Hey all, I currently have 2 offers right now. Both are really good packages but I’m having trouble determining which to accept. With Visa, I think the company is prestigious and I would be doing ok work. Not sure it’ll be the most challenging and not sure how it will impact my resume for future opportunities. With Bain, the work will be extremely interesting. Working on AI implementations and machine learning type of problems which is the direction I want to take my career. I am just unsure about the prestige. Would FAANG want to interview someone from Visa or Bain more? Any thoughts are appreciated. TC - 167k
Consulting firms have a tendency to exaggerate the work they do ie they're telling you you'll be doing super interesting and challenging AI/ML work but in reality it's a lot of adhoc data science (or supporting it with data munging) and tend to lack engineering rigor as well. Another drawback about Consulting is that as a business model and culture, it will always favor sales skills and process management over engineering/technical skills. How much of those cool AI/ML implementations are just presenting fancy slide decks? Have you talked to anyone on the team and picked their brains about their day to day? imo FAANG will be more interested in what you've built and shipped more than the prestige of a brand. Speaking as someone who started in Consulting as a DE and currently in Amazon.
Yoe?
Neither are that good TBH.
Why? Explain
Everyone I spoke to at Visa hates it there, and Bain is a sweatshop.
Go with Visa
Congratulations on the offers, OP! This is a bit of a toss up, but the leveling at Visa is a little bit higher than the one at Bain (as far as I know), so take that into consideration. As someone going into consulting soon, I think Bain would give you more opportunities to work on better things and get more exposure to multiple different products. Visa is a pretty good product however, and you’ll likely be able to perform more impactful work there that has more of a result on the end user compared to Bain. I would go with Bain here, but clarify what type of AI/ML work you would be doing—otherwise you might just fall into the same pitfalls as any other consulting company. Good luck! TC: 90K
Stay away from consulting jobs. You will be mostly working for their clients. Go with visa.
This. Came to say this. Absolutely *do not* go to Bain and Co. McKinsey. Any of those guys. You will dread life and they will drain your soul.
This. this. This. This.
Prestige isn’t a thing for FAANG really, especially not between Bain and Visa (both are good companies, neither is “prestigious”)
Say what? Bain is part of MBB the top three consulting firms in the world. You can dislike the industry but Bain is miles ahead of Visa in prestige. Maybe not for Software Developers but the world is much bigger than developing software.
I have never in my life heard of Bain. Visa is super well known tho.
Visa
Bain has better reviews on Blind though, assuming you really want feedback from Blind folks check the reviews