Considering move to Consulting
Would greatly appreciate some feedback from those already in the industry. I'm currently interviewing with a number of firms, Protiviti, Promontory, and McKinsey to name a few and each appear to have their pros/cons. The most interesting to me is Promontory, which is a part of IBM. I have been in financial services for almost 15+ years and, frankly, my pay isn't what it should be. The primary reasons for me making the move are 1) comp and 2) a passion for a career in risk/compliance that's more impactful than what I've done so far. To that end, the majority of posts/news articles that I've seen about IBM are negative. They're far behind competitors when it comes to their cloud offering, they apparently have a bloated workforce that they've continued to trim over the years, and they have recently appointed a new CEO. I'm very much interested in making the move, but am concerned that given the pandemic and IBM's unique challenges, I could very well be out on the street in a year or two. Does anyone have any advice or perhaps even experience with Promontory/IBM in particular that could provide some insightful feedback? #consulting
I have 10 YOE. consulting is better than bank for risk compliance because you go from back office to front office. I made the move myself and do not regret it. being a moneymaker is great. your bonuses make sense. if you're good you get paid. compliance had too many nebulous goals and politicking between you and your paycheck. protiviti has a better rep than promontory. mckinsey is a much better company overall but unsure what they actually do in risk and compliance and would be surprised if you got hired there. but maybe you can!
By any chance, could you expand on the Protiviti having a better rep? My understanding of the two is that Promontory is more limited in its scope as it’s seen as providing the regulatory expertise, given the composition of their leadership tends to be heavily from the OCC.
DO NOT JOIN PROTIVITI. Complete s#^# show. Also to even mention McKinsey in same sentence as Protiviti is off. Here’s how it goes 1st Tier - MBB (McKinsey, Bain, BCG) 2nd Tier/3rd Tier - AT Kearney, Big 4 (depending on role, could be 2nd/3rd) and Accenture 4th Tier - Cognizant, Capgemeni 5th Tier - Protiviti So to say you are considering McKinsey and Protiviti is like saying I am considering Google and Walmart in tech.
I have been acquainted with people at Promontory. As long as you get hired in at an Associate Partner or above, which you may or may not qualify for as it’s not based on YoE alone, you’ll do very little and get good pay. You will be very much on your own. Nobody internal to IBM works with Promontory on anything, they are a separate operating unit and you have a separate email/separate tools than the rest of IBM.
Thanks for the feedback. I would be going in at a lower level, but the comp still gets me to where I’d like to be.
Which level? Because the range you mentioned in your other comment, you won’t get that below AP level. I really cannot advise any experienced hire to join at SMC level or below
I’m not familiar with Promontory itself, but I worked for IBM consulting in the past after leaving Accenture. I was lured there by a higher salary. My view is that if you love bureaucracy and hundreds of layers of management then IBM is for you. Promontory, as consulting, is just another business amongst the thousands that IBM owns and it gets lost in the shuffle of the whole company, so decisions are usually very slow. Also IBM has a habit of consuming the value of every business they buy, then throws it away or leaves it as a zombie business. I lasted 1.5 year at IBM before leaving to join Deloitte.
Thanks for the feedback. That’s good to know. I’ve been very concerned about what I have been reading about IBM, but the above poster’s comments make it sound like Promontory isn’t affected by much of that.
I think you can find ratings just for Promontory on Glassdoor.
IBM is a big company and I have heard that there is a lot of bureaucracy. Given that it's such a big company the group you are in will make a huge difference.
Have you considered big four (ie PwC or Deloitte) I know there’s a lot of risk compliance groups and they do a lot of hiring as well. From your yoe, you’d probably get into director which is similar to the tc you were looking for
Join Accenture‘s FinTech team. You will thank me later! Look up Accenture’s stock performance. We have a lot of top MBAs (HBS, Wharton, Stanford) guys working in the FinTech team. Let me know, happy to refer you.
TC?
I’m at 180k TC right now, targeting 250-270k (primarily just base/bonus).
180k does sound quite low for your YOE and industry. Are you in a low cost city? Why do you think it is this way?