Hello everyone,
I hope you are all doing fine in those times.
Perhaps before I start my actual question, some background information regarding myself to give you a better overview of my background:
First of all, consulting was never really my goal, I initially wanted to be a doctor with a focus on heart surgeries. That is why for the last years I studied medicine in Heidelberg, Germany, and for most of my studies never completed consulting internships because I worked in hospitals to get practical experience. However, 1.5 years ago I had a car crash and my left hand was badly damaged. Even after some surgeries and special programs my hand didn’t fully recover and the left hand is often shaking, which is no issue when working on a computer, but this means that I will never be able to perform surgeries myself.
After some tough months during which I didn’t really know what to do next, I talked to a friend of my father, who is a partner at a small and relatively new consulting firm in Germany with a focus on medical technology. He offered me to do an internship there, which I did earlier this year. I really enjoyed the project and working with colleagues from different backgrounds.
Therefore, I looked at some articles and talked to some friends with business background and they told me the top firms in Germany are McKinsey and BCG, however since they never worked there themselves, they couldn’t really give me any detailed information. And during my studies, I didn’t bother to apply for some networking events. Therefore, I don’t really know the people that work there. Nevertheless, I applied for both firms for the Frankfurt Office and received offers for a start in 2021. During the interview process both companies were really friendly and professional.
Normally, I would try to visit the different offices (in Frankfurt, Germany) to get to know the colleagues and make a decision where to work, but in times of COVID-19 this is not really feasible.
Therefore, I hope you could help me with some general questions:
- How is the culture in those 2 firms and what are the differences? I read that the culture is better at BCG, but why (or why not) and is this also true for Germany?
- Who is the market leader in Germany (not only for healthcare) / is viewed as more prestigious (although this is not too important for me, but I read in a “vault ranking” that McKinsey is leading here)?
- In which company is it easier to support social impact projects?
Thank you very much for your time and support.
Stay healthy!