Pros / cons of lateral hire to MBB (from another consulting firm)

Hi all,

I am currently a first-year pre-MBA associate (heading into my second year) at a 2nd tier consulting firm (Parthenon/LEK).

I recently secured a first round interview at an MBB, but wanted to get some career advice on whether it would be the right move.

My motivation to switch to MBB was driven by the following:

* My current firm does not travel and one of the things that attracted me to consulting was the opportunity to travel and get client exposure (which we do not get)

* Our work has mostly been due-diligences where we mostly conduct market research and can not interact with the target company. I would like to be more hands-on and have a wider variety of casework such as improving a company's performance and operations.

* By far the biggest difference is that we get promoted to the post-MBA level after ~4 years compared to MBB which is ~2 years. Given the interview timeline, I would be starting the role at the 1.5 year mark of my current job.

In terms of career goals:

* I am 100% set on getting an MBA. I would not want to return to my current firm due to the reasons above if I choose to do an MBA, so sponsorship does not matter. However, I would consider staying at MBB in the long term if I end up having a good experience there and could get sponsored by MBB.

* If I do not do this lateral move, the alternate plan would be to get another job at the 2 year mark and get my MBA 1-2 years later.

* My dream job is one that involves international travel & work and has some elements of marketing. I'd also like to do some work in both developing and advanced economies.

My questions are:

1. Is there any value in switching to MBB? Are there more exit opportunities available?

2. Would it be strange to start at the same role (from Associate to Associate) even though promotion wise, I would reach the same salary in the same amount of time?

3. Are there any other factors I have not listed that I should think about? I notice lateral hires at the associate level are not very common so wanted to check if it was a good or not so good route to take.

Thanks all!