EY "Analytics Product Manager" or IBM "Advanced Analytics Consultant"

I am offered a position as a SAS/SPSS "Advanced Analytics Consultant" in IBM Global Business Services division, Business Analytics and Optimization group. They need experience in statistical packages, address functional requirements into analytics solutions, modeling skills.

And I also got a position as a "Global Technology Product Manager - Analytics" in EY Knowledge solutions group. They need experience in drafting a business solution using analytics into a product, manage the project of developing and deploying the product with different groups, communicating a lot with users developers.

We did not get to the salary discussion yet, and I know that will play a role, but regardless of salary, I need some opinions around these two jobs.

I love predictive analytics (forecasting, logistic, decision trees,...) and want to do consulting in the future. I need help in understanding which company is better in general, opinions on these positions, which position is better fit for me.

Thank you all.

Neither is better in general - there is no such thing. Better for you maybe but not in general. Basically for the kind of work you are referring to EY would be a bit of a backwater (albeit a smart one) - IBM is very much in the mainstream for analytics type work. That's said BAO in GBS isn't the biggest and can come across as a bit nerdy/niche in the market. If you can live with that then ultimately it wont matter. In almost all instances I would have ranked the EY brand ahead of IBM...except this one. In terms of the analytics segment frankly EY is nowhere - the role is part catching up on their part, part plugging a very jigsaw shaped hole from which you might have a job extricating yourself in the future. Great place to be, great brand overall, but not a place where you will meet your future boss.

IBM. Regardless of whether the salary offered comes in below EY.

Great, thank you for the answer. That really helps. What about the roles (product manager vs consultant), any ideas around them?

In the case of IBM position I will be delivering solutions to clients, while in EY position I will be delivering solutions to help internal consultants deliver services to clients.

Appreciate the help.

I suggest you try and get more information for subsequent interviews.

How can we advise re. "which is better fit for you" when we don't even know anything about you?

If you want to do analytics consulting, then try Deloitte. I've included a finance vacancy below. There are others, e.g. TMT ones.

http://careers.deloitte.com/jobs/eng-uk/details/j/62462/deloitte-manager-/-senior-manager-data-analytics-finance-analytics-london

Great, thank you for the answer. That really helps. What about the roles (product manager vs consultant), any ideas around them?

In the case of IBM position I will be delivering solutions to clients, while in EY position I will be delivering solutions to help internal consultants deliver services to clients.

Appreciate the help.

That's what I suspected - the EY role is effectively a presales proposition, and although nothing wrong with that, to really make the most of it that role would need to sit with a company with a much higher IP around solutions. The IBM role will clearly set you up for consultancy roles, the EY one will actually position you moving towards an SI type role. Camster is right though - you need to be much better prepared, and Deloitte would be a place to look - Cap have also been building an analytics team quite successfully.

I think that is a wee bit harsh to EY. I know some of the senior people in there and they are excellent. Both are good places to go for Analytics

Im not being harsh on EY - I agree there are some exceptional talents in their analytics area. My point is about the role, and where it would sit in the analytics sector/domain currently.

Thank you very much marsday, you are to the point and helpful. Thank you everyone.