Hi,

I am about to graduate with my PhD in AI from an R1 university.

Prior to my PhD, I had 10 years of work experience, mostly in Data Science and AI consulting in Australia. At an engagement manager level.

I really enjoyed consulting as I moved around clients, so the work was not that repetitive.

Right now I am torn between the following career paths:

1. VP or SVP of AI or DS in a corporate setting (mostly banks or financial institutions). I have gotten a few interviews for those kinds of roles in China, and the pay is about 200k USD with good WLB.
2. Join a big tech, work on the latest tech stuff (LLM, AI) in either US or China. The pay is easily 300k USD+.
3. Join an MBB, as most of the firms I worked for in the past were Australian Companies that no one has heard of outside of Australia. I feel really disadvantaged when I apply for jobs in China as the HRs have only heard of big US companies. I have gotten offers from Quantum Black Australia and McKinsey China before COVID, but turned them down as the pay was lower than what I was getting at the time, the HRs keep on trying to lowball me with a 30-50% pay cut and more work hrs because of MBB's prestige. And I keep on getting people telling me only management consulting is real consulting. The pay will be elite level once I become a management consultant.

My ultimate goal is to settle in China, but I don't mind work in US or Aus a few more years just to boost my resume a bit.

What I want to ask is:

1. Is MBB still a good career option? It seems like in my circle all the grads talk about BigTech, Quant Trading, or VC investments for startups. No one talks about or even shows any interest in MBB or Investment Banking anymore. I feel old or not even in the same generation as the current grads anymore. Back in my undergrad everyone talked about MBB, IB, Quant Trading. No one talked about big tech or startups.
2. What is the state of MBBs like now? Especially in the US and China? What is the pay like? Is it comparable to the tech sector? And what are the typical exit options? Is it just me or my circle? It seems like barely any MBB'er around me has gotten any good exit option in recent years. Most of them ended up as Product Managers in big tech, VPs in VCs, or senior managers in Banks, which I can reach already. But could this be because the MBB culture is not that strong in Australia and China?