Roland Berger vs. Strategy& Middle East

Hi there,

Congrats on both offers!

I'd say the work-life balance is about comparable (this varies by office/region, project, leadership, specialization, etc.)

I can't see strategy& promoting you differently based on whether you have a master's degree or not. Promotions will be very much based on merit (i.e. how well you perform and how well you network/politic).

In regards to your overall decision, make sure you're talking to people at the firm! Get to know people there and ask them hard questions to figure out which role/company makes most sense.

Good luck with the decision and what a great “problem” to have!

Hi there,

Congratulations on the offers!

I cannot answer specifically for RB Middle East but just wanted to share a few tips that hopefully can help with the decision (they are the same I followed when I had my offers).

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.
• 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. 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 a 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 offices (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, 

Based on my experience of knowing people from both companies and also coaching candidates for the two, they are indeed very similar. So, in short, you really can't go wrong whichever way you go. 

One thing to consider though is that a firm like Strategy& have a bigger geographical footprint (i.e., are more international) than Roland Berger, who even though international, is still very much a Germany-focused consulting firm. 

On the other hand, many would claim that Roland Berger is seen as having a stronger brand for management consulting compared to Strategy& that is just the consulting extension of a big 4 accounting firm. 

But at the end of the day, none of these things matter that much and you can't know how this decision is going to influence your future. You should also decide based on the sort of vibe you got from the two during the recruitment process. 

Best of luck with the new job! I wish you well!

Cristian

Congratulations! Sounds like the hardest part is already done.

A few thoughts on your questions:

Work-life balance:
I doubt that there are significant differences in work-life balance between the two or any other Tier1/Tier 2 firm. You are entering the field of management consulting after all which is client-centric project work in the professional services sector. Most consulting firms have an awareness to make this an internal topic by now because they need to retain their people but I would not expect major differences between the two choices you have. Based on my experience, differences in work-life balance can also occur based on your geographical region (Middle East vs. Europe vs. North America) - even within the same company.

Advancement to senior positions:
In my experience, Roland Berger will not limit your career progession based on the degrees you have. The only time it matters is when you start your job, i.e. determining your entry level when joining the firm. After that it is based on your development and performance on the respective career level. There are company sponsorship programs for MBAs or PhDs of course but they are not mandatory in order to achieve senior positions.

I hope this was helpful. Feel free to follow up if you have additional questions