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It totally varies - dictated by your staffings and how you manage your lifestyle.
My experience has been minimum of 55-60 hours a week, no weekends. I've had DDs where I worked 20-22 hours a day for 2 weeks straight, and then implementation projects where I was done at 6 pm every day.
If you're concerned about lifestyle, I'd say travel will have a bigger impact than hours.
A BCG Associate is a different level than a McKinsey Associate. Which one are you talking about?
Assuming that your referring to post-MBA roles at MBB, you should expect to work between 60 and 70 hours per week the majority of the time. As the previous poster mentioned, this will vary considerably depending on the project on which you are staffed. While its hard to generalize, in the main process oriented projects tend to have the best lifestyle while PE diligence work tends to have the worst. In my time in consulting I've seen everything from regular 50 hour weeks on a multi-month PMI, to sustained 90+ hours weeks (obviously including weekend work) for PE clients. I should also point out that on travel heavy projects, the travel itself can take a heavier toll on you body than the actual hours.
I see the point that McKinsey Associate =/= BCG Associate, but generally, pre-MBA hours = post-MBA hours, as much as possible (i.e. on the same case teams).
Also, echoing others, between 60 and 70 is a good rule of thumb. I've had stretches where I averaged below 60 or above 70, but they didn't last very long. I've done pricing, COGS, and go-to-market strategies mostly. PE DDs have bad lifestyles, but PE-backed companies doing operational improvements are just like other clients, in my experience.
That's a good distinction. PE work =/= DD lifestyle, you can do other work for PE clients. But DDs suck.
On DDs - what are the benefits of doing them?
The exposure? More downtime after/between them? Something else? Or would you guys just do your best to avoid them if able?
I think for most people it's the exposure to clients / partners at your Firm who do that work. People who actively pursue DD work are typically interested in going to a PE firm and want the experience.
I don't know about downtime - at my firm they're treated as normal staffings. You often get staffed to them when your availability is screwy and you can only do something for 3-4 weeks.
I've done a couple and have no interest in doing any more (or working on the deal side in PE, for that matter). But I do think it's an experience everyone should have during an MBB stint - even if it's just once.
I actually track mine (geeky, I know), and it's currently at 55.9 with a standard deviation of 6.3. That doesn't count gab time, lunches, dinners, or travel time that I'm not actually working; I'm pretty ruthless about removing non-value add time, which is good because it forces me to recognize how much gets wasted. If I counted those, I would easily be in the 60-70 hour range that everyone else cites.
Further breakdown (numbers rounded, so may not add perfectly):
Mon-Thurs avg: 47 Fri avg: 7 Weekend avg: 1.5
It has been trending down over the past 4-5 months. I'd guess at least in part because I am getting more efficient, but I've also been on a slowish case/project.
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