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Question:
“I’ve been told that the office locations you select on your full-time consulting job application can significantly impact your opportunities. I am considering applying to my hometown office (I am from the US) or applying to another country to get international experience. What is your advice on thinking about this and making a decision?”
Today, we will answer a common question about how to determine office location preference to include on the consulting job application with firms like McKinsey, BCG, and Bain and when applying to firms like Deloitte, PwC, KPMG, et al. While most members of the FC community are senior leaders and not looking to join consulting, the thinking process will also be applicable when considering taking a leadership role in various parts of the world versus selecting a role in your hometown or closer to home. If you prefer to watch a video, see below. Otherwise, keep reading.
Answer:
Choosing the right McKinsey, BCG, Bain, Deloitte, PwC, et al. office …
… This is a critical question.
Given you are only considering between hometown and other countries, you have 4 office choices:
It’s worth discussing the broad considerations when making this decision.
Personally, we at Firmsconsulting have extensive experience in emerging markets, and have served in such offices and extensively advised clients in these markets. They are vibrant and exciting places to be, but they are not for everyone. So read this and then decide how you want to pick your right office.
Will you be a better consultant because of the foreign office posting than you would have been if you stayed? Be critical and apply the firm’s criteria for success when asking this question.
Be careful of asking your friends whether it was a good idea to serve in a foreign country immediately upon joining McKinsey, BCG, et al. They will talk to you about the value of learning about new cultures, working styles, and so on. While important, these are not the only considerations.
This is what you should ask:
• Will you be a better consultant because of the foreign office posting than you would have been if you stayed? Be critical and apply the firm’s criteria for success when asking this question.
• What did the firm gain from this?
• What would you have done differently if you could do it over again?
• Why did you choose city/country?
If, after doing your research using the questions above and reading the rest of this post, you would still like to start in a new country or even return to your country of origin after many years, then do it. Only you know what is best, and we can only offer guidance. At least by thinking through the potential obstacles/limitations you may develop a plan to mitigate them.
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What is your reason for wanting to work in a foreign office?
You need to be true to yourself. If you are tempted to spend winter in a beautiful city like Prague, then cool down a little. Those are the incorrect reasons. Management consulting is tough. It will likely be tougher than any other job you ever had. If you choose to go to a city, then it must be because being there confers on you a unique competitive advantage that will make you a better consultant than in your home office. This is important. Moving to a newly developing office or a new city is not a holiday. You will find it tough anyway and need to be looking for a competitive advantage. If the new city does not give you this, then it is wise not to make this move.
Skill sets.
Now that we know you have the correct reasons, let’s look at the skills needed at specific McKinsey, BCG, Bain, Deloitte, PwC, et al. offices. I am sure working in Paris is a dream for many consultants. It can, however, be a nightmare. Do you speak French? Do you understand the culture? Did you graduate from the Grand École?
Each country has specific requirements for you to be accepted socially and become successful with senior executives.
Ask around and make sure you do not set yourself up for failure. Do not think only the emerging markets have quirks. Italy, Spain, France, and Germany all have unique wrinkles. Very few outsiders integrate into these cultures to the point of being completely accepted. When it happens, such acceptance can take years and sometimes decades to occur.
How do you know what you will need to be successful as a management consultant before you join? Until you spend about 12 months in a management consulting environment, you actually do not know how you will cope. And if you do not know how you will cope, then it is wise to wait a bit before moving to a new city. Maybe you really need your family, friends and your hometown where your family and friends are located for support.
These coping mechanisms can be critical. They help you adjust as you settle into a new career. It is important not to be presumptuous about how you will handle the workload. Remember, about 60 to 80% of consultants at the top firms are managed out. I can assure you that many are working in their hometowns and are still struggling to make the cut. It is wiser to wait and understand what you need to be successful. After a 12-month period, you may change your first choice and want to go to another city.
What is the rush?
Really, will Prague disintegrate into a soulless metropolis in 2 years? Will Mumbai solve all its transport problems in 5 years? Will Jakarta’s millions of poverty-stricken citizens vault into the middle class before you can move across?
No, it is very, very unlikely this will happen.
Whatever the rush, it can wait. Unless you have some pressing personal reasons for going away, take the time to make the correct decision. In fact, try to get yourself on an assignment in this city/country before moving there. Visiting as a tourist and working as a professional is a totally different ball game. If you think I am kidding, walk around Bangkok in shorts, sandals, and a T-shirt. Now try wearing a full suit in Bangkok with black socks and taking the subway, or, heaven forbid, a taxi. The experience is very, very different.
Do you like walking around? Try visiting South Africa for a different experience. No one ever walks due to violent crime, except in a shopping mall. Their streets are deserted. It is surreal. Make sure you can cope with these differences before you arrive.
Emerging markets are wickedly competitive.
Let’s apply simple economics. The market for McKinsey, Bain, BCG, Deloitte, PwC, et al. is smaller, as a percentage of the total business sector, versus developed industrial markets. So you have a smaller market and are still competing against your fiercest rivals for these positions. Since you target the top firms, and there are fewer of them, on average, the best-educated locals migrate to these few institutions. Moreover, you are also likely facing Wharton and Harvard educated professionals as your clients, who are not so easily impressed with Western credentials. So you have tough clients, fewer of them, and more competition against which to land them. This does change the dynamics substantially.
In the US, if things were tough, you could switch focus by changing cities. Did that work? No? Try targeting the public sector versus the private sector. That also didn’t work? Okay, try targeting another company in the same sector in another part of the country. The US economy’s size gives you options. In business and economics, options have value. In emerging markets, most firms have offices in just one, at most 2 or 3 cities. You will not have many options if things do not work out.
In some emerging markets, all the major companies are state-owned. You have to work through one client – the government. Private companies are sometimes run by interconnected family concerns. Although you have options, there are fewer of them. One common problem is the concentration of business in just one city unlike the US, Germany, France and so on. This has its advantages and disadvantages.
The learning curve is different.
Assuming you had the choice to go to a major established office like Cleveland or San Francisco versus Bucharest, the learning curve is different. In New York, you will be exposed to more choices, more consultants, and more of the firm’s culture. In the newer offices, you are likely to experience less of this. The top partners, the figureheads in the media, are usually residents in the established offices, although this is not always the case. Imagine how valuable that relationship and mentorship would be.
The flip side of this is that some offices, like the German offices, tend to be very strong and offer excellent training. So while the point above is about staying in your home office since the learning curve may be better at home, also remember that it could be better elsewhere. Just do research about your particular firm and options and choose wisely.
Watch out for the “cool partner” syndrome.
Consultants place a large part of their decision-making on whether they like the partner leading the new office or setting up a brand new office. Be wary of this. Most people are cool when you have never worked with them for an extended period. When you see them every now and then, or when your opinion is shaped via corridor chatter. These guys are cool because they also have another channel to vent their frustration. If you move to a new region or open a new office with them, they will become your life – and probably not in a good way. You may spend every waking moment worrying about not damaging your reputation.
Niche assignments.
A young office will rarely have the resources to chase all types of assignments. It is prudent to go after a sector or a particular type of client and thereby build a critical mass and reputation. This means you end up doing similar kinds of work more often than not. It is worse when an office is just setting up. The partner running the show will go for the path of least resistance and likely favor work or sectors he knows well. Although not always the case, younger or newer offices tend to have loosely defined niches, and this may inadvertently force you to miss out on opportunities to gain a broader perspective.
Did you join Bain to be an entrepreneur or learn about business?
Entrepreneurship is nice…if you make it. Did you join Bain to be an entrepreneur or learn about business? When a new office is being opened, or a really small office is growing, you will need to do mundane things that you take for granted. If you want to be an entrepreneur and want to learn the skills you will need as an entrepreneur, it may make more sense to join a start-up.
Language, ethnicity, and culture clash.
We have come a long way in the last 100 years, but the world is still divided by language, religion, skin color, and ethnicity. While you may have always dreamed of backpacking through the steppes of Russia on your weekends, if you are dark-skinned, the dynamics are different. Much of the world is still hostile to certain types of people. Accept that you may need to compromise some freedoms if you want to move.
Personally, I understand why you are interested in starting your consulting career abroad. There is so much happening in Europe, Turkey, Eastern Europe, and North Africa. Any of those cities could be an ideal start to look for the right McKinsey, BCG, Bain, Deloitte, PwC, et al. office. Of course, you would need to speak Czech, German, Turkish, French or whatever the relevant language of your choice office to make this work.
Choose wisely.
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