I was originally set on my Associate Product Specialist position at Mastercard for my first job out of undergrad, but I recently received an offer from Deloitte S&A consulting and I am still unable to decide on which one to choose. Many people on this forum have told me to stay away from consulting, but I’m still enamored by the perks such as expensed meals, team dinners, happy hours, coworker camaraderie and business class flights for work. For those on this forum that are in PM at payments companies or technology companies in general, why should I choose PM over Big 4 consulting? I really don’t care what I do in the long-run, and I just want the best job. For those on this forum that are in consulting, why is it better than PM at a payments company? I know that moving to FAANG+ directly will be an uphill battle and I may need to move to a better tech company first, but what opportunities does Big 4 consulting provide specifically that I would be missing out on if I went with PM. Finally, I would very much appreciate any Mastercard specific information on product management at the firm. I know they recently opened their NYC tech hub on 5th Ave, and I’ve been told that there is a high chance that my APM position will be there. Thank you so much for your guidance, and I really appreciate all your help!! YOE: 0 (new graduate) #jobs #pm #consulting #pmaconsultants
Big4 is not consulting. Big3 is consulting. At Deloitte, you’ll be improving some dumb anti-fraud processes for a top30 bank (and the data center will be in the forests of WI). Stupid work on its own, isn’t valued much by business schools either
I’m mainly focused on the perks of consulting as to why I want to do it, would you say that choosing consulting for the perks is unreasonable as they will no longer be attractive when faced with the monotonous work?
Perks in terms of the compensation? It’s mainly miles and points. Can go a long way, though, if utilized properly
I may be one of the few to advocate the consulting track. As a new grad, unless you know exactly what you want to be doing in 10 years, consulting will give you a broad view of the world. You will learn about different ways to think through problems and have the luxury of doing so without pressure to execute. You will get practice putting together presentations which is a significant skill for PMs or really any business side position. Depending on the position, you may be doing anything from market research to financial modeling to operational efficiency projects. You will be asked to do tedious work, but that will only build muscle in being detail oriented, structured, and eventually you will have client facing opportunities in which you can then decide how to exit. Coming out of consulting I believe you will have more opportunities in the future than an APM position (I.e. business development, PM, operations, strategy, etc.) My 2 cents.
Thank you for your detailed response!
I voted for consulting for these reasons as well. The expensed dinners rationale was comical, but yes, I have seen COOs/PMs/VPs with consultant backgrounds. Very versatile and they are usually very structured.
If you want you LinkedIn headline to read “PowerPoint Ninja” then pick consulting. Jokes aside, consulting makes you a Jack of all. In order to get back to the “industry” you have to build domain expertise which some smart consultants do build, most don’t.