Hello!I was wondering what people's views were on choosing between these two firms. I know obviously it's hard to rank firms but it would be really great to get an idea of how they are viewed within the industry.My main concerns are LEK's work/life balance and PwC's reputation/future opportunitiesThank you!

Since PwC sold the consulting arm (MCS) to IBM, PwC has only auditors and risk management iso consultants. On LEK, my understanding is they tend to focus more on valuation type of jobs. So it really depends on what you are looking for.

PWC does not only have auditors etc. and retained the COBA CDD type team as part of transaction services when it sold consulting to IBM. That team has got larger and its industry teams do a mixture of consulting and CDD work. Clearly it does not have the full consulting range, but if that is the team you are considering, it has a good reputation in the market and from those I know that work there.

Surely they're not real consultants, just glorified bean counters?

Depends how you view CDD. They are the best of the big 4 at CDD by a reasonable margin. Could say that CDD is bean counting, but that would probably be a bit silly as it is an important element of many strat houses' businesses. On the other hand as I am no longer in the Big 4 I am happy to go with stereotypes and blindly suggest they are just bean counters.

It may be important bit of work, but it's still basically just bean counting, right? No real thought involved, just checking other people's work at the end of the day, right?

Are you saying PWC Strategy are primarily CDD orientated? Surely not?Anon what area of PWC are you talking about? They are a pretty large company as you may know!

CDD stands for??

Depends how you view CDD. They are the best of the big 4 at CDD by a reasonable margin. Could say that CDD is bean counting, but that would probably be a bit silly as it is an important element of many strat houses' businesses. On the other hand as I am no longer in the Big 4 I am happy to go with stereotypes and blindly suggest they are just bean counters.

Douche - I think you may be mixing up CDD with FDD. Amongst other things, CDD will look at both the achievability of a business plan from a market facing perspective, as well as highlighting potential areas of upside opportunity (i.e. strategy). There is significant cross-over between CDD and strategy, and hence that is why much of the top strategy hours offer CDD as a service line. LEK vs. PWC - LEK for the rep and potential springboard into PE. However, the hours are a killer.

CDD = Commercial Due DiligenceFDD = Financial Due DiligenceCDD/FDD resides under Deals/Transactions group of the Advisory Practice. Another arm within Advisory is Performance Improvement group where PwC builds it's new consulting practice

Does LEK not pay at least 10k more?