Fresh Grad Advice: Local Big 4 Strategy vs Hong Kong Transaction Banking

Originally Posted by Unregistered

May be right for parthenon, very wrong for strategy&.

My brother from INSEAD has batch mates in strategy&. Start as SA1 level, pay is ~12k. Their associates start from 6.3ish.

Normal pwc consulting / deals managers only earn ~high 6k. Its a world of difference not only in prestige but also salary package. My bro ultimately went to ATK and its similar salaries.. not much difference.

I strongly believe the bro above thinks the pay scale for parthenon is similar to s&, but it is not - i assure u. At least not in Singapore.

Interesting. I thought Parthenon and Strategy& are more or less "peer" firms? At the same level of prestige?

Don;t tell me Parthenon is severely underpaying their consultants compared to fellow tier 2 firms?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Parthenon pay not same tier as S&.

So Parthenon is tier 3?

S& Tier 2 together with ATK

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Interesting. I thought Parthenon and Strategy& are more or less "peer" firms? At the same level of prestige?

Don;t tell me Parthenon is severely underpaying their consultants compared to fellow tier 2 firms?

Few possible reasons:
1) Parthenon partners may have traditionally come from EY. Have been hearing on Parthenon's greater integration into EY, causing many to leave. This means partners will be more inclined to pay similar (a lil higher) to EY salary levels.

2) Even if Parthenon partners do not "side" with EY, they do not and should not have the final say. If they suggest to pay their consultants at high rates, they must obtain the approval of their senior partners, which most likely come from EY (think SEA / APAC head of consulting, or even EY Singapore CEO). This may be a challenge to them - they may have to prove themselves and justify a business case, but nevertheless optics won't be good.

3) They just want to rip off aspiring consultants because why not, supply always > demand in this industry especially with "Parthenon" name.

Originally Posted by trutem

Hi there, I currently have 2 offers on hand:

1) Local Big 4 Strategy Consulting Role
2) Hong Kong based Transaction Banking Management Rotational Program

Compensation wise - The banking program definitely pays more but net of my expected rent it is about the same as the big 4 strategy consulting role.

I have done a consulting internship at a top tier firm before and I did not really enjoy it the most (long working hours, grinding excel etc.) but i recognize that exit opportunities are abundant, just not sure if the same exit opportunities applies the same from a Big 4 perspective.

Wanted to get anyone's thoughts about how would they choose between these 2 opportunities?

Thank you!

Hi,

First of all, congratulations for landing 2 offers. Good job.
Hopefully my comments can help you along the way.

First of all, consider your career interest because both areas are different. Consulting will be intense and project-based, and I believe you will be work across wide range of industries and companies which is great exposure. I have worked with colleagues from consulting background, and I generally find them to have good soft skills, structure ideas well and have critical thinking. But they lack specialist skills as they have always touch and go on their projects. You can also find ex-consultants in many different functions from Corporate dev, business dev, marketing, HR you name it. On the other hand, you have transaction banking, which is the area in banking that offers services to companies related to import export, payments, cash management etc. It's quite an operational function I feel. But I'm not familiar with this area, so do more read up more about this area to see if you are interested.

Secondly, you mentioned the pay difference of 1.2 - 1.6 k additional in the bank. These would go straight to rental in HK, which honestly will not even be enough. I have a few friends currently working in HK, paying rent of 2k for an average apartment in downtown area. Therefore, I would say you should not base this decision on salary.

Firm specific, Parthenon EY may not top tier level consulting like MBB. But if you go to linkedin to look at the profiles of people working in Parthenon, they have really good people with outstanding credentials. You'll have the opportunity to work with them and that's really cool. And working in consulting, will put you in a better position to join the top tier companies down the road.

Above are my 2cents. All the best!

Go HK, Singapore salary is like ****. I’m currently M1 in big4 consulting in getting around approx SGD9.6k exclude bonus. You can still get pretty reasonable rent similar to what you would be paying in SG just that the place is smaller and no need contribute 37% of your salary to CPF, more control on the money you earn.