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Differences between GT and BDO for FDD?
Any tripwire pros here? How did you get started?
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what are McKinsey’s september start dates?
Boston Consulting Group
What will the project dynamics be on a project staffed with 3mdps, a PL, and myself, a summer UG intern? Just got staffed and will be hearing more on Monday from the team, but it came across as an interesting staffing composition.
Have the feeling I'll be making quite a few slides as the only junior. Anyone staffed on a similar case composition?
Mentor
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Why Bain over the other 2?
So what’s the new McK comp breakdown?
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Strategy& is solid, especially in the UK/EU, but it's generally seen as a "tier below" MBB (McKinsey, Bain, BCG). Where they really shine is CDD (Commercial Due Diligence) – if you're doing CDD there, you'll get super sharp on market analysis, competitive deep dives, and quick-fire projects, which is awesome for hopping into private equity roles later. Value creation at S& is more varied; it's good for getting into operational improvement or in-house strategy, but maybe not as direct a pipeline to the top-tier PE funds as CDD. Both sides demand intelligence and make you adaptable, but the nature of the work is a bit different.
When it comes to exit opps, MBB still generally wins for the absolute cream of the crop roles in PE, VC, or highly competitive corporate strategy – the brand name just carries more weight. But S&, particularly from CDD, is a fantastic option for PE and generally strong for corporate roles too. You'll get quality training and challenging work at S&, it's just that MBB often opens slightly more doors at the very top end.
I will like to add here that the Deals Strategy team (the CDD team you are talking about) is far more established and has a better reputation in Europe than in the USA. I have basically seen close to zero people get into a PE deal team from the US Deals Strategy group (having like 1 person make the move every 2 years does not count as a consistent pipeline; especially when none have managed the shift to a large PE firm in recent years). PE Ops is far more doable in the USA and many people pursue that exit. Exits from Deals Strategy to corporate are incredible though. I had an extremely easy time getting interviews for Corporate Development and Corporate Strategy roles at the best corporates. Everyone I knew that was a good performer at S& DS USA got great exits, just not into a PE deal team
Agree with what Bain 1 said. I have experience of both MBB and S& in London, currently at MBB. S& is excellent and just a bit lower than MBB.
There’s a huge amount of equivalence in the projects that you will do at MBB/S& but the overall project level is slight higher at MBB. But if you get staffed consistently on the above average projects then it’ll be like you’re at MBB and exit opps are also excellent.
Enthusiast
What do you mean by "the overall project level is slightly higher"? Is it in terms of impact/scale, level/prestige of clients, or something else?
I’ve worked at S& london, S& US, and MBB US. My perspective of S& London is it’s just slightly below MBB overall, but still incredibly solid and a great place to work and learn. The US market tends to overweight MBB vs everyone else, but UK & EU, that gap is narrower. And gets even more narrow for CDD. Thats a capability S&/PwC london has built for 25+ years.
I have the impression that PwC and Strategy& are blending together more and more. I see a lot joint projects with PwC. This is a similar director as BCG evolution towards more implementation work.
In UK, the Strategy& team is now fully integrated in the PwC Deals vertical even for non deals work.
In Switzerland, we are seeing the integration into the PwC Strategy & Transformation platform.
Overall, I would say that Strategy& is only a distinct firm in ME and Germany. In addition, the local PwC territory can interpret how they set up Strategy&. There is only limited cross staffing between territories.
I am not sure what is the plan for the future.
Thanks, guys! Great to hear.