Hi there!

Thanks for being clear on your objectives. 

(1) makes complete sense and it's definitely what you should be optimising for. 

(2) does not make much sense in the short term from my point of view. Compensation, even in consulting firms, tends to grow exponentially. So, making lateral moves for 30% increases at the beginning of your career makes little sense to me. 

If you want to have a career in the corporate world, I would rather reflect on what are the topics/industries that interest you most, then join a firm that's great at it (could be one of the MBBs). 

Compensation will take care of itself. Plus, once you have about a decade of experience within that area you're likely to be within the best 0.001% in the world at that particular thing, which is going to make you very valuable.

Best,
Cristian

Hi there,

Q: Which of the strategies would most likely return the best ROI in the long term? 

I would recommend checking which are the exit opportunities for the three options on LinkedIn (taking into account the office of option #2). 

If they don’t match your goals, I would exclude the options that don’t match, even if the salary is higher. If more than one matches, I would personally prioritize the one leading with a higher probability to your desired career path.

Best,

Francesco

The one thing I don't understand is why you aren't applying to MBB. If at this point (manager level) you didn't get an offer, that would be harder later on.

Regarding getting into MBB, EY-Parthenon seems a safer option, but honestly try to understand the quality of the boutique that's trying to hire you. If they pay that well, they probably have good projects and high quality people, and maybe there's a chance all of them will wind up acquired by a top consulting firm.