Post MBA Tier 2 strategy exit opportunities Vs. Direct to industry roles

I'm a rising second year at an M7, came close but struck out with MBB internship recruiting last year. FT recruiting for all consulting especially MBB seems like it's going to be even more difficult than usual given COVID and FT roles are already tougher than internships. 

Given this reality I'm basically thinking of not even applying to Tier 2 firms. Consulting work sucks and I'm not excited or passionate about it, but wanted to do it for the exit opportunities. Based on what I've seen so far exit opps from your AT Kearney or Accenture Strat aren't really much different than what you might see going straight to working at a F500 out of B school. 


Am I right here? Nothing against T2 firms but everyone I know who worked at one said the Work life balance is awful and the work isn't that interesting, and if I can go to a rotational management program or some other post-MBA industry role right out of school and have a real life outside powerpoint decks and Sunday night flights to Toledo then why bother?


Or should I suck it up and try the T2 consulting route as a career accelerator (assuming I could get an offer which there's no guarantee obviously)?

 

Hey M7 grad from a couple years back... I would say that the main benefit to going Tier 2 Consulting vs an LDP is pay. The couple exits I’ve seen from my class from consulting haven’t been dramatically better than what could have been achieved by just going straight from M7 to industry even for MBB

That being said the difference in pay can be quite dramatic by going with something like an EY-P, S& or LEK. Like total comp numbers that are 30 to 40 percent higher. 

 
Most Helpful

FYI--T2 recruiting seems to be significantly down this year (more impact by COVID than MBB) with many firms not hiring at all. Several already didn't have any US FT recruitment in past years (ATK, Deloitte).

If you plan on leaving consulting within <2 years then I don't think there will be much difference in comp/role. If you plan on grinding 3y+, then you potentially have more of a career accelerator in certain industries. 

The biggest benefit of consulting vs industry is optionality, if you don't know what you want to do yet then at end of 2 years in consulting you have far more flexibility vs. going into industry. For example, if you do an FLDP in pharma then it's really hard to move into say strategy & operations at Google. You're likely stuck in the same role/industry if not same company if the FLDP is a slow progressing one. Same with non-FLDP industry roles as well--going into supply chain at Apple for example will likely lock you into a certain type of role/industry and grant less flexibility. Comp can probably be a tad bit lower in certain industries vs. coming from consulting as well, but you've probably put in far less hours over the duration so your body will thank you :).

If you go for tech, the total comp in recent years has far exceeded consulting due to stock appreciation for certain firms (see Amazon/Apple) 2-3 years in. Tech industry does not value consulting experience as much so you'll probably move into a very similar post-MBA role/level at <4 years of post-MBA tenure. So progression going directly will be similar vs. moving from consulting + possibility that comp will be higher if you go directly due to stock appreciation. At 5y + (AP/P/SM) level of consulting there's maybe a benefit you could hop over to tech at a higher level vs. direct as it's somewhat easier to make it in consulting vs. directly in tech (very hard to progress to "director") but hard to say what outcomes would be like at the individual level. Neither is easy to get to. 

Above is applicable to MBB/T2, I think people tend to overestimate the quality of exits at MBB vs. T2 especially at lower tenures. 

 

Speaking as someone who's in a strategy role at a FAANG, you simply have to be pretty technical to do a lot of the reporting/analyses, or even evaluate them properly.

Consultants typically know at best Excel, which is close to useless for most of the work I do (it's all SQL/Python). Hence, exiting into my FAANG (one of the bigger ones) from consulting is pretty rough as you won't have the technical skills, and there's so many former consultants that want to chill out at a FAANG.

 

Iure sit praesentium earum aperiam voluptas facere nostrum. Voluptas non odio et animi quia. Et et accusantium ut inventore magnam minus est nesciunt. Ex est laborum dicta at modi atque.

Career Advancement Opportunities

March 2024 Consulting

  • Bain & Company 99.4%
  • McKinsey and Co 98.9%
  • Boston Consulting Group (BCG) 98.3%
  • Oliver Wyman 97.7%
  • LEK Consulting 97.2%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

March 2024 Consulting

  • Bain & Company 99.4%
  • Cornerstone Research 98.9%
  • Boston Consulting Group (BCG) 98.3%
  • McKinsey and Co 97.7%
  • Oliver Wyman 97.2%

Professional Growth Opportunities

March 2024 Consulting

  • Bain & Company 99.4%
  • McKinsey and Co 98.9%
  • Boston Consulting Group (BCG) 98.3%
  • Oliver Wyman 97.7%
  • LEK Consulting 97.2%

Total Avg Compensation

March 2024 Consulting

  • Partner (4) $368
  • Principal (25) $277
  • Director/MD (55) $270
  • Vice President (47) $246
  • Engagement Manager (99) $225
  • Manager (152) $170
  • 2nd Year Associate (158) $140
  • 3rd+ Year Associate (108) $130
  • Senior Consultant (329) $130
  • Consultant (586) $119
  • 1st Year Associate (538) $119
  • NA (15) $119
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (145) $115
  • Engineer (6) $114
  • 2nd Year Analyst (342) $102
  • Associate Consultant (166) $98
  • 1st Year Analyst (1046) $87
  • Intern/Summer Associate (188) $84
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (547) $67
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
3
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
99.0
4
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
5
kanon's picture
kanon
98.9
6
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
7
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
8
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
9
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
10
numi's picture
numi
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”