Return to Big 4 Consulting - Comp Question
Would love to get some insight from people who were experience hires into Big 4 Consulting. I am currently in the interview process for a Senior Consultant level and was curious to see what aspects were open for negotiation (e.g. base comp, sign-on bonus, or anything else thats negotiable that I may be completely overlooking). Obviously I am being very presumptuous in thinking I will get that far but would love to know sooner and have it ready than to be caught unprepared.
Some context on my background: I started with Big 4 Advisory. Was there for 2 years then left to go IB to pursue a more "analytical" role. During my time at the Big 4, I received good/great reviews, and left with good standing with most of my peers and Directors/Partners. Now after a few years of IB, I've had an itch to go back into consulting (both personal and professional reasons) and I've been in preliminary discussion with Partners/Directors and HR in regards to my return.
The issue I am facing is the comp numbers that HR provided during my initial call was not very enticing. I understand fully well that there is no way my all-in comp will be what is was in IB (given its bonus rich nature), but personally, was hoping that the base would be more lucrative.
I tabled the comp discussion and said it would obviously be a factor in my decision but did not want that to hold up the interview process. As such, I was hoping to leverage the experiences of this forum to see what stories/experiences/insights people could share that might help me regarding the negotiation process.