Firstly congratulations on securing a graduate offer. Secondly I have understood when you've said "My profile enables me to be in starts or business development" to mean that you could also expect to secure a job now in [b][i]strategy[/i][/b] or business development?My advice would be as follows:[list][*]Pay very little attention to starting salary. In most fields - including most areas of consulting - your salary is going to rise significantly within the first few years of work (assuming you're talented, which your academics suggest you are). A few thousand difference now will be immaterial later on - what's important is the career trajectory you have in each field.[*]Pay most attention to what you want to be doing. If you look at strategy consulting, there are two entry points where consultancies will not mind what your background is - hiring straight from university and hiring direct from business school (if you go on to do an MBA). At every other point in your career, strategy firms will prefer to hire someone coming from a strategy background than to hire someone who wants to move eg. from technology to strategy. They will also only be hiring in those sectors where client demand means they have the need for people with that sector experience (which may or may not dovetail with the sector experience you've gained). So what you choose to do right now will indeed constrain when and if you can move into other fields in the future.[*]If you are good at business development, a graduate role involving this could outpay a consulting or technology role in the early years of your career. Sales bonuses can be significant for someone bringing in a significant amount of business. However, if you are strong at business development then this is what would allow you to go on to become a Partner at a consulting company (strategy or non-strategy). Most people struggle at the point in their consulting careers where they have to start selling (Project Manager and above)... and that is what prevents many from making it to Principal and Partner level. So you'd be amply rewarded later in your career if you are able to sell and have chosen a career in consulting (250k€ to 1m€ per year being the kind of range you could expect if you make it that far thanks to your business development skills)[/list]I hope this is helpful and good luck reaching the right decisionTony RestellFounder - [url]http://www.Top-Consultant.com[/url] and [url]http://www.Social-Hire.com[/url]
