Strategy& Deals vs. Oliver Wyman?
If you had offers from both Strategy& Deals and Oliver Wyman (out of undergrad), which would you take?
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S& unless you want to do FS
How do you apply to strategy&?
campus recruiting
How many years are you looking to stay in consulting? OW is great if only 2-3 years. If longer go with S& where comp is much higher at the late ASC/EM levels
I'm a bit biased given I know the group better but I would do Deals S&. You get a very pure experience of only 'strategy' work and specifically CDD and the like, which sets you up great for PE/VC exits without precluding you from anything else. Pay is top-notch and people are great. Go take a look at the alumni base from Deals in the last few years now that the team is more mature. Several PE exits, FAANG, MBA business schools">M7 MBA among others
I'm sure OW is similar but the experience is probably much more variable. You could be doing pure strategy work but also could end up working on risk work for financial institutions (big piece of OW's bread and butter)
Happy to try and answer questions you have on Deals.
What about Strategy& PEVC vs. Oliver Wyman?
Also, I've heard many negative things about Strategy& culture whereas the culture at OW seems much less up or out
Not sure about PEVC, they are a very new group. Probably can look at DS's trajectory as a pretty accurate proxy for how the group will shake out in the next few years. They obviously do bottom-line optimization so the skill set you'll develop there is different, but everything else in terms of op model is the same as DS or S&
And that's probably a fair assessment for up-and-out. OW has the most 'lax' counsel out culture across all firms given their culture. But I wouldn't say they have a better culture. It always depends on the team you work with. And while there are a lot of horror stories with S&, those were years ago. Most of the DS reviews i've seen (including mine) are very positive. You work hard but you learn a lot, which is what most folks join for
The experience is much more variable, and risk is a big piece of our bread and butter. However, if you are set on PE, you can also do a CFA (corporate finance & advisory) rotation, which would set you up nicely for these exits, as they only do DDs and pure strategy.
Right, exactly. So DS just gives you the guarantee that that's the type of work you'll be focused on and across greater breadth of industries than OW
Also, rotations across to other S& verticals are not uncommon. As long as you prove yourself to be a strong performer, there's always the option to flex onto other S& verticals to try out new things so don't assume there's no inflexibility there
I am a undergrad with ER & AM experience at a hedge-fund I interned with and going to be at a top 3 RX consulting firm in their restructuring group for an internship; I am really interested in PwC's Deals team as they do what I both want and I am familiar with(market research, accessing competitive advantages, ect), but I was wondering what else to lookout for? I have decided I want to do strategy consulting and seems S& Deals fit my background and interest pretty well.
is this considered their hardest groups to get into? I am not so sure what other groups are present at S& that I can potentially network with
I am a undergrad with ER & AM experience at a hedge-fund I interned with and going to be at a top 3 RX consulting firm in their restructuring group for an internship; I am really interested in PwC's Deals team as they do what I both want and I am familiar with(market research, accessing competitive advantages, ect), but I was wondering what else to lookout for? I have decided I want to do strategy consulting and seems S& Deals fit my background and interest pretty well.
is this considered their hardest groups to get into? I am not so sure what other groups are present at S& that I can potentially network with
Can you share more about Deals and how to find alumni who went into FAANG roles? Happy to connect offline too.
I think it's a toss-up. S& Deals is definitely a strong team with wide industry exposure (but limited functional variety with a focus on CDDs and growth projects), but OW probably gives a more well-rounded experience of various functional areas (but industry exposure is highly indexed to FS, maybe ~50%).
Reputation-wise, both are broadly on the same level of prestige. You are splitting hairs at this point.
If you dislike travel, S& Deals might be the better choice as you tend to work from the home office (nature of CDDs) vs. OW where you may need to travel.
What about Strategy& PEVC vs. Oliver Wyman?
Provided with that information, I would cautiously suggest OW would be a better choice. I am not very familiar with this group, however, so there is probably someone placed in a better position to answer this question.
OW
Bump
This board generally really prefers DD type work/PE opps so it makes sense a lot of people say S& Deals. Go onto fishbowl, a more consulting oriented forum, and the answer will just be where "you like the people" or if you have a strong preference for FS vs DD. Also some note of it depends on geography. For example, in the Middle East, OW is much better while in the US it's more even. In the abstract on a global level, OW does seem to hold a slight reputation advantage above the rest of the T2s (fishbowl sentiment I am parroting here) but also not enough to justify the decision solely based on it.
Something also interesting is OW does seem to have decent PE exits for a T2. There are people at Charlesbank, 3i, TA, Summit, and one person just joined Madison Dearborn. I am not familiar with the S& deal exits.
Lol absolutely not true, S& is far stronger in the middle east (probably its strongest region)
womp womp someone doesn't work in industry :(
OW for typical 2-3 yrs short term gig (seem to have better exits if you look on linkedin and in different PE firms’ websites)
Strategy& for long term gig in consulting (pay better in later stages and also have solid exits)
just my 0.02...either way can’t go wrong-both are great options so congrats!
P.S: OW does seem to have a better reputation in the industry compared to the rest of the non-MBB firms. I have some friends that interned for S& and were trying to re-recruit for OW. But they also were not in the Deals group which seems super cool, so take that with a grain of salt.
I'd say it's a wash, I had offers at both after summering at S& and went with Oliver Wyman. Better pay, the culture at S& is a bit of a dumpster fire with folks there not wanting to identify as PwC (though OW is full of nerds), and OW gives you more flexibility with the work you can choose. That said, there's a ton of boring FS work, so you have to be a bit more vigilant about choosing your own path, so if you're averse to that, take S&.
What is the base pay+average bonus for consultant, senior consultant, associate, and EM at OW?
You could probably find this on Vault but I left at pre-mba associate level (there are effectively two very different categories of associate at pre- and post- mba pay rates) and I think my base was either $115 or $125 (~2.5 years out of school I believe)
Hi,
I'm soon to start OW in one of their main offices. I was wondering specifically why OW are known to have a fairly nerdy culture, is it the high level of risk/quant work they do giving a bit of a STEM bias towards their recruitment efforts?
Also, you recommended one be vigilant in choosing their own path. What did this mean for you, what was the "fun" vs "boring" FS work, or did you try to do a lot of work outside FS entirely?
Thanks in advance for the advice
You can find nuggets of good work like strategy or projects with crazy expense budgets so you can ball out, or you can get shitty regulatory risk projects that will make your eyes roll back in your head if you tell your staffer "I'm excited to try lots of things!". Don't say that. Tell them what you want. Network starting yesterday to figure that out before you even have your first conversation with your staffer.
Talk to partners, figure out what work is interesting to you at a high level.
Talk to juniors, ask them what they do on a day to day basis, e.g.,
* Do you do interviews with market participants?
* With client employees? Do you do surveys?
* Do you do SQL? Excel?
* How is the promotion track?
* What are the hours? *
* How often do you interact with other people on your team?
* How quickly can you advance in responsibilities?
* Do you as a junior get to opine on things? How much?
* What skills will I pick up on the competency model?
* How long will I be on this project? How long is the project supposed to be in general?
* Do you like it?
And so on and so forth, trust me, I could have kept typing for another ten minutes. The point is you want to figure these things out before your staffer has a chance to ruin your career by sending you to some bullshit internal project or lame risk something or other bank project. Your exit options become cog roles in a big bank or some other bs. Instead, find a sector you like, a function you like, with people you like, where your voice will be heard, there is room for advancement, and you can stay away from your staffer.
Oliver Wyman can be an MBB level experience if you make it one, but for every one person that pounds table and demands (politely but firmly) from their staffer that they get the projects they want (see above), there are 3-4 people that get relegated to some god awful FS work doing variable annuities or something inane.
I see that you work in PE now after OW. Would you be able to speak about exit quality for PE and how you were received by headhunters, etc?
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