Strategy consulting to Corp strategy exit salary in the UK?
Hi all,
I am not in Management/Strategy consulting yet (I am making a decision on an offer), but as my decision will based on the fact it opens doors to industry or PE in the future I wanted to know what I am getting myself into. I think I am more suited to a Corp strat role (prefer the hours/lifestyle/job stability to PE) but obviously the pay is much less.
According to glassdoor the average pay for strategy managers in the UK is only £66k (https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Salaries/strategy-man…). That is pretty pathetic after 2/3 years of consulting. This is an average, so can anyone share some detailed knowledge such as: The highest paying industries, average pay in different industries, rate of progression, day-to-day, work/life balance, general comments on the job stability and what is the salary projection usually like? Basically anything that will give me a better sense of what the day-to-day job entails and what potential pay you can have if this the line of work you want to be in for most of your career.
Also, is it worth staying more than 2 years at a consulting firm to get MBA sponsorship then moving to a corp strat role as it may speed up the pay progression? Would it be worth getting the MBA sponsored, moving to PE for 1/2yrs then exiting to corp strat?
Really appreciate any advice anyone can offer on the above :)
66k sounds on the lower end. you should be able to find something probably more around 70-75k after a few years (granted i didnt work in MC or within CS in Corporate but did try to pivot and that was ~ the salaries i saw for people with several years experience).
i dont know about highest paying industries (id assume FS?) but i did notice that the sexiest type industries (e.g. Media/Ent) did have lower salaries because more people would be gunning for those whilst standard FMCG etc type companies were higher.
People in our CS department usually either went into a senior commercial finance type role within OpCo (from Group team), stayed in CS (internally or other company) and quite a few went back to MC. Others joined FP&A type positions
i wouldn't worry about exits from MBB /Tier 2. I'd imagine that post MBA PE in UK would have same issue as in US - that you would need to have pre-MBA PE to join. Another option would be to join the more Operations focused teams within PE.
Thanks for the reply.
So what is the progression path like as a strategy manager? After a few years do you move up to a director role and eventually become the head of strategy?
It really depends on the individual and the organisation. Some people hit director quite quickly others spend multiple years at analyst / senior / manager / senior etc and take much longer. It’s all about taking opportunities as they present themselves. There’s only so much room in the team and not everyone can move up like they can in big4 etc.
I’d consider it a springboard into senior positions in corporate rather than only ever being in that department.
For what it’s worth the people in our CS team often complain about making pointless decks which never go anywhere. Sure they do some business market sizing and help on m&a etc but they also complain a lot that it’s not real value add but I guess that depends on how techy the company is. I’d imagine eg in google the technical engineers do more value add strategy
What do you mean value add strategy? Does that mean operations or actual project deliver rather than presentations?
What is your view on the benefits of doing an MBA whilst in consulting. Will it help when you exit into a corporation?
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