Have an offer

Friends

I need your opinion about an offer that I have. I understand that it will have to be my decision in the end but I need views from wide spectrum of people.

I am working in UK for a mediocre company in financial services not exactly into consulting but I have prior consulting experience. I have an offer from a blue chip consulting for a consulting based role.

The problem is the money offerred is much less, because the job is outside UK and the salary does not match my current salary, but in terms of the job it is what I have been looking for. I have been applying for consulting roles in UK for 6 months and have had no luck till now.

I have two options

- Take up the offer with much less salary but with a large consulting company for a job I want to do. The work culture in that country involves significantly longer working hours. Continue working for couple of years and then look to move if not happy else continue and look to move up.

- Continue to stay in UK and hope to get a job in consulting and expecting the market to improve and jobs to open up while continuing to work in present job which does not provide me job satisfaction.

What do you think would be a practical choice

Things to consider:

If the job is outside, what is the cost of living where the job will be based? And does the offer reflect local market conditions rather than being comparable to your current (I assume UK) remuneration?

Will this job lead you onto better things? Good brand? You mention blue chip consulting firm.

What kind of work will you be doing? At what level? Will you be gaining experience you can leverage in a year or two?

We need more info.

R S -- as Mars rightly says, the salary you'll be paid could easily be below your current UK salary just to reflect local market conditions. What's key is whether your offer is competitive in that local market and whether your standard of living there would be good. I know from experience of eg. the Croatian and Romanian markets that salaries would be way below what you'd expect in the UK but would still afford you a good standard of living there. When moving back to the UK your salary would be pegged to the level you'd attained within that firm rather than the local salary you'd been being paid, so a lower salary for the duration of your overseas stint is not necessarily a bad thing.

The main point I would stress in making your decision is that movement between offices at blue chip firms is usually quite easy once you have established yourself within the firm. Initially you may be able to get yourself staffed on overseas (eg. UK) projects so that some of your experience is directly relevant for a subsequent move to the UK offices. And within 18-24 months if you've made a positive impact at the firm then an office transfer request is unlikely to be turned down. Might be worth establishing how commonplace such transfers have been within this particular company over the last few years, so you are confident they are not the exception to the rule. But in principle I would say this gives you a very decent shot of working with a blue chip consultancy in their UK offices within a 2-3 year time window.

All the best

Tony Restell

Top-Consultant.com

Clearly you're weighing up the risks presented by moving to a lower overall salary (but giving you the opportunity to DO consulting) vs staying put and "hoping something turns up" while doing a job you're unhappy with.

If you have any reservations about working and living abroad, then I would recommend staying put. Otherwise, the role seems a good opportunity with a firm you seem to like. Overseas travel IMHO is always a good "growth" experience (personally and professionally). Longer working hours (am guessing this is southeast asia / US?) can sometimes be a boon if you don't have a ready-made social network there. Having worked in Manila myself I made lots of friends from dinners after work who I would not have if I'd stayed in the apartments.

Staying will only compound the negative feelings you obviously have for your current job (which impacts performance, future salary etc), and I doubt it will help you with the next offer to come along.

Thanks mars, Tony, someguy for your replies...

To explain further after having done more research...the money being offerered in the local currency is above average compared to the competition but by no means exceptional. It is good amount of money for a single person, but is not sufficient if you are married and have a family to take care off (I am single btw)

The other factors are more personal in nature, the fact that my girl friend is studying in a uni in UK and we plan to get married next year complicates the situation.

I will be thinking and deliberating over this during the week and all the inputs you have provided would be very valuable in my decision making...

Thanks

All the more reason to do this now - it will be more difficult once you start thinking about a family. And if you are that serious about one another then surely she will understand and even enjoy the opportunity to visit you abroad? Dont make the mistake of putting this opportunity on hold for some personal matter which may or may not be very different this time next year.

Hi

Apologies if I missed something in earlier mails but I would say 1) you have been looking at the worst time. Clearly none of us have your CV in front of us but gut feel says that you are clearly employable in consulting (albeit sometimes overseas offices are more flexible). There has to be a decent chance that you will have more luck in the UK when the market improves 2) don’t agree with Tony re internal moves: pretty rare in my experience for people to transfer from perceived 2nd tier overseas location to UK 3) you could easily be LESS employable in consulting if you come back to the UK market in 2 years time. I am afraid non UK experience is difficult to sell in the MCS market here and if also outside Europe/US forget it. Agree re personal side: important but not the main thing here. Mars is being very tactful : your career will still be with you in 30 years time…..

Recruiter too - that depends how you play your cards while you are working in that overseas office. It can be attractive for Partners in UK offices to involve staff from these overseas offices on their UK or European projects. Principally because their day rates are considerably lower and so the profitability of the project can be enhanced.

If you've created the opportunity to make a positive impression with a UK Partner then I would say you are well placed to make a transfer back to the UK office. Equally once the market has got back to suffering from talent shortages then most firms would prefer to accommodate a consultant switching office than to lose them outright. In the current climate this would be difficult but if you're looking ahead a couple of years then this route could be perfectly valid.

Tony Restell

Top-Consultant.com

Don't take a pay cut to go into consulting - its a really tough world (even if you are enjoying it) taking a cut to do something harder than your current role doesn't make sense. (Can you tell I did this and felt the pain - but now in a new role on the right salary for skills and experience).

The consulting companies are starting to look for folk again (if my voicemail is anything to go by) so maybe think about the wider choice of firms...go for at least a salary match (if you are super keen on having a go in consulting) or a rise....in the end the sums of cash are more important to you and your quality of life than the firm itself (sometimes the sums of cash might be the equivalent of a project dinner or a client night out)

If you have taken the role it sounds like draw to a new country might have won out in which case you will have a blast - good luck