Compensation vs. company/city prestige vs. job content

Question

Hi,

I am working at Deloitte (Financial Advisory, top 1-5% performance reviews) and planning next steps for my career. I am 4 years into working world and my top 2 priorities are to (1.) learn as much as possible, build my CV and move to higher caliber jobs in strategy consulting (i.e. MBB) and (2.) to make as much money as possible (requires switch of geography). I have 3 options:

1. Apply for transfer to Monitor Deloitte in another country (I already have a sponsor, tried for the past year but things move incredibly slow with plenty of uncertainty)

2. Take my EYP offer (Manager) for UK/Scotland/Ireland market (small office, not London), make 1.4x the money I make now (net) (+mba sponsorship)

3. Take my manager offer in a no name consultancy (strategy, focused on energy sector) in Switzerland and make 3x the money I make now

I would be inclined to go with option 3 for the large pay increase, but am afraid that I am closing doors (to MBB). Which of the strategies would most likely return the best ROI in the long term?

Answer 1

Hi there,

Love that you listed your priorities. Not only does that show that you are objective-driven and know how to make decisions, but it helps us!

Now, you're making a potentially life-altering decision. Be careful with free Q&As for things like this. E.g. would you try free advice for complicated tax returns or investment decisions? Consider hiring a coach for a half or full session to make sure you're charting the best path. This is literally the job description of a career coach!

From what you've said, option 3 makes the most short-term sense for $ while option 2 makes potentially more long-term sense for $.

I don't know this firm in #3 so I do not know your promotion timeline/capacity, but EYP would likely have a faster/better path to Partner which, when made, would also likely have a higher total comp.

Remember, all of this is probabilities, and I don't have as much information as I would like, but that's my initial thinking.

Regardless, looks like you're doing well and will end up just fine no matter the decision. Congrats on having an awesome hard decision to make and good luck!

Answer 2

Hi there!

Thanks for being clear on your objectives.

(1) makes complete sense and it's definitely what you should be optimising for.

(2) does not make much sense in the short term from my point of view. Compensation, even in consulting firms, tends to grow exponentially. So, making lateral moves for 30% increases at the beginning of your career makes little sense to me.

If you want to have a career in the corporate world, I would rather reflect on what are the topics/industries that interest you most, then join a firm that's great at it (could be one of the MBBs).

Compensation will take care of itself. Plus, once you have about a decade of experience within that area you're likely to be within the best 0.001% in the world at that particular thing, which is going to make you very valuable.

Best,
Cristian

Answer 3

Hi there,

Q: Which of the strategies would most likely return the best ROI in the long term?

I would recommend checking which are the exit opportunities for the three options on LinkedIn (taking into account the office of option #2).

If they don’t match your goals, I would exclude the options that don’t match, even if the salary is higher. If more than one matches, I would personally prioritize the one leading with a higher probability to your desired career path.

Best,

Francesco

Answer 4

The one thing I don't understand is why you aren't applying to MBB. If at this point (manager level) you didn't get an offer, that would be harder later on.

Regarding getting into MBB, EY-Parthenon seems a safer option, but honestly try to understand the quality of the boutique that's trying to hire you. If they pay that well, they probably have good projects and high quality people, and maybe there's a chance all of them will wind up acquired by a top consulting firm.