You have put a lot of thinking into this. I honestly doubt you need more advice on what to take into consideration. 

Instead, you need more clarity for yourself on where you want to be (at least based on your current projection) and what your values are. This should help simplify the decision. 

One suggestion, though - leave the financials out of it. The difference is not worth it. If you're at the start of your career, the best thing you can do is find the right home for yourself. Compensation will take care of itself as your value prop increases. 

And congrats on the offers! That's an amazing achievement. 

Sharing with you here two articles with tips for when you join:

• Expert Guide: How to Become A Distinctive Consultant
• Expert Guide: How to Manage for Lifestyle in Consulting

Best,
Cristian

Hi there,

Congratulations on the offers! In terms of your question:

Q: I have Mck and BCG offers in a developing economy. Unsure what decision to make her.

From what you shared, it seems BCG wins short-term (money) and McKinsey long-term (MBA sponsorship more likely). For travel, you did not express a preference, so I guess it is not important. If that is the only element to evaluate, unless you consider the MBA route unlikely, I would recommend picking McKinsey for the long-term MBA opportunity.

In general, to make a decision I would suggest considering the following:

• Where do you want to be in 5-10 years? Look at the company that can help you to achieve that goal faster. You can check LinkedIn for that (see below). If you are not sure, the McKinsey brand is still stronger in most countries.
• If you consider the average consultant/partner you talked to in each company, which one would you rather be? You will spend a lot of time with your colleagues in the next years if you will join full-time after the internship - be sure you choose a company where the people are close to the person you want to become.
• If money and prestige were not a consideration, which company would you choose? This could help you to identify additional elements to weigh you have not considered yet.

In terms of exits (for most people they are a very important factor in joining a consulting company), you can check them as follows:

1. Look for alumni of the two companies on LinkedIn
2. Check how many moved to your preferred exits in your target region
3. Normalize for the size of the companies in the region

If you want to do extra due diligence, you can contact Alumni of your school (not current consultants) who worked for the two companies (bonus if they worked for both firms). Most likely, you will learn more in a 30-minute call with them than with any online research you might do.

Best,

Francesco

Hi there,

It looks like you have already made a comprehensive analysis :)

A few reflections:

• Make a list of all important things to you to make the decision, order them by priority and review the decision again focus only in the number one item on your list
• While it is good to have a long term plan like the one you have, be ready to change it as life unfolds. There are a lot of things that could happen (personal and professional) that will require you to adapt your plans
• At the end of the day, both options are outstanding options so it's difficult you go wrong with any of them

Best,

Alberto

—

Check out my latest case based on a real MBB interview: Sierra Springs

Two tips for you

1) Simplify. Decide which two things are most important to you. Then see which of BCg/McK have that

2) Flip a coin. I'm serious. Flip a coin, with the company clearly and utterly in your mind for heads/tails.

Then? See what your GUT told you. Did it react positively or negatively? There's your answer

Good luck with a decision that you cannot make the wrong choice on  (because both options are fantastic!) :)

Hi,

Seems like you've done a fair amount of research. To a certain extent, you wont go ‘wrong’ with either, but there are material differences to how your experience will be working at each of the firms, based on the differences between the firms.

These are things that I only realized after working in consulting for a couple of years, its hard to discuss them in a forum post like this but happy to share more based on my own experience - just drop me a dm!

Hey, congrats on two offers!

It seems that there are a lot of similarities between these two firms in the region with the main differences being the amount of travel and the office size.

I'd also speak with the people on the inside of both companies in order to figure out how are both doing in terms of ongoing projects in the region - it makes more sense to join a company where you can actively learn being on the project instead of doing BD.

Good luck,
Nick

Honestly, if you are in doubt, I would pick the one with the people I felt more “in tune” with. Ultimately people, with whom you feel comfortable and that whole-heartedly want your personal success, are the most critical success factor in any one's career.