All questions tagged offer - Consulting Q&A - PrepLounge.com

Hi!

Given your description you have a couple of options:

A. Join Bain in Dubai

B. Join McK in Karachi

C. Try to join McK in Dubai

Since you don't feel comfortable with working in Pakistan, are concerned about the compensation and miss the personal click, it is a no-brainer that option A dominates option B. The question is whether McKinsey in Dubai would be a better fit for you (compared to Karachi)? Compensation wise for sure, but what a bout the people?

• If you still see a better fir with Bain, even if you compare the Dubai offices, then go for option A!
• If it is not the case, then you have nothing to lose by being open with McKinsey and tell them that you have decided to start in Dubai and that you have another offer there. Just ask whether starting in Dubai would be an option. If yes, great. If not, go for Option A.

Cheers, Sidi

Hi! I personally didn't have such a clause in my contract (McKinsey Germany), but as far as I know for other regions of the world it's a pretty standard practice, so doesn't surprise me at all.

Best,
Daniel

Hi!

The last info I know is that in Germany and Austria for Associates it's 110 k base and for Fellows it's 70 k base (it is increased by 5 k every year you spend at the Firm). The bonus then depends on your performance and if i'm not mistaken is max 60k and 30 k, respectively.

Plus, in Germany and Austria you get a car that you will be able to choose and buy yourself (any model, any on-top things, leather seats, big wheals, all of that stuff). Budget for the car is 65 k for Associates and 35 k for Fellows as far as I remember.

Switzerland it's a completely different story. The only thing I know is that it's much more, but I don't know how much more.

Hi!

Couple of points:

1. Please make sure BCG understands that you are having these offers and need to decide soon. Normally they are very open to expedite the process under these circumstances!

2. If this does not work, please be open about the situation with RB/OW and ask for a couple more weeks.

3. If they refuse to give you more time to decide, then just decide and take one of the offers. Then do your BCG interviews and see what comes out of it. If you get an offer by BCG and want to accept it, then you quit with RB/OW. Please don't second guess too much. Normally the firms should understand it and you would not be forced to such a move. But if they don't, then you just take a reasonable rational personal decision! And by the way - firms also don't hesitate to rescind offers or delay starting dates if external condiditons force them to do so. This has, e.g., happended a lot when the last financial crisis unfolded.

Cheers, Sidi

in McKinsey Germany it's 10-25% and depends on your performance in the last review cycle of the year (October-November)

Hi Kevin,
unfortunately I do not know the exact amount in SEA, but I would like to add that you can usually negotiate it (there is a range of 5-10k, depending on the role and the office), leveraging on other offers

Hope it helps,
Antonello

Hi,
it is a common situation. I do not think you would have legal consequences in rejecting the offer (in Italy it is only a letter of intent and you do not incur in them, since each part has 6 months by the beginning to terminate the contract). Of course it is not 100% fair, but also the HR play their cards keeping the deadline too short.

Hope it helps,
Anto

Hello there,

There is nothing unprofessional about contacting a person who have put up their profile on a public domain such as LinkedIn. Reaching out through people from Linkedin is a completely acceptable way to expand your network and engage in professional matters as the platform is tailored to provide such functions.

What will determine whether the outreach is professional or not is the tone and delivery of your message. General best practices such as utilizing polite dictions and be respectful of their time / not being pushy works perfectly.

Another note, actively reaching out would actually showcase your strong interest towards the firm and let them know you are someone who will proactively pursue things, a desirable traits of a prospective candidate.

Hope it helps.

Kind regards,

Nathan

Hi! Höchstwahrscheinlich wird es keine rechtliche Konseqeunzen geben. Das ist ja nur ein Instrument für die Beratungen ein bisschen Druck aufzubauen. Aber am Besten einen Anwalt fragen, hol dir eine arbeitsrechtliche Beratung, wirst wahrscheinlich nur eine Stunde brauchen um das zu klären, wird nicht so viel kosten (EUR 150 oder so, es könnte sein dass die erste Beratung sogar kostenlos ist)

Hi,

You should hear back in a week max.

Best,

Deniz

Hi Anonymous,

first of all, congratulations for getting the two offers, that’s a great achievement!

Both are great choices and you cannot really go wrong with any. The answers to your questions would depend on the country you are considering; I will report below my experience as for the Italian market, other countries may be different.

• Office camaraderie: McKinsey is suppose to be more competitive than BCG internally; I did not experiment this first hand as I worked for BCG only, but many friends at McKinsey mentioned a very competitive environment, thus less internal camaraderie
• Ease of upward mobility and an adherence to meritocracy: in general terms, equivalent
• Breadth of case studies/client projects across different industries: in general terms, equivalent; of course specific countries may have specific focus. In Italy, McKinsey is doing more financial services then BCG; that may be a plus or minus, according to your interests. You should get an idea of the sectors covered by each company in your target country looking at the proportion of partners covering a specific sector out of the total
• International exposure: in general terms, equivalent. McKinsey has more offices worldwide, however I did not see a real impact from that on travelling opportunities at BCG
• Non-financial perks: in general terms, equivalent (unless you include MBA sponsorships as non-financial perks; I have included that point under exit opportunities)
• Exit opportunities: McKinsey has by far the largest group of Alumni; this gives them an edge on what you could do after consulting. In Italy, at least till 2011, McKinsey was also supposed to provide more MBA sponsorships, which could of course influence exit opportunities.

One thing I would recommend you to do to make a decision is to also consider the general gut filling you got talking to the consultants during the interviews, and in particular how they answered your questions at the end of the interview. There are indeed a lot of factors you will not have control on during your consulting experience (mainly which project you will do and which team you will join) that could influence the overall experience; if you felt a click for a specific company though, it is likely that particular environment will fit more with your personality. This could become far more important than all the other elements in the long run.

If you did not get a clear picture of the internal environment during interviews, you can ask to talk more with some of their consultants – they will very likely organize a meeting for you.

Hope this helps,

Francesco

Hi,

I don't have a good personal answer for you (though I have heard of Capgemini, not Bearing Point).

However, check out Glassdoor.com to see employee reviews of companies. this will give you a feel for culture, reputation, etc.

Link here: https://www.glassdoor.com.au/Reviews/index.htm?countryRedirect=true

Hope this helps!

Hi,

I would agree that OW has a stronger reputation worldwide, but also LEK is quite strong especially in the UK.

Best,

Deniz

Hi,

1) It's hard. And it gets harder if you are older. No one will tell you the opposite.

2) It will probably not add to the career progression since the people who stay in the industry at the same place usually grow faster if they are smart enough. However, it will definitely boost your skills and help you become a top performer compared to your peers.

Downside - it's true - you'll lack people the bigger part of the management skills:

• Leader as an architect and someone building the teams - not in consulting, since you don't have this aspect at all. All the people who are hired are smart
• Leader as a beacon and a person motivating the teams - not in consulting, since the people are already motivated with high salaries and up or out policy.
• Leader as a project manager working effectively with the different parts of the organization - you can definitely learn this in consulting since it has a lot of client and internal politics

Answering your question - it really depends on what's the alternative. If you have a good progression now and you can grow as a people manager - I would probably keep as it is. Moreover, the UK consulting salaries are comparatively low nowadays.

If you want to grow your problem solving, project management and politics skills - would definitely go there.

I would try to negotiate it with the current company - leave for MBB, stay there for a couple of years and then go back with upside.

Best!

Hi!

I have worked for several years for both BCG and McKinsey and covered different geographies at both firms. I honestly believe that this is nothing but a cliché if you relate it to the interpersonal behavior of the people. There is really no way you coan claim that either of the two are behaving more/less elitist/snobby/whatever at the aggregate level. Spot experience might of course vary a lot, depending on who you ask and his/her subjective experience.

That being said, there are a couple of deeper, "institutionalized" patterns that most people are not aware of, from which you could infer that McKinsey is less concerned with looking at what BCG does than vice versa. I can see this in alumni meetings that I attend - BCG folks are always very eager to hear from me how McKinsey was and whether/how it was different. At McKinsey meetings however, it is never really a topic of interest that I also worked at BCG. Another hint that speaks to the same trend is the importance of the "Why BCG/McKinsey?" question in interviews. For BCG, this is really important and a candidate should have a very strong and convincing answer why he/she prefers BCG over anyone else. At McKinsey however, this is not one of the "make or break" questions (unless you say something really stupid obviously) - you could interpret it as McKinsey sort of assuming that of course they are the candidates' first choice and don't need him/her to proove it (which of course could be called "elitist" ;-)).

Hope that helps, Sidi

Hi Robert,

First of all, congratulations! Are you aligned to the digital practice in BCG, or did you receive the offer as a generalist? The answer to your question will be highly dependent on your appetite for digital projects.

As far as I know, both companies provide similar opportunities regarding career perspectives, salary, and alumni, thus this may not be a differentiating factor in your decision.

I would also encourage you to think about the people, interviewers you met at BCG and McKinsey, and assess who you would like to work with more.

Best,

Deniz

Hi,

I have gone through the same situation about 5 years ago. It took me quite a few application rounds (three years) to get an offer from BCG.

When I first applied during my third (last) year at uni, I wasn't even invited for an interview. Thus, I decided to do an internship at ATK over summer.

During my masters, I applied for MBB again, and because of my relevant internship experience, I was invited to interview with McK and BCG. I reached the final round, yet could not get a job offer. Thus, I decided to take the full-time offer from ATK instead.

During 5 months, I was able to build my case around how much I enjoy consulting, and that I want to work for high profile clients and projects. And this time, I applied and was able to get an offer from BCG.

I would highly advise you to take the offer from ATK, where you will learn the foundations of consulting. And if you desire to try again for MBB, you could try after 1 year or so.

Best of luck!

Deniz

Hi,

Definitely take a break! Also, I would concentrate on getting the right financial modeling skills and presenting your analysis in Power Point.

1) Financial modeling - the best course I know is Training The Street. Take Financial Modeling, Valuation, Maybe LBO. Also, learn pivot tables and the basic statistics tools

Excel and Financial modeling - the best course I know is Training The Street. Take Financial Modeling, Valuation, Maybe LBO. They have the amazing templates that you have to reproduce to be able to do that fast.

The key thing - throw away your mouse and put some tape on your touchpad. Do everything with your keyboard!

2) Power Point

• First, read "Say it with charts" and "Pyramid Principle".
• As a next step Google for MBB presentations on SlideShare and try to replicate them in PPT.
• Finally, take MBA some cases (HBS or any other) and try to derive the conclusions and put them on slides using MBB styles.

And finally - take a long vacation before starting your job;)

While in consulting focus on the following:

• Having a good DGL / career counselor, etc. (Each company has different names). This is a person who guides your development in the company, collects the feedbacks on you, and presents your case to a promotion committee. Make sure to have a person who is organized enough to collect the feedbacks in time, who is a nice person in general and who has enough authority in the company (i.e. Senior partner - the more power he has - the better)
• Choosing the project you work on smartly (i.e. collect the feedbacks on each and everyone prior to accepting the project)
• Perfect technical skills (Excel, PPT, Problem Solving)
• Good feedbacks on you from the client. Thus try to make friends with your clients (Both senior and non-senior role. Even a bad feedback from a blue collar can ruin your career)
• Ability to manage your own standalone workstream with minimum supervision. TOP performers bring the end products that impress others
• Being proactive - helping the team with daily routine, scheduling, etc. Participating in the office initiatives
• Establishing relationships with your managers and partners. Ideally, you should have multiple senior partners to be excited about you and to support you)
• Being lucky!

Good Luck!

Hi Anonymous,

No worries at all - act professionally and you will be able to run the recruiting process again. MBB are eager to attract exceptional candidates and as you mature your experience in other MBB firms your profile might become even more interesting for them in the outlook of a second application.

However, only remark I do - which I have seen candidates doing sometimes - do not ACCEPT an offer (maybe because you wanna buy you time e.g when you are are still waiting for other offers or to complete other firms recruiting processes) and then decline. This is seen as highly unprofessional. Rather negotiate to have more time to give an answer.

Best
Riccardo

I wouldn't worry too much about acquiring additional skills prior to your start at the firm. McKinsey has excellent internal training materials and will teach you everything once you have joined the firm.

If you insists on preperaing, I would brush up my excel and ppt skills. You can also try to network with people from your home office prior to your start. A lot of projects are staffed based on internal networking, so it is good to establish a network of contacts early on.