OW FS vs EY FS

Hi!

I was working for one of Big 4 firms' advisory practices for last three years and decided to specialize in financial services industry. Last Summer I obtained and accepted EY offer to their FS practice (what was relatively easy). In parallel I passed through 6 interviews within Oliver Wyman Financial Services and they had remained silence until yesterday. So now I'm in a quite interesting position - I've got two months experience in EY and an offer from OW to join them starting mid Nov. Position that OW offered me is the same what I have in EY, region - Europe. Clearly if I had both offers in Summer I'd pick OW. So the questions basically are:

1. Is it worth to accept OW offer now and how it will look in my CV in the future?

2. Unofficially (on everybody's mouth) - OW is clearly the leader in FS advisory, but according to rankings that I've found in the internet (eg - vault) - EY is above OW both within career opportunities and overall ratings. Can anybody say something about it?

3. What are the pros and cons on staying in EY vs joining OWFS and what are the exit opps of both?

I need to decide till the end of next week so your help would be very appreciated!

Thanks!

 
Best Response

Wow. That's pretty tough. As you said, it's an easy choice all things being equal, but they're obviously not.

Here's a few questions to consider: -How do you like EY so far? How do the projects seem, and are the relationships you've formed strong and useful? -How does that compare to OW? Big difference? Need to speak to current OW employees in the office you're going to in order to get a feel for that. -How willing are you to possibly burn a few bridges right at the beginning of the year?

Don't know how the firms play in Europe, but I'll answer it assuming they are similarly regarded compared to US reputations. I would go to OW. I don't really think they're in the same league in terms of FS offerings, with OW as the clear leader. You will do some pretty cool work, and the name carries more weight for desirable exit opportunities. You will absolutely piss some people off and burn some bridges, but this is your career. I think it's your obligation to yourself to do what's best for you. Fortunately, two months is so quick that no one will regard you high enough to really be upset. The one year period actually is worse for how people take it, because you'll have become a useful asset by then.

In terms of explaining it, I think it's pretty easy. You went to a job that you desired more and that was more in line with your interests and career goals. You would have gone to them immediately had you been given the opportunity, but you weren't, so you made the difficult decision to go anyway. Down the line, it's quite possible that you could leave EY off your resume entirely (say, you're applying to b-school in 3+ years, I might even leave it off, which would give it the appearance that you just didn't start your first job til November).

Some on here will entirely disagree - I think IlliniProgrammer feels strongly about sticking it out for awhile. To me, I see it as two different classes of firms, and this is not necessarily an opportunity that you'll have as an experienced hire. Now, if EY FS Advisory is more highly regarded in Europe, then maybe the equation changes.

 

BGP2587, thanks a lot for your answer! I'm feeling in the same way, I don't think that two months is a sufficient term to establish proven and longstanding contacts at the firm to burn them painfully. Probably it'll be loss for my management as for two months period I delivered two full time projects (which I definitely want to indicate in the resume). Another thing - people with whom I was working during the projects for some reasons also left the Firm, so actually I feel my duty only in front of the senior management. The only thing I was concerned about is actually how my move will reflect to me in the future and how the potential screener (yes, I thought about b-school) will stare at my CV.

Additionally yesterday I spoke with my friends from McK and BCG who also think that it's not a big issue to rapidly switch employers if there is an option which could be defined as a strategic move for my career development (one of them also suggested just not to show this in CV in the future), and yes, OW in Europe is also playing more on first tier filed and being considered as a competitor to Big 3 in FS.

 

Go with OW, no brainer. Agree with BGP; they're on a whole other level than EY in terms of everything - exit ops, prestige, type of work etc.

 

Good choice. I would advise making sure you stick it out at OW for at least 2-3 years. If you're looking around for another job after a year at OW, then people might start to question. Not many people are going to judge a candidate by a short stint at a job right out of college, especially when you left for a better opportunity and stayed and achieved there.

 

Dont believe all the rankings online (i.e. vault), that ish is all fake. If FS is really want you to pursue and you know this then OW no question. They have a better rep and their comp is considerably higher.

BUT as you indicated you've only been with EY FS for 2 months. Honestly, I feel you (as most people also) will begin to hate it after the 11 month mark, if even. Once that hits around, you have two options. (1) Jump ship or (2) Transfer to another group. For option 1, I believe OW can put you in a better position for exit ops given its rep. For option 2, I'd almost choose EY, only because Big 4 advisory is so broad, and their are so many niche or specialized groups that you could transfer to, differnt industries for you to try, etc. It won't be easy per se, but its definitely achievable. So in that sense, EY has more ops internally that may interest you should you ever decide FS sucks.

Again its really all up to you, and if you think FS is truly where you want to be.

Hugo
 

I am interviewing for FSO BAP and people hold MBB/OW together in the same light. It seems pretty clear that OW is the leader of the financial services consulting. That is one thing I noticed whenever I went to Tier 3 or so consulting firms is that they always hold MBB in a different light and emphasize a difference approach to consulting (more implementatin/operating work). Just curious, isn't OW's comp and mba placement way way better?

 

BGP2587, if anyone asked me where I see myself in 3 year time frame, my answer definitely would be OW. And honestly I couldn't say that prior joining EY.

Hugo Stiglitz, actually I have been doing FS projects for the past two years, especially in the area of capital markets, so probably I've got a unique stick to it. Anyway there is a single pool of juniors (consultants and senior consultants) for all projects at OW - I mean FS and GMC, not sure about Marsh (Insurance) and one of the partners confirmed the possibility to work on different projects within various groups on junior levels and obtain specialization later in the career. At the same time there is still informal separation between FS and GMC staff as people from GMC eager to work in FS but not vice versa and I was interviewed only by FS partners.

JMeister, absolutely not. Currently I'm delivering the operational project for one of capital markets institutions with direct reporting to CxO and CxO - 1 level, I'm pretty sure that Tier 2 and even Top 3 are doing somewhat the same, but I know that for EY it was a 'big win' and for Top Consultancy it might be just another project. The thing is that it's hard to sell Peugeot to a person who wants to buy Mercedes, but that happens. Senior Management at Big 4 is on a really high level, all of my partners came from Top 3 and Tier 2 consulting. There are some gaps on a middle management level and I definitely wouldn't like to work with some of them. The problem of Big 4 is that some people could float around with the lack of professional progress and even being promoted. Also I know that there are some people in my group who are sitting with low utilization and crunching business development work, so the question here is how you will sell yourself to the Firm. In general my advice would be to choose carefully people with whom you will be spending the most of your time (including choosing of mentor) and projects on which you will be working on. Also in terms of exit opps I know plenty of people who transferred to MBB from Big 4 advisory and to BB IB from Deals and even Audit.

pnb2002, as I mentioned above - formally they created a single pool of consultants starting this year which could be staffed both on FS and GMC projects. Specialization starts from manager's (or equivalent) position and you will be aligned both for practice and an area of expertise.

 

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