Management Consulting Exit Opps

I have several questions for anyone with experience in Management Consulting (long post):

1.) Do post-MBA consultants at Mckinsey / BCG / Bain really have an easy time exiting into F500 companies after 2-3 years? Or is most of the hype over mbb largely bullshit?

2.) Also, at what stages would a consultant exit into which positions in F500 Strategy?


For example, I know from this great thread, often you'll find the hierarchy at F500s as such:

//www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/the-other-road-cor…

  • C-Level Executives (top 20 or so people at the company): total comp $5M+/year
  • VPs: total comp ~$2-5M/year (at least 4-5 years but some cap out here)
  • General Managers/Managing Directors: ~$500K-$2M/year (at least 2-3 yrs but some cap out here)
  • Sr. Director/Director: ~$300-500K/year (3-7 yrs)
  • Group Manager/ Sr. Manager: ~$180-300K/year (2-5 yrs)
  • Manager/Sr. Analyst: ~$100-180K/year (2-4 yrs)
  • Analyst: $80-100K/year (1-3 yrs)

And from this thread, the hierarchy at MBB is:

//www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/ladder-of-consulti…

McKinsey:
Business Analyst -->(MBA) --> Associate (Senior Associate) --> Engagement Manager --> Associate Principal --> Partner --> Director

Bain:
Associate Consultant (Senior Associate Consultant) --> (MBA) --> Consultant --> Case Team Leader --> Manager --> Partner

BCG:

Associate --> (MBA) --> Consultant --> Project Leader --> Principal --> Partner

At what point in each MBB stage would said person be able to transition into an equivalent F500 position? I know every case is different and assume it depends on each consultant's clients/connections, but its okay to make generalizations. i.e. Associate/Consultant ---> Manager/Sr. Manager. Is it typical for MBB partners to transition directly into Director/VP roles? Would senior partners at MBB be considered for C-level positions, or do F500 companies figure this is a bad idea and test them out at VP levels even with 10-15+ years of consulting under their belt (I dont even know if senior partners at consulting firms exit into industry, but I imagine even senior partners exit at some point before retirement?)

3.) For people in more senior stages of their career (i.e. MBB partner/F500 Director/VP), would anyone be able to compare typical lifestyle/hours? Are MBB Partners in major cities such as NYC and San Fran still pulling 65-70+ hours a week? Do Partners have to travel much if they specialize in Finance/Media/Anything with enough clients that could be found locally in their respective major cities? Do Directors/VPs in industry generally work less (like 40 - 60 hrs/wk)?

Sorry for the long questions, and I am by no means considering a path to Consulting for simply this, but I figure its always good to know as much as one can about different opportunities and careers. And Im sure others will find this information useful when googling these types of questions.

 

1) Yes, easy. Also easy from the next tier of firms.

2) Depends on how smart you are going about it. Pre-MBAs can end up as senior analysts or managers, Post-MBAs as senior managers, those right before partner often end up as VPs. Partners leaving is relatively rare, but I've seen them come from C-level roles and cross over the other way as well.

3) Partners travel a lot. Work less than managers but still a good amount.

Life, liberty and the pursuit of Starwood Points
 
petergibbons:
1) Yes, easy. Also easy from the next tier of firms.

2) Depends on how smart you are going about it. Pre-MBAs can end up as senior analysts or managers, Post-MBAs as senior managers, those right before partner often end up as VPs. Partners leaving is relatively rare, but I've seen them come from C-level roles and cross over the other way as well.

3) Partners travel a lot. Work less than managers but still a good amount.

Thanks! Also a few more question about MBB in particular, although if your experience is outside those three I still appreciate and welcome all input:

  1. Do partners who specialize in heavily local industries (finance, media, etc) have to travel much outside the city? i.e. will Partners from NYC who take on a lot of finance cases mainly travel within the tri-state area, or are Partners still sent out across the globe to reign in business?

  2. When they're not traveling, is it okay/common for partners or even managers to get a lot of work done from home after hours so they can eat dinner with their families? I've read that sometimes for mothers they allow them to go home early like around 5 a few nights a week, then work in the office until 1 am the other nights. Im wondering why older consultants can't just work from home at night (barring upcoming deadlines and groupwork).

3.) Including Travel, do senior consultants work more-so around 60, or 70 hours a week? (I know its much less than banking)

 
Best Response

Obviously, I'm not a partner, but my experience is that most partners are working for a couple clients at once, and spend 1-2 days per week at each. They also are involved in selling. If their clients are heavily local, they'll be primarily, but not exclusively local.

Not sure where you got the idea people can't go home at night - that's dependent on managers, but when I've worked from the office, there are very few people there on any given day past dinner. People just get back online at home.

Working hours is case-dependent, 60-70 is pretty typical. At a certain level (i.e. Principal) a lot of it comes down to how good/smart you are, and whether you really want to be working 75 hours or 55 hours week in and week out. There are ways to prioritize most of the time, and good managers get that. Not sure what you mean by "senior consultant" but I assume you mean Manager/Principal.

I think pretty much everyone, from pre-MBA up to before Partner works pretty similar hours on any given team.

Life, liberty and the pursuit of Starwood Points
 
petergibbons:
Obviously, I'm not a partner, but my experience is that most partners are working for a couple clients at once, and spend 1-2 days per week at each. They also are involved in selling. If their clients are heavily local, they'll be primarily, but not exclusively local.

Not sure where you got the idea people can't go home at night - that's dependent on managers, but when I've worked from the office, there are very few people there on any given day past dinner. People just get back online at home.

Working hours is case-dependent, 60-70 is pretty typical. At a certain level (i.e. Principal) a lot of it comes down to how good/smart you are, and whether you really want to be working 75 hours or 55 hours week in and week out. There are ways to prioritize most of the time, and good managers get that. Not sure what you mean by "senior consultant" but I assume you mean Manager/Principal.

I think pretty much everyone, from pre-MBA up to before Partner works pretty similar hours on any given team.

That answered all my questions, thanks! Yeah I wasnt expecting a partner's perspective (of course) just one from someone who's been in the industry. And yeah by senior consultants I only meant people higher up on the ladder, Managers/Principals. I had assumed people might have to stay in office past dinner for face-time like analysts and Associates do in banking, but Im glad to hear thats not the case.

Thanks again for all the insight! I hope others find it useful as well.

 

I worked at one of the firms you mentioned as an analyst out of undergrad. I'd say that exit opps are not very well-defined and can vary widely. I'm not exactly sure how exit opps differ from the analysts' (undergrad), though. I have friends who have left these firms (as analysts) and are in data roles at large tech companies, project management roles at start ups, and grad schools. I don't even know of an MBA who has left - I wasn't at my firm for very long.

While these companies will typically pay very well relative to other offers (from what I hear), there are some drawbacks. Here are some: 1. Academic - My firm was very academic and placed a heavy emphasis on employees with a PhD. It's much more difficult to move up the ladder with just an MBA and the longer you stick around the harder it is to lateral to another company. 2. Exit Opps - The exit opps are not well-defined. The whole time I worked there, I asked myself: what am I learning here and what are my exit opps? I still can't tell you. It's really just whatever you make of it. 3. Work - The work isn't traditional MBA-type work. You're not going to be working on projects that are strategy / ops. These projects are mostly academic and involve data analysis (statistics), economic and finance theory, and writing papers and supporting expert witnesses (who are mostly PhDs). 4. Brand - While the firms you mentioned are well-known and top notch within their niche, it's just that - a niche. It's pretty rare for anyone outside of these industries to have any experience with or knowledge of what these firms do, how selective they are, or what types of skills you develop.

If I were leaving an MBA program, this is not the type of job I would be looking for. To me, this is not even an MBA job - even though they hire MBAs.

 

Working at one of the firms you mentioned as an analyst. Some of the MBAs who have left the company have gone on to do private equity, boutique management consulting, econ consulting at another firm, and corp fin. If you're on LinkedIn, you can search for people who have an MBA and previously worked at one of the firms you mentioned to see what they've left to do.

 

Did you come from a Big 4? Why would you want to go back to it with an MBA, even if it's for a consulting role? I don't work in consulting but people I know from bschool have found better consulting gigs at non-accounting firms.

 

Depend on what type of consulting you want to do, i.e. management consulting or financial advisory. Deloitte has the strongest consulting arm among the four (strategy & ops, human capital, IT consulting). It probably also has the best FAS group (which is under Advisory). PwC has a strong TS practice as well. In terms of exits, I know a lot of people go to bschool after consulting at big 4. Post-MBA, I'd think you have good chances to work at a corporate in a strategy or finance role.

 

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