PwC Advisory Offer - Lowball?
All, I've been a long time reader of the forums, and I finally have a topic of my own to discuss.
I received an offer from the PRTM group within PwC for a Sr. Associate (their version of post-MBA). I was fairly surprised to have them offer 105k base, 15% performance and 10k signing. This salary is very close to current salary, of which PwC was aware, and still offered me what I make now (but with double the hours). The recruiter talked about "bands" - I thought consulting had no bands, just preset salary levels depending on the position. What gives?
I understand that this is not MBB, but that seems a little off. I am hoping you can weigh in (especially ManBearPig) and tell me if this is reasonable. To give you some background - currently Project Manager for defense contractor, ~4 years experience, Ugrad and Grad in Engineering (GPA: 3.7 and 4.0, respectively) from top 20 schools.
On the other hand, I have networked my way into internal referrals to Booz & Co, McKinsey and Bain. Both Booz and McKinsey are considering me for their post MBA roles, while Bain would only consider me for entry level. I will not hear back from the firms until June according to their recruiters. Strategy work is much more to my liking as I am not fascinated by process improvement (also known as operations consulting).
Another thing to consider is that I plan to pursue my MBA full time starting Fall of 2013, so this position, were I to take it, would only be for a year. Thus the consideration comes down to what places better into top 5 MBA - doing Operations Consulting for the Aerospace/Industrial group within PRTM or sticking to my current position (which involves BD and Strategy planning) and using the extra time after work to focus on extracurriculars? My end goal is MBB - it's just a question of whether I can get in now or after my MBA.
Thank you all for your comments in advance.
think of this, once you interview for bschools you have to be able to explain why you changed. I dont se the PwC job any better of more challenging than your current job. Actually your current job is better for bschools.
Just stay where you are. Don't MBA adcoms love defence contractors?
Unless, of course, you work at the kind of defence contractor that, y'know... incinerates civilians and eats their babies. Or something.
I have a couple of contacts who work in pwc's advisory. From what they have indicated, your offer isnt low-ball, its actually slightly above market. The figure I hear often is $95K base, same bonus, same signing. However, I am only drawing from 3 statistical data points, none of which are in their aerospace/industrial group, so take that with a grain of salt.
I recommend you stay at your current company if and only if you plan on doing your MBA and you still plan on moving on to strategy consulting afterwards. The move would no be worth the stress, the money, and it would look odd to MBA admissions if you move to pwc then apply after just one year.
However, if you end up deciding that you dont want to do your MBA, then pwc would be worth it if you decide to commit to pwc for the long-term.
You are right around the ballpark ($100K) for experienced hires. They won't pay you MBA salary, because you don't have the Top15 MBA. There are salary bands at each level. My firm has like four or five at each level. At your level, they have Analyst promotes, MBA hires, industry hires (like you), etc. and the salary is different for all of them.
Offer sounds about right, the $95k number really sounds accurate for where I am.
I will say one thing about the benefit of moving - you actually learn to be a consultant, which will make a difference interviewing. It's a big difference from SME to a "proper" consultant., far bigger difference than I expected.
PwC pays below market so will definitely pay below MBB. I think post MBA the base only goes up to like $115 so not much better. Deloitte is one of the best paying MC firms post MBA if you're looking for immediate compensation, starting base my year graduating mba (2010) was $150K with $20k sign on, 20% year end cap bonus.
Thanks for the comments, it sounds like I may have actually received a better offer than some. I intend to sit on it for a few days, then counter with 120k base and then maybe settle somewhere in between. It sounded like they were open to negotiation (which is what happens when you have bands rather than preset levels like @ MBB)
I am planning on ending up in Strategy Consulting for MBB, so taking this consulting job at PwC would be a stepping stone for me, not the end goal. I actually plan to apply to B-Schools in 5 months (since the applications lag matriculation by a full year), so I would be applying within 6 months of joining PwC. How would that be viewed by adcoms? I would hope that an engineering and project management/defense and consulting background would be viewed as diverse and may boost my chances. I think challenge aside, it may be easier to break into MBB after PwC just because I would not have to explain the "why do you want to switch into consulting?" story any longer.
6 mo in consulting if you are referring to PwC above as your consulting experience is not meaningful experience in the eyes of b-school admissions. You need to spend at least 1 yr doing it to have any credibility (resume, recs, points to talk about in interviews). What is 6 mo going to give you? Doing so will also most likely bar you from ever getting a job at PRTM again. PRTM note is a great firm with strong brand in consulting, as opposed to PwC consulting which is a hob nob of crap consulting firms thrown together through M&As. I would keep PRTM on your resume instead of PwC consulting and stay there for at least 1 yr before applying to a top5 mba.
Good luck.
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