| Topic Name: |
I-Banking or Consulting? |
| Message Name: |
Mundane work? |
| Date Posted: |
08/26/2003 |
| In Reply To: |
Seeing that the four criteria that are important to you are salary, working hours, job satisfaction, and quality of life - choose consulting if you can. I find it interesting that you did not include what the job is like, MBA placement, skills you will learn, etc. Do you have a good idea of these already or are you more concerned with lifestyle than job responsibilities?
Here's my two cents:
Compensation - depends on whether people earn bonuses at your firm. Entry level salaries are around $50k for consulting and $55k for IB last I heard. The difference is in bonus, which in good years may be $10k for consulting and 50% or higher of your salary in IB.
Working hours: Consulting varies and ranges from 45-70 hour weeks depending on firm culture, travel [4 days a week at the client site can be rough], etc. IBanks are truly awful in this regard. You will be lucky to work an 80 hr week. 100+ is also possible. I know plenty of people who have caught an hour of sleep at the office a night and go to their apartment only to shower and change.
Job satisfaction: this will depend on the actual firm, office, and supervisor you work for as well as your personality. Some people thrive on the lack of sleep and intensity in Ibanking. Note however, that you will be the lowest person on the org chart for a while in either industry. More often than not, your work will be pretty mundane.
Quality of life: depends on whether you are on a high-travel consulting project. If not, consulting has better quality of life than IB. If the travel is bad, this somewhat offsets the long hours IMHO. |
| Message: |
Can anyone go into a bit more detail about what kinds of tasks an entry-level person at a consulting firm would work on? I'd probably come in at the MBA level.
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