I currently work as an APM at a FAANG company but recently received an offer to join an MBB. I’m very excited about the role but didn’t realize I’d need to take a pay cut when I applied (~100k base + ~20k bonus + ~60k equity vs. 90k base + 10-20k bonus). Considering that I currently work 40-60 hours/week, I’ll be making significantly less per hour at the MBB. I’m very interested in the opportunity but also don’t want to make a poor financial decision early in my career. Thank you for your time!

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What are your goals? If you’re looking to pivot into a different field or accelerate your career progression into a non technical management position, MBB is the way to go. The pay cut is unfortunate but it’s honestly not that much at this stage in your career, and the gap will close quickly since promotions are usually a lot faster in consulting than they are in tech.

For anything else, stay where you are. MBB won’t help you if your goal is to pursue a more technical management position or if having good work-life balance for the next few years is a priority.

Congrats on the offer, anyway! You’re in a great position whichever way you choose.

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I wouldn’t be too worried about attrition since the job honestly isn’t that hard at entry level if you’re willing to put in the hours - but depending which of the MBBs this is, sponsorship may be far from guaranteed. At least at BCG, you need to hit a certain performance rating in order to get sponsored, and they’ve been raising the bar / getting more and more stingy over time. Plus even if you get it you’ll owe at least 2 years of service afterwards, which means you can’t use the degree to recruit into other opportunities.

So, not saying sponsorship isn’t real or that it isn’t a great perk, but I wouldn’t consider that a great reason to move over to MBB. Even if you stayed at FAANG you could just take out loans to get an MBA or JD and would likely be able to pay the debt off within a few years if you’re capable of getting an MBB-level job.

Exploring other industries is very valid though, and could be a great change of pace if that’s what you’re looking for!

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OP what is selling you on the fact that MBB will get you a better pivot to other industries than from where you're now?

Do you have a POV on the type of industry, work, role etc. you want to do? If you already have an idea, MBB won't guarantee you'll get to work in those areas.

If you're not sure what you want to do and see getting exposure to a wide variety of work as a way to narrow in on what you do like, that's fair. Although there may be a path to you doing this too via exiting to functions like bizops / strategy & ops within other companies, not just MBB.

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Dude. Don’t be dumb. Keep your faang job

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Yes

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Stay where you are, my friend. Not worth it, and if you are going to ignore me, at least wait until we do case travel again. The job now is awful.

- an EE undergrad who wishes he went into tech

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No travel drives all ills. The perks of cool hotels, flights, and awesome dinners are gone. No more personal team collaboration and bonding. Without travel and in-person affiliation, we work almost nonstop from Monday morning through Friday evening. My pre-COVID norm was about 60hr/wk, now it’s 70 — and pre COVID included stuff that wasn’t directly content.

Before COVID, I was on party boats or bar hopping in Nashville with the MDP or getting dinner at the Liberty in Boston with my PL. Associate trips went to ski slopes in Utah. All personal experience in just five months of work. Now it’s all grinding nonstop.

Feel free to DM me if you want more details or some of the structural nuances too.

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Meanwhile many MBB folks try so damn hard to get PM roles at FAANG

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Grass is always greener..

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Don’t come. Don’t come. DONT COME.

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I’d genuinely love to know the reasoning behind this - is it the long hours? Type of work? Culture of the firm? Thank you for taking the time.

Don’t do it

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OP, have you not read literally hundreds of posts from people dying to get out of MBB/T2 into FAANG?

Think they’re just kidding? Or that they all are mistaken and you swimming upstream is the right move?

I made a similar move once, early in my career. Stupidest thing I’ve done professionally. It took several years to get back on track.

Be smart about this.

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Can you share a bit more about your path?

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I switched from MBB to Google and lateraled into a PM role. PM is far more fulfilling, engaging, and interesting. Imagine spending the rest of your career only building slides and Excel models.

It’s dreadful, dreary work with horrible deadlines, difficult bosses, and your client counterparts who you’ll spend a lot of time with are going to be far less...intellectual than your current colleagues.

This is before we even get into the pay cut you’ll be taking by not having an equity component of pay.

Do it only if you see yourself in the long-term becoming an advisor rather than a decision maker.

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Google sheets tho>>>

Articulate why you want to switch. Do you want to do consulting to switch into a role you couldn’t get easily from FAANG (e.g. PE)?

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I’m not particularly interested in digital ads (80-90% of available FAANG work) and see MBB as an opportunity to explore other industries. I really don’t want to be pigeonholed into digital marketing.

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First of all, congratulations! This is a dream situation for most people. With that being said, I didn’t even know they had MBB roles with a total comp package south of $150k. Is it a staff or specialist role? I would suggest keep your current role and keep growing. If they really liked you, potential they will circle back later with a better offer. If you are earlier in your career journey, there will be plenty of offers and opportunities to jump ship if you aren’t enjoying FAANG. The MBB name is great and carries a lot of weight but I wouldn’t think twice about it with an offer like that. Your equity alone in 5 years will probably be worth more than the take home pay they are offering for the first year. Just my two cents but good luck!

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That makes sense. I was incorrectly assuming post MBA.

I mean, what’s wrong with trying it out for a year and then going back to FAANG if you don’t like it?

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That’s a good point. I have no insight into what the rehiring process would look like but will look into it.

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DONT DO IT

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@OP, what were your drivers for applying to MBB, and what is attracting you to MBB, total comp aside? And what's your.. 3-5 year goal, if you have one.

On paper, FAANG could make more sense in terms of equity and comp, but that's never the full story, of course.

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Thanks @OP for sharing. Just a few thoughts :

1) It may not feel like it, but your experience is much more than "digital marketing" - - you are learning strong product chops in a very mature tech org that most people outside of MBB consulting only dream of understanding--don't sell yourself short there. You WILL NOT be pigeonholed as an APM from FAANG, believe me.

2) To your point about "I have no clue what work looks like outside of FAANG" - - most people in MBB fall in the equivalent bucket. It can make them highly rigid VS fluid in ways of working (more on this below)

3) Re: Exposure to other industries - - Yes, consulting will give you that exposure, true.

4) MBB can feel far less dynamic than FAANG/tech work because how so much of the work is approached, which is to say a lot of recycling of "best practices" and "industry benchmarks" put into a compendium for clients, with some excel models to support the business hypotheses. Whereas in tech, you're going to set, break, and adjust hypotheses far more rapidly and actually implement change immediately (e.g. Product going live) VS churning on playbooks and decks. It's just a different kind of style of working, but if you want to try something different...why not, right?

5) MBB is incredibly hierarchical and you will feel the loss of autonomy coming from FAANG. If you enjoy a culture of figuring things out yourself with some guidance and a lot of autonomy, that's not MBB. In MBB, you are constantly being told what to do at successive levels (partner down) and wanting to do your own thing won't fly until you've gone up the chain of command and convinced the Project Lead to talk to the Principal, who talks to the partner to get something cleared. It slows down the speed at which you can move and shape things, and you won't gain that autonomy back until you're fairly senior. MBB = rigid. Tech = more fluid

6) MBB is a work smart/work hard culture. Which is to say... Long, long hours. Anyone telling you otherwise (e.g. I never work weekends, I always have time for family) is purposely omitting something. And in this pandemic environment, the hours and demands are longer than ever and people are burning out rapidly.

7) There are likely less politics in consulting (internally) and very predictable advancement in promotions, if that matters to you. However, in return, your dealing with high pressure up-or-out culture... Which makes anxious overachiever (majority of MBB consultants) behave in strange ways that are not always conducive to the greater good (e.g. Look no further than McK articles of late)

8) Any problems you're solving for clients can be incredibly cool and complex, but if you are driven by the technology and digital advancements that reshape the world, MBB will always be minimum 3 steps behind FAANG and tech-focused consultancies. Tech is secondary to business strategy, and it can often feel glossed over and poorly understood, in return.

9) Finally ways of working in MBB can feel incredibly antiquated coming from Tech. COVID has only shown how far behind we are. If you enjoy "checking out" decks constantly, letting your team know who has master, sending slides back and forth over email, and putting a ton of sticky notes shapes on your PowerPoint slides, then..yeah. MBB only understand product = slides, so their whole work flow and collaboration model revolves around reviewing slides, VS shipping product and changing things live. MBB has invested in new tools, but things like Slack and synchronous collaboration are novel and unique... Not standard practice.

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Made the switch from MBB to Google (in a strategy role). Happy to chat if it’ll be helpful.

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