I have got two job offers...One with a Consulting firm (read Systems integrator and a large outsourcing company) within their management consulting division. The other is with an investment bank as a Business Analyst within Compliance division of an Investment bank working on IT change projects.The IB one pays slightly more.Which one do you think is better in terms of career prospects, salary exit options etc.The consulting role I think would be more bent towards IT projects. This is the feeling I get as it is not a pure MC firm and so I believe the management consulting is more of IT driven business change. IB role would silo me within compliance function and it would be difficult to move into other areas.Appreciate your inputs.

Is this your first job post graduation? If so, go for accenture :-)

Nopes this isnt my first job. I have been working for a software house in a architect/ business analyst / implementation role.

Depending on your age, you may quite enjoy the environment of an MC like ACN with many young people on projects. Which would make a nice change to your previous job perhaps.Both roles offer you different things, and you would need to assess what your long term goals are. Many people leave ACN to become business analysts at banks due to the extra ££ and better hours. You may find that doing 2 yrs at ACN will put you in a better place to enter an investment bank at a highler level, than if you were to join now and move up the ranks.

Anon, thanks.My age is 28 if that helps. Right now I am more inclined to MC role because how I see it - I will get exposure to different business areas.The BA role within IB is in a particular division and I feel that I would restrict my career to that business area and this limits the exit options.I also feel the IB role offers job security over the MC role but future prospects are better with MC role.

I too would go for the MC role. I assume you are going in at C level? If so, you will benefit from the training, exposure etc, and will probably be able to better harness some of the softer skills needed to be of managerial level (in whatever you decide to do) in the future.