I’ve spent 3 years in MBB consulting and am hitting the typical exit-opportunity crossroads. Half my peers are jumping to FAANG PM roles, the other half to corporate strategy at Fortune 500s. I’ve heard the surface-level pros/cons – equity potential vs stability, ‘building’ vs ‘powerpointing’ – but what’s the real long-game?
Specifically: tech PMs who left consulting – how did your day-to-day change impact career trajectory? Corporate strategy folks – did the promised ‘seat at the table’ materialize? For those who later exited these roles, what transferable skills actually mattered? Most importantly, what framework would you use today to evaluate these options beyond the 2-year horizon?
Bonus Q: Startup veterans – is jumping straight to a Series B company post-consulting career suicide, or the ultimate accelerator?
tech PMs get to ‘build’ alright – build jira tickets and get yelled at by engineers. corporate strategy? congrats, you’ll be making the same decks but with worse snacks. real growth comes from who you schmooze, not what path you pick. chase the money and run before the music stops.
series B after consulting? sure if you enjoy explaining pivot tables to 22-year-old ‘CEOs’ who think burn rate is a skateboard trick. But hey, at least you’ll get equity worth less than your consulting signing bonus.
wait does corporate strat really pay less than PM? I heard amazon L6 PMs clear 400k but maybe thats base + stock?? how does negotiation work coming from consulting?? pls help
Key considerations beyond the obvious: 1) Team quality matters more than company brand in early career stages – a strong GM in corporate strategy accelerates learning more than a flashy tech name 2) PM role viability depends on engineering org maturity 3) Always model your 5-year compensation trajectory, not Y1 numbers. I’ve seen consultants-turned-PMs outearn strategy peers long-term through stock appreciation, but only at pre-IPO companies.
2024 exit survey data from our community shows: 68% of consulting-to-PM transitions result in title compression (e.g., Consultant to L5 PM vs industry hire L6). Corporate strategy roles average 18% lower initial TC but faster promotion cycles. Startup exits have highest compensation variance – 90th percentile 2x larger than corporate paths.
both paths rock! tech PM lets you shape products, corporate strat shapes entire companies. neither is wrong – follow what excites you most mornings!