Commercial banking vs consulting

hey guys im in a dilemma. Which career path is the best to go with? The consulting is at a top 10 accountancy firm.

hey guys im in a dilemma. Which career path is the best to go with? The consulting is at a top 10 accountancy firm.

Someone asked a similar question on here:
https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=5132048
So I hope the answers there provide some info.

I think both roles are good, it really depends on what kind of career path you want to go on, and your personality/interests.

Consulting -
Depending on the company, may have occasional or regular long working hours. Opportunity to travel. You get to work with range of different industries/projects, which can be great if you’re interested in those industries or enjoy variety. Not all projects are guaranteed to be stimulating/interesting work tho. Does it offer professional qualification such as ACA? This opens a lot of doors in financial/accounting and management. Consulting in itself gives a wide range of paths - you could move up within consultancies to manager levels, or move into industry (banks, financial firms, tech, procurement etc - usually a related industry to your consulting experience). You’ll build a large network of professionals in a large range of industries, which can be useful if you want to leave consulting.

Summary: Good pay, reasonable work life balance but may have long hours sometimes (all depends on company and department), very large range of opportunities. Good if you’re not 100% sure what you want to do in career yet, enjoy problem solving and connecting with new people. Stream of new projects can be interesting.

Commercial banking - May have shorter hours than consulting, but may have a less wide range of career paths (you’ll stay within banking/financial services). You won’t be working on a range of industry projects. However, depending on your experience/motivations you could move around within financial services e.g. move to corporate banking. A lot of commercial bankers become relationship managers, banking product specialists or work with credit/loan analysis.

Summary: Good pay, reasonable/good work life balance. Less wide career opportunities however if you know you want to stay within payments/banking/finance then this is no problem. If you enjoy finance, customer/wealth management, banking products then it’s for you.

Thank you very much for your response it is very informative. A follow up question from me is the differences between the starting salaries is £7k, do you think in the long run if I stayed with the accountancy firm I can earn more than in corporate/commercial banking? A route they're offering in my scheme is structured finance, does that pay alot? My priority is to make as much money as possible.

Lmao an extremely relatable priority! Even though there is a 7k difference, things to also to bear in mind:

- Qualifications: if the accountancy firm that’s paying 7k difference is sponsoring professional qualifications e.g. ACA, that in itself is worth a couple grand
- Bonuses: do any of them offer a sign on bonus or discretionary/performance bonuses?

In terms of long term salary, honestly it really depends! The opportunities vary so much, it’s impossible to give hard figures. But I can share some general guidelines.

After 2-3 years in consulting, especially with ACA, average salaries go into the £45k - £55k range (dependant on location/company), but this can be much more at prestigious consultancies! This is typical salary at Big4 though.

In commercial banking after 2-3 years experience, it’s quite a similar salary, perhaps considerably more depending on the bank you work in.

However, your long term earning potential after that really depends on what you specialise in. For example, if you specialise in structured finance, there’s a lot of money there (£70k - £100k+) - especially if you get into high paying firms/banks and investment banks.

If you move up in consulting e.g. at the Big 4, or specialise in niche/boutique consulting, there’s big money there too. It ranges widely depending on the niche you go into, and the company you work in.

Big 4 salaries for consultants, managers etc are easy to look up online. With consulting you also have the option of moving into industry, so if you do this salaries will widely vary depending on what industry you go into.

I wish I could give more details 😖 hopefully someone who works in either of these careers will reply with more specific answers.

If I was you, I would:
- Reflect on your strengths and what you enjoy e.g. do you prefer accounting/financial work or project problem solving, would you rather work with lots of Excel or you prefer more emphasis on presentations and PowerPoints … etc
- Google “consulting career path” and “consulting pros and cons” and do the same for commercial banking
- Look on LinkedIn for people who are currently doing or have completed both graduate schemes. You can ask them questions and look at/ ask about their career paths

Hopefully between all that, it should help you decide! Good luck!

hey guys im in a dilemma. Which career path is the best to go with? The consulting is at a top 10 accountancy firm.

Thank you sooooooooo muchhhh, you are amazing!!! Are you applying to grad schemes too? I guess its worth mentioning the consultancy gig is at a challenger accountancy firm, so its outside the big 4 but still in the top 10. I know this will make a difference salary wise but is it by a lot?

Consulting:

1. If a decent firm, you will have sufficient training
2. You will have experience in client service
3. You should have a varied consulting experience that would improve your professional skills.
4. You will improve your technical and personal skills

Aww no problem! I've edited the post a bit for clarity. And yes I am applying too! It's absolutely amazing that you have great offers to choose between! What a luxury, well done!

As far as I know, challenger accountancy firms in the top 10 pay quite similarly to Big 4. I think I saw in your other post that this consulting offer is £31k. Big 4 pay grads £32-£35k, very similar, so I assume salaries between challengers and Big 4 stay in the same-ish range as you go up. Glassdoor might give you more information, although their reported salaries are not always 100% accurate or up to date.

so would u say consulting then? And yeah the firm has a big emphasis on training, they have their own courses and etc. Also as the consulting role is quite technical, they want me to ficus learning as much as I can in my first two years before taking an ACA.

Hhahahah tysmmm!!! Its honestly just a numbers game! What have you been applying to then? Yeah im edging ever so closer to consulting now, I think the ACA qualification maybe the deal breaker for me although I think I can gain a CFA qualification with bank. Ive asked everyone and everyone tells me something different hahahah. Can I ask which one you would take and why? Thanks!!!

hey guys im in a dilemma. Which career path is the best to go with? The consulting is at a top 10 accountancy firm.