Hi all, I am currently an accounting undergraduate from a public university in Malaysia, graduating next year.

Previously, I've engaged with one of the Big Four + another major accounting firm. So, I am kind of familiar (have enough knowledge) with the environment in an professional service firm (Big Four) in Malaysia.

However, as I am planning for my internship + career, recently I have BCG and McKinsey come into my mind as well. As I know, both these are popular for their business solutions / consultation services, which I am kind of interested in as to be a professional business consultants.

If talking about which field I am more into, it could be Audit & Assurance, Tax, Advisory services. Advisory has emerged to be a more interested field for me but as for Big Four in Malaysia, I heard it's not that easy for an accounting graduate (maybe only one or two vacancies) to get in advisory without prior experience in other fields.

Thus, I would like to know more about BCG and McKinsey and how are they differ from the Big Four in terms of:
Working culture
Career progression
Salary and benefits
Others

Thanks for guidance!

BCG, Bain McKinsey main business is consulting. The Big 4 main business is accountancy while offering additional consulting services.

Note that consulting is more than just accounting/ auditing/ tax. Most consultants in BCG, Bain, Mckinsey are not accounting graduates, but engineering/ science graduates. Though, they do take from a wide background including finance.

If you're into advisory/ auditing/ tax etc then the Big 4 is the way to go. Because those are accounting related.

In terms of all those parameters that you stated, BCG, Bain, McKinsey is more enticing.

Are from UM/ UKM/ USM?

I see.

What is the main difference between advisory and consultant service? I thought both are almost the same.

Yes, from one of these 3

In term of language, advisory and consulting no difference. But in the industry, when people say either one:
Advisory = Financial consulting
Consulting = Any range depend on the client's business

For example, if you're in advisory service for Big 4, you could be advising a client on where to set up offices to minimize taxes.

In consulting, you could do that too. But you could also be advising governments on how to revamp public education. (McKinsey Malaysia was contracted to write the Malaysian Education Blueprint).

Hi,

Speaking from an ex-consultant for one of the Big4, advisory line is highly dependent on the service line. It could be strategy, technology, M&A, financial advisory and risk advisory. I agree with you it's not easy get into consulting since almost every fresh grad would look into consulting as their starting career, but your degree specialisation would not matter that much. I'm an mechanical engineering graduate that got into consulting without prior internship in consulting. I would say they are looking for traits that would make you a good fit for advisory consultant at fresh grad level, e.g problem solving, analytical thinking, communication skills etc.

Other consulting firms you can consider are Accenture, Crowe, Grant Thornton, BDO.

Not sure about BCG and McKinsey. But pay is definitely well above what Big4 pays you.

I see. Thank you so much for the clarification!
Do you know about the career progression if comparing BCG / McKinsey to Big Four?

Mind to share how's the work like? Example of case etc.
As far as I know, they would prefer more from engineering background due to their technical knowledge and way of thinking.

The work is of my opinion difficult and tedious (data analysis task). You will be thinking about problem solving day and night to produce highest quality of work. At junior level, you are expected to build trust and good relationship with your client and colleagues most of the time.

Case - Technology consulting
Client wants to implement a technology solution and engages consultants to perform requirement study from business and technical aspects. The output is a requirement document but along the process you are expected to engage in meetings, workshop, focus group, interviews to gather requirements to finalise the output. Generic case but this is mostly what technology consultant would do. They also do other like IT strategy, cyber security and technology solution implementation depending on their job nature.

Can't say it's their preference for engineering graduates. It's most likely the firm wants a diverse team consisting of accountant, engineer, actuarial, finance and economics etc

I see. Thank you so much for giving the example for me to refer! Appreciate it!

Also, what does it takes to increase my chance to admit into one of the MBB? Found from some threads mentioned they mostly employed those from overseas uni + recommendations from connections inside.

The best avenue is always employee referral or insider connection. I applied to one of the jobs at McKinsey few months ago (just testing the water), never heard back since.

Try networking event or register for any virtual events that have McKinsey employees participating, from there you can get to know them.

Alright, I will then try to join those virtual events and hope that will be able to know someone

I’m working in one of the MBB firms. Generally Big 4 is not similar to MBB in terms of the work done.

There’s a lot of misinformation outside the core industry of pure strategy work. I’ll suggest you to email the recruiters of the firm you are interested in to get the answers you seek.

MBB - Strategy thinking
Big4 - implementation and also strategy depending on client


MBB - Hardest to enter in the consulting realm
Big4 - Not hard

Working culture - MBB is tougher
Career progression - MBB is harder
Salary and benefits - MBB is higher, by a lot. Associate in Big4 advisory may get RM4k starting. MBB's Associates get RM13k.

MBB generally has better exit opportunities because of the network you get, and the prestige. Thats not to say big4 has bad exits. Big4 is still good.

This post has been edited by Oklahoma: Jun 14 2020, 01:38 PM

here got Bain ? Never heard of this one in msia

I see, but since there is still some time before my internship application, I shall use this time to get more information and prepare to give it a shot!

I see. Do you mind me pm you to know more about the working life and environment as in the MBB firms?

I see. Thank you so much for the information!

To be honest I have never seen the presence of these consultants at local corporations I worked here

With the exception of my friend last time work at Accenture did some consulting work for celcom

Msia Corp scene so small still need these consultants ?

Running joke was, with your 5 digit salary out of university. You get to buy a new BMW every 3 years replacing your NEW mercedes because other than to work you wont have the time to drive it anywhere else.


In terms of consulting MBB is in a league of its own comparative to accenture and others.
petronas with BCG for their digitalisation phase few years back.
BNM and afew others. For the likes of MBB, not all corps can afford them.
Costs easily 3mil for 6-12 months for "consulting"

Sorry what is MBB ?

Oh the big 3 synonym