Two offers from same consulting firm, two geographies, different pay, different positions, help!

Question

Hi forum,

I've recently been offered two jobs from the same company (Monitor Deloitte) in Paris and in HongKong. In the Paris one I'm offered a consultant position with a starting consultant salary that you might expect and in HK I'm offered business analyst with its respective salary.

My intuition is to take Paris of course because its position and salary but am I missing something? Does anyone know about the consulting market in both geographies for this firm specifically and enlighten me on the pros/cons from each? I'm guessing that perhaps HongKong is a lot more competitive so they can leverage a weaker offer, but would it reflect better on my CV if I worked there?

Thank you very much in advance!

Answer 1

Hi there,

First of all, congratulations on the offers!

I would be happy to share my thoughts on your question:

I would highly advise you to opt for the option that better aligns with your professional (and maybe even personal) mid- to long-term goals. In order to make an informed decision, I would advise you to do the following:

Weigh the different criteria that are meaningful to you independently of the current options (e.g., prestige, culture, international exposure, compensation, location). After that, score the two options based on your criteria and their weighting, resulting in two scores. This way, you have covered the left-brain perspective.
Critically assess your initial reaction to the outcome of the scores. For instance, if you feel the urge to tweak the numbers, this is a solid indicator that you do not want this decision to become reality. This way, you have covered the right-brain perspective.
By doing so, you will be able to integrate both parts of the brain into the decision-making, guaranteeing a higher chance that you will still be happy with it years later.

If you would like a more detailed discussion on how to address your specific situation, please don't hesitate to contact me directly.

Best,

Hagen

Answer 2

It is best you try speak to people in the two different offices to get an idea of the type of work they do. However, I wouldn't think that working in Hong Kong would give you any kind of prestige advantage over working in Paris - if anything, the opposite, since you would be working at a lower position.

Another consideration you haven't mentioned is: where do YOU want to live? Hong Kong and Paris are dramatically different places. Ultimately, you should pick the place you want to live in, since this will impact your happiness, and thus your ability to do your job successfully.

Answer 3

Hi A,

I totally agree with Alessandro on this issue.

You should not only think of the position and salary you've been offered but clearly of the life itself when getting a job in Paris or in HongKong.

Are you familiar with the culture of HongKong, will it be easy for you to travel somewhere so far away for a permanent position?

Anyway, whatever you chose it won't affect your CV the way you mentioned.

Try to make a deliberate and objective decision so you'd been happy with your choice.

Best, André