Hi there,

Congratulations on the offers – that’s a great problem to have!

In terms of the choice, 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. If you are not sure, MBB would be better in terms of brand.
• If you consider the average consultant/partner you talked to in each company, which one would you rather be? Quoting Jim Rohn, you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. 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. Delve into why you feel that way, do some research on that and try to understand if that point is valid.

If you want to do extra due diligence, contact Alumni of your university (not current consultants) that worked in that 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.

Best,

Francesco

Hi there,

I try not to tell candidates what to do in regards to offer, and opt to “show them what they already want”. Importantly, you want to figure out your values and how well each offer matches those values.

That said, for this particular choice, I think you should select MBB. Nothing beats the MBB brand in terms of future opportunities - MBB dramatically impacts how often you get reached out to on LinkedIn and what kinds of roles are open to you.

I personally think the brand of MBB far outweighs a perceived project superiority at S&.

No, you won't have a better work life balance (of course, depends on the specific office/country).

Regarding types of projects, you actually have more say in what you do in MBB than in Strategy&. And you have a lot of digital projects in MBB (consumer more at Bain than the other MB, but the other around for digital). Also you will be working more on strategic level decision at MBB and on implementation level at Strategy&. MBB has a much better brand, better exit, better progression, and better learning experience. Also, it's not that hard to join S& after MBB, not as much the other way around. 
If the location is not an issue, I would chose MBB.

However, take this with caution. You have to network to understand what is the reality of the company in that specific office. What in general seems to be true, might be wrong when you look into the reality of that location.

Good luck with your decision.

Hello!

Congrats! 

To add to what has been said already, it´s almost impossible to make the wrong choice when both options work, hoping this releases some pressure from your shoulders. 

Cheers, 

Clara

Hi there,

First of all, congratulations on the offers!

This is indeed an interesting question which is probably relevant for quite a lot of users, so I am happy to provide my perspective on it:

• Generally speaking, on the aspects you mentioned, there will be little to no difference between your two offers: 1) the brand will be most probably equally strong (besides that fact that brand does not really do a lot in terms of tangible benefits, it is mostly “for the fame”), 2) you will have most probably the same opportunity to work in your decide area of interest (and you will most probably have the same possibility to influence it), and 3) the work-life balance will most probably be exactly the same and predominantely depending of the client and your personal measures to go about it.
• I would advise you to much more focusing on your mid- to long-term goals, i.e. where you want to be in 5-10 years (regarding the position, industry and location). Besides this, following your gut feeling and the overall impression you had with the companies might also be meaningful since you will be working with your colleagues for quite some time.

In case you want a more detailed discussion on how to best decide on your future employer and how to best prepare your upcoming career entry, please feel free to contact me directly.

I hope this helps,

Hagen

Congrats!

Go for that which is a better FIT for you- values, career aspirations and risk profile. Check out this article for plenty of guidance & tips- https://www.preplounge.com/en/articles/how-do-i-know-which-career-is-right-for-me

Good luck choosing!

It is a lot easier to go from MBB to Strategy& versus the other way around.