater breadth of exit opps.
Within the tech community (if that's where you're looking to remain), a company like Microsoft (i.e. an actual tech giant) caries more weight than a consulting firm.
Anecdotally, the people who I know who went into Microsoft finance out of undergrad definitely could not have gotten an offer with BCG.
One thing I'd keep in mind is that consulting offers a broader variety of experiences that you can spin to make yourself seem like a fit for many different exit ops. This means that if you're really sure you want to do something Microsoft finance feeds into, that's awesome and it could be a more direct path, but if you have a significant degree of uncertainty I'd go with BCG.
This comment wins. You can get into product, corp dev, pe, vc, etc. from bcg, but not the other way around. I'd take BCG
Small anecdotal caveat to the MSFT gig. Know two people who went into this program a couple years back, one loved it and went the finance direction, the other really wanted product management but his managers kept kicking the can down the road and put him in a rotational advisory program (still not a PM). Like I said, small sample size and you may very well be much more qualified than the guy im talking about, but assuming you want to ultimately be a product manager, which tends to be a very competitive role to land, try to get a sense of how likely promotion in that direction would be.
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