ADL or Kearney

Hi there,

Congratulations on the offers! In terms of your question:

Q: I have offers from both Kearney and Arthur D Little in the middle east. How should I make this decision?

As general criteria, I would consider 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 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 - be sure you choose a company where the people are close to the person you want to become.
• What is your gut feeling telling you? Our gut feeling is able to catch elements we cannot initially rationalize. You may “feel” a company is better, but don’t know exactly why. Try to find out why you feel that way, do some research on that and try to understand if that point is valid.

In terms of exits (for most people they are a very important factor to join 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, contact Alumni of your university (not current consultants) that worked in your target office (bonus if they worked for both companies). You will learn more in a 30min call with them than with any online research you may do.

Good luck!

Francesco

Hello,

Congratulations on receiving the two offers! 

It depends on how you value the following elements:

1) Short-term vs Long-term: Are you in consulting for long game or just want to spend 2-3 years and leave? If you are in it for the long, you should not be tempted by a higher position being offered now as eventually you will make up for it in the long run. You should ask yourself - do I see myself as a Kearney partner or an ADL partner 10 years from now

2) Prestige: I think from this point, you have clearly identified Kearney as a winner

3) Geography: Although ADL has its legacy, Kearney is more popular worldwide. If you ever want geographical mobility out of the middle east, Kearney's brand will help you more

4) Exit opportunities: Linking back to point 2. Kearney commands a higher respect in the market

5) Culture: This is something that you need to assess carefully. Do you think you will be happy in a mid-sized firm where everyone knows you personally? Or would you rather be in a bigger corporation where you have more training opportunities, larger projects, but are a smaller part of the firm.

6) Clients: Just strictly from a middle east perspective, Kearney has a much higher market share than ADL.

All the best!

Rushabh

Hi there,

Trust your gut :)

Sounds like you prefer Kearney. I can't tell you which one is best for you, but I can reassure you that you're not making a bad decision here.

Ultimately, you want to work where you feel comfortable and you think you will progress in the best way.

By the way, don't forget to negotiate…if you're on the fence, tell your “most preferred” company and tell them what you'd need to make it an easy decision.

Hi there,

100% agree with your assessment. Unless you have a very bad got feeling about Kearney, I would definitely go with it.

They are better on every metric and dimension you can think of between the two.

All the best,

Florian

Kearney is better positioned in general and in ME.

I would honestly have no doubt.

Please have a look at this article I wrote to precisely answer this question in detail- https://www.preplounge.com/en/articles/how-do-i-know-which-career-is-right-for-me

Congrats and all the best choosing!

You are assessing the situation correctly.