Advice on job offers - corp strat or consulting with regards to long term goal

Obviously, it's easy for me to sit here and give advice when, probably for you, there are many more things to take into consideration. 

But time and time again, I've seen with myself and also my candidates, that if you do something that takes you away from your goal, a short-term detour, it rarely makes you fulfilled. 

So if you're planning on being in ME, then you should take the ME job. 

And if you're worried about being let go because the industry is going through a difficult time, then you should rather ensure that your performance minimises the probability of you letting go. 

And even if you are let go, then you can still find something else in the region. 

It's critical, especially when you build a career, to develop a network. A network, even in our times, is often geography-dependent. So the time you spend in ME compounds and it will become more and more valuable as time passes.

Best,
Cristian

Let me just comment one thing. Sure, the ME market is not strong right now but… the company that wants you is hiring! Not all firms are hit the same way - and the easiest way for consulting firms to reduce their number of workers is… not hiring. The fact that you get a job offer means that the company is hiring. Sure, the may be hiring because they need trained people when the market rebounds and that's why consulting firms keep hiring.

But what that actually means is that there's a place for you right now, that should get you covered for the next couple of years - and in the meantime the market will recover.

I wouldn't see that as an issue.

Regarding TMT… if you want to focus on TMT, the corporate strategy role may have an advantage there, clearly. But you should explore that a bit more with the consulting firm - they may be strong in TMT as well and willing to let you focus on that vertical.

Hi there,

Q: Can anyone advise me on the situation?

From what you shared, consulting is more aligned with your goal. Would you be okay with not going into PE (I assume the TMT corp is not a good path for it)? If not, consulting seems the best option, at least in terms of the exit dimension.

In general, to decide between offers I would consider the following:

• Where do you want to be in 5-10 years? Try to identify the company that can help you to achieve that goal faster. You can check LinkedIn for that (see below).
• If you consider the average person you talked to in each company, which one would you rather be? 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.
• If money and prestige were not a consideration, which company would you choose? This could help you to identify additional elements to weigh you have not considered yet.

In terms of future exits, 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 your target region.
3. Normalize for the size of the companies in the region.

If you want to do extra due diligence, you can contact Alumni from your university (not current employees) who worked for the possible alternatives (bonus if they worked for both). Most likely, you will learn more in a 30-minute call with them than with any online research you might do.

Good luck!

Francesco

Hi there,

At the end of the day, this has to be a purely personal decision based on your preferences and gut feeling.

Throwing my 2 cents in the ring to help you consider:

• Consulting firms also do TMT
• The skillset, reputation, exit opps you gain from consulting > industry
• Middle East consulting is currently in a difficult place but most expect it to rebound even stronger
• Industry roles are immune from layoffs (just check the statistics over the last 2 years)

Cheers,

Florian

Hi there,

First of all, congratulations on the offers!

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

As you pointed out, 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, industry, culture, 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 your specific situation, please don't hesitate to contact me directly.

Best,

Hagen