Hello there, I am a graduate and i wish to ultimately work in strategy consulting at Mck, Bain, BCG etc. I have been made 2 job offers, firstly at Ernst and Young in their Transaction Advisory services (this is a corporate finance role), and also at Acn as an analyst. Would it be better to train either as an accountant at EY for 3 years, or be at Acn for 3 years before i try to move into a strategy boutique. I understand that naturally it would be best to firstly apply to the strat boutiques now, which is what I am doing, but in case i don't get any offers, i was wondering what you think i should do as a contingency plan? Much obliged, F.

F - Accenture is a huge consultancy and you haven't stated which part of the business you would be joining. Accenture have a strategy practice and if you search other recent threads on this forum you will see that strategy consultants at Accenture have succeeded in moving to the likes of McKinsey later in their careers. So the strategy practice there is well-respected by other strategy firms. But is this the part of Accenture you would be joining - you need to be clear about this? E&Y has a fast-growing consultancy and is well-respected also; accounting qualifications are rarely seen as a "must-have" in strategy consulting though, so whilst an ACA would open lots of doors for you, the impact this will have on you getting into a strategy firm would be modest. It would be having E&Y on your CV that would give you a shot at getting into business school or a strategy consultancy, rather than the accounting qualification itself. Hope that helps, Tony

Hi Tony, Thank you for your prompt reply. Sorry for not making this clear earlier, I would be joining an Operating Group within ACN, but I have yet to be assigned an operating group as my start date is in September. So unfortunately i will not being starting in the ACN strategy group. I was wondering if you could tell me how well a few years experience in my postion at ACN is valued among the biggest strategy boutiques? To be clearer, my main query is would I be best served to work at Ernst & Young in the corporate finance role or at ACN in an operating group before I try to move to the likes of McKinsey et al.? Thanks again for your help. F.