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

Hey,

I have provided a lot of insights on Accenture previosuly. Have a look at below threads.

Make a choice based on the firm & role which is a better fit with your career aspirations, values and risk profile. Choices are never perfect as with every other event in life. So remove that pressure.

• https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/possibility-of-movement-from-accenture-to-mbbtier-2-8915
• https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/how-does-accenture-strategy-compare-against-t2big4-regarding-compensation-and-exit-opportunities-in-germany-8920
• https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/deloitte-consulting-vs-accenture-strategy-consulting-in-europe-9885
• https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/what-makes-accenture-strategy-stand-out-besides-the-ability-to-be-involved-in-an-end-to-end-solution-for-the-client-9418
• https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/accenture-strategy-consulting-9886

Congrats and all the best choosing.

Hey,

Most likely your performance in the interviews was a bit lower, and so while they like you, they didnt see you fit at the level.

But this could be speculation..maybe they are tight on budget or something else changed in the backend or they interviewed you for the wrong level from the start and no one explicitly said anything. Happens!

Here's my tips:

• Best understand the details with HR first to see whether feedback is around your level of performance in interviews
• If it indeed is, approach this with win-win in mind. No blame game. Tell them how keen you are make this work and ask for if they are willing to discuss this further
• Be ready with your options- are you convinced you are ready for the next level and have the skills to be succesfull?! Whats the impact on your compensation?! If you have interviewed elsewhere and performed well at the next level, then use this as a negotiating point
• if its an admin error or some other issue, am sure HR themselves will collaborate with you to find a way

Otherwise, take/reject the offer depending how badly you want this and/or have other options brewing.

All the best.

Hey there,

the most important thing upfront: in general it does not have to be a red flag, as it always depends on your personal reasoning behind this.

However, looking at the reasoning you provided above I would recommend you to reconsider your desire to switch that early. Why?

• Broad vs. narrow industry focus is something that should've been clear before joining the firm and as a recruiter it would make me wonder why you didn't have this information clear before deciding to join that firm
• Since you've only been 2-3 months with the firm, you've probably only done one or max. 2 projects, which could raise doubts on whether the narrow focus of industries is really the case, as the next project could be somewhere else

Therefore, I'd recommend you to give it a try of at least a year. If you are truely unhappy and your mind is already fixed on making the switch: Give it a try and send an application to one firm. My guess is that they will be curious and invite you for a first round. Remember:

Making a decision based on the investment you have done in the past is always a bad one; instead: make the decision based on what you expect in the future.

Let me now if this helps you.

Best

Torben

Hi there,

Congratulations on your offers!

I worked at BCG Milan and helped a good number of people to join both companies in Milan. Here are some elements to consider:

• Industries. As you probably already know, Bain is strong in Luxury - which is something you like - plus historically in PE / due diligence. BCG is quite diversified – fewer Financial Service projects than McK, several projects in consumer, energy, industrial goods. BCG Italy is also well connected with the Middle East and related public sector in the area, so if that geography/area is interesting for you that would be a plus
• Clients. Bain in Italy focuses on smaller projects and it is more “entrepreneurial” (you may be staffed with only one manager on a project – which is quite rare at BCG). This is something you may or may not find positive
• MBA. When I joined BCG, it was offering more MBA sponsorship opportunities than Bain. Now things may be different – you may want to check that with Alumni (who are not biased on answers)
• People. Difficult to infer this just based on the interview interaction. My perception was both were a lot more down-to-earth than McKinsey in Italy
• Global Prestige. BCG is bigger and with more alumni worldwide. Everything being the same, it will offer more exit opportunities for that reason

As next steps: I would recommend you talk with as many recent Alumni of the companies as possible to make a decision and help you with the additional questions interesting for you. Unlike current consultants, they won’t be biased and will tell you the truth about their former companies.

If you need more help please PM me.

Best,

Francesco

Hi A,

I agree with Guarav and Adi. Besides this a simple advice: The more junior you are, the less you should now look on the salary - it's important to make the right choice for you and - this is a little bit the ugly truth - for your CV as well.

Let's say you are just starting your career, it will anyhow not pay off to choose ATK if you make a NPV calculation over the upcoming years!

And of course you have to have a gut feeling with the Bain offer too - even if the salary is now lower.

Last but not least: Why not telling Bain, that you got another offer with a higher salary. You've got nothing to lose!

Good look for your start! Jasper

Hi there,

It is not an ideal situation, but it happens, in particular if you have Tier 2 interviews before MBB.

You will be able to turn down the offer. Most of the time you don’t have penalties, however it depends on the law in your country and the contract you signed. I know some cases in China where there was an explicit penalty in the contract if someone signed and then did not join.

If you check the law in your country and your contract and there is nothing about penalties, you are good to go. As Vlad said, the sooner you notify the better, simply because it helps the company to find a replacement.

You are unlikely to be able to join that company in the future, but I guess that’s something you were already expecting.

Best,
Francesco

Hi Francesca,

Congratulations on your offers!

I worked at BCG Milan and helped a good number of people to join both companies in Milan. Here are some elements to consider:

• Industries. As you already know, Bain is strong in Luxury - which is something you like - plus historically in due diligence. BCG is quite diversified – less Financial Service projects than McK, several projects in consumer, energy, industrial goods. BCG Italy is also well connected with the Middle East and related public sector in the area, so if that geography/area is interesting for you that would be a plus
• Clients. Bain in Italy focuses on smaller projects and it is more “entrepreneurial” (you may be staffed with only one manager on a project – which is quite rare at BCG). This is something you may or may not find positive
• MBA. When I joined BCG, it was offering more MBA sponsorship opportunities than Bain. Now things may be different – you may want to check that if an MBA is relevant for you
• People. Difficult to infer this just based on the interview interaction. My perception was both were a lot more down-to-earth than McKinsey in Italy
• Global Prestige. BCG is bigger and with more alumni worldwide. Everything being the same, they will offer more exit opportunities for that reason

As next steps: I would recommend you talk with as many recent Alumni of the companies as possible to make a decision. Unlike current consultants, they won’t be biased and will tell you the truth about their former companies.

If you need more help please PM me.

Hope this helps,
Francesco

Firms often include clauses in offers that make them conditional - things like Force Majeur (e.g. COVID), red flags in the background check (i.e. you lied on your CV) and sometimes even more broader reasons would allow them to terminate the contract in those cases. Read the offer and contract carefully for these type of claues.

Do you have any reason to believe they would try to do so?

Hi there,

Sometimes it's really hard to say no, right?

Here are some useful tips:

1. A phone call is better than just an email. Adding the personal touch is never a weakness.
2. Don't make them wait for too long for you reply.
3. You want to be polite and stick to the facts why you reject an offer, not to the judgments.

These steps will help you to keep the doors open and stay in touch with the recruiter/company.

Hope it was helpful and good luck!

GB

Congratulations for the offer!

I'd recommend to reaching out to them. Nothing bad will happen if you don't, buit it never hurts to keep the connection alive to establish a connection already before you arrive in the office. See it more as the first step into your career.

Hi Rami,

There is no easy way to do this, and it involves disappointing people that believed in you. I find that being honest is usually a safe bet. Be direct and to the point (like ripping a bandaid)

Something like -

I am terribly sorry to do this but I just accepted an offer from another company I was interviewing with. I find that I am a better fit with them given xx and yy and in the long run this would be a better option for me. I really appreciate all of the time spent with me on the process and I apologize about the last minute change of heart on my end but do hope you will understand.

All the best,

Udayan

In the words of my mentor "an offer is valid until you consider it". Now, do not take that to an extreme but I would say that 3-4 weeks is perfectly normal time to have to consider an offer.

Before extending the time, if you feel prepared, I would ask other firms to shorten their interview time because you have another offer.

Techniques to extend time:

• Be honest: tell them you have other interviews and since you already made plans you would like to complete them to be fair
• Negotiate terms of offer: you can negotiate sign-on bonus, tenure (if applicable), start date
• Personal reasons (if applicable): e.g. need to discuss with SO to make sure is right decision

Hope it helps,

Andrea

Hi,

It's not completely unusual - it happens sometimes when:

• The firm is not sure about you
• Experienced hires for a specific roles (your case)

If you haven't received the offer yet, I think it still may be a final FIT interview with an industry Hub leader who will have to give his final word.

Thus prepare once again for FIT questions and Industry specific questions

Here are some general recommendations for video interviews:

1. First of all, check whether they are providing a conference room in a local office
2. If not - find a place with good internet speed and test it multiple times before the interview. Also, think of nice room / proper light for the video conference if you do it from home
3. You should be dressed the same as for the regular interview
4. Don't hesitate to ask clarifying questions if there are problems with connection or you were not able to hear something
5. Don't forget to look at the camera and smile - same as you do on a regular interview

Best

Hey anonymous,

No, it's definitely not normal for any location to take so long to communicate the final results (it may take 1-2 days; in some exceptional situations a bit longer, but definitely not 2+ weeks). And, yes, regardless of the outcome, they will always communicate it!

Thus, I would recommend you to send them a very polite follow up email asking if they have a date on when they will communicate it to you (do not ask directly why didn't they say anything yet or if you have got an offer or not).

PS: despite not being a normal situation... this happened to me too. I just got an interview 2 or 3 weeks after the final interview, and at the time the interviewer told me that he had completely forgotten to call to tell me that I passed. 10 years latter this gives a funny story to tell :D

Best

Bruno

Congrats on the offer! Offer terms are standard and nothing to worry about. Room for negotiation is low and normally I suggest candidates not to bother because if you perform ahead of peers your comp and tenure will progress faster as well

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.

Hey,

Let me start by congratulating you on your upcoming role at MBB.

Regarding your question and/or any market estimation in general (whenever you can't find any report with the data are already off-the-shelf somewhere else), there is two main options to go: top-down or bottom-up. Assuming it is a too fragmented market, it would be difficult to go into a bottom-up, so most likely you will need to find a proxy/approach to reach a value from a top-down perspective - which is just the same problem solving method you need to use in consulting interviews asking for a market sizing estimation.

That said, if I was you I wouldn't be worried about this type of issues... as you shouldn't be expecting the clients to just pop up in the team room and ask such questions out of nowhere, so you will have plenty of time to problem solve it (with the help of your team)

Best

Bruno

Hi Ibrahim,

First of all, congrats on the offers! Definitely a good problem to have in terms of deciding where to go.

As far as securing an offer goes, there's three things that I think you should account for during your internship.

1) Mistakes are inevitable throughout the summer. The main thing you'll be looking to do is avoid making big mistakes and avoid repeating the same mistakes. The expectations for your internship aren't for you to come in and save the company (if you do, then that's great) but rather for them to get to see you in a team and client environment in order to assess your performance and potential growth.

2) Building on my first point, consulting is a people-driven job and, because of this, a significant portion of your evaluation will come down to your fit with the firm. This doesn't mean networking non-stop; instead, you need demonstrate your ability to be a strong follower, leader, and client-facing intern who will not crack under pressure. At the same time, it helps if you are able to bond with your peers, client team, and overall office during your stay. In short, the team wants to determine if they can see you working with them for the long-haul.

3) Lastly, and many will probably say this to you, attention to detail is key. As mentioned in the first point, you need to minimize the impact of your mistakes as well as the frequency of mistakes you make. Treat each draft deck, slide, research paper, spreadsheet, etc. as a final version. By doing this, you'll provide a higher standard to your work which will speak volumes of you as a professional.

If something is unclear to you about any assignment, ask right away and never leave margin for error. Whenever you have time for more work, ask how you can help your team. If there isn't enough work or if you're interested in other initiatives / tasks, reach out to others within your network. It's things like these that make a difference.

Hopefully this helps and best of luck with your internship. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions.

Best,

Carlos

Hi,

First of all congrats on the offer. Answering your questions:

1. I've only heard about similar cases with Bain. Well, it happens. I would not worry that much about the career slow down - McKinsey will bring you the fastest career you could have imagined. If you are concerned about the internship - I personally recommend applying to the other MBB companies since you have 6-9 months anyway. Chances are high you can get a better role there
2. As for the business acumen, here are some thoughts:

Business Acumen is actually about building proper industry and functional knowledge.

Focus on the most common industries in the following priority (sorted by probability of geting a case): 1-retail and CPG; 2-airlines; 3-Telecom; 4-banking; 5-natural resources; 6-tech

There are several sources of information that will help you develop the business sense:

1) Cases - you simply solve 50-70 cases and get a broad knowledge of different industries, common pitfalls and questions. The key here - find good partners who already had case interviews with MBB companies

2) Company reports, equity reports, IB roadshow docs - usually have a good overview of company and industries.

3) HBS cases - quite useful, but not sure if lot's of them available publically. Probably worth buying

4) Industry Books - one good book about airlines with numbers and industry analysis can give you all needed industry knowledge

5) News, Industry blogs

For each industry, you should understand:

• Revenue streams
• Cost structure
• Margins
• Key performance indicators
• Key revenue drivers
• Industry trends

I strongly recommend drawing the typical structures for each industry - profitability, value chain, etc

Then I will switch to getting functional knowledge:

• Marketing (Brand and trade marketing tools, etc)
• Supply chain (Ops metrics like cycle time and throughput time, distribution and delivery specifics, etc)
• Operations (Process optimization basics)
• Finance (Very basic Finance and Valuation)

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