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EC wrote:

Hi,

I write you from a country so far to you, that’s Turkey. I have worked in management consulting projects as an intern at Accenture when I was studying in the university as well. Now, I am graduated and I have two opportunity. The first one is still Accenture, they make me an analyst job offer. The other option is a new management consulting company working specially in the Middle East. I do have some concerns about choosing which will be beneficial for the start of my management consulting career. I need your advice.

Thank you very much for your help,

Best Regards,

EC

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My response:

EC,

Thanks for reaching out to me with your question. Unfortunately, it took me so long to get back to you that I fear my response is coming too late to be useful to you. If that is the case, then I’m sorry for not replying sooner.

Regarding your question, I’d recommend looking at the positives and negatives of each option and making a decision based on that analysis. In terms of benefits of the Accenture offer, the firm has a tremendous brand and is one of the most well-known Consulting firms; their training and professional development programs are top-notch; and the firm has a huge alumni network that would be useful for job opportunities for the rest of your career. Your email didn’t mention whether your Accenture offer was for the IT Consulting or the Strategy Consulting business, but, in both cases, you’d have a wide range of options for the types of work that you could do, which can give you a well-rounded skillset after a couple of years. On the downside, your personality and work style may not lend itself to a larger firm environment or, if you have a strong idea of what the industry/function/geography where you’d like to focus, the broad set of options might not necessarily be a plus for you.

Your second option sounds like a relatively new, locally-focused boutique firm, which will offer a totally different experience than you’d get at Accenture. I wrote a really detailed entry on issues around working at boutique firms, so I won’t dive too deeply into this topic here. In short, there are several advantages to going the boutique route, including developing your expertise in a specific topic area or region, building closer relationships with your co-workers, and the opportunity for increased visibility within the firm, but there are also some disadvantages, including lack of a major brand, potential for lacking/inconsistent training and professional development, and possibility of a tougher job search after leaving the firm.

Overall, my personal preference would be to go with the bigger and more global firm to give you the benefits of a stronger brand, more breadth in the types of work that you can do, and a larger alumni network. As such, I’d go with Accenture if I were facing those 2 options, but that’s just what I would do. Ultimately, the choice is yours and you’ll have to make a decision based on your preferences.

If you’ve already made a decision between your opportunity, let me know which one you chose. I’m curious to hear which direction you went in and the reasons behind it. Good luck.

Marquis