MBB Lifestyle
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It is true that many people leave MBB to go to PE funds, startups, etc., after a few years, the question is: do they leave voluntarily mostly because they are burnt or because they are fired?
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If they leave because they are burnt, what is the reason to be burnt?
a) travel: how often and where? (seems Bain has local staffing model?)
b) hours: after promotion I was told by an ex-Mck the hours/responsibility increases! He left because of this, is it true?
In order not to end up burnt, what are the opcions for movility, part time work, local projects or volunteering?
Thanks!
I think you're missing the third and more likely option: do people leave because they find a job they would rather do? Fact is that going to MBB opens up a lot of doors that were closed before. Most people leave because they wanna go through one of those doors.
Yes new doors are open. But still the questions is: do they leave because they are burnt, so they want to work somewhere else? I mean if they are happy in MBB why on earth change jobs? OR After being fired they go to these new open doors with no choice since they are fired?
And the doors you are talking about is PE, anything else?
They're getting their ticket stamped and moving on. Lots of jobs like to see the experience. Same thing for IB. Far fewer people would go for the jobs if they weren't an unspoken pre-requisite to strategy, corp dev, or PE and VC jobs.
But WHY or earth choose all this other jobs? Why?
They're high-paying, hard to get, and prestigious
To start a family, the allure of 80% travel is hard, tired of working 14 hr/days. Maybe they aren't progressing fast enough, maybe they have an industry offer working 9-5 and making a healthy six figures... tons of reasons, Op. Based on all of your other threads, you are focused way too much on the money. Good luck succeeded in consulting if you're only in if for the paycheck. It's a tough field to justify only through a big income.
Not at all, lifestyle is more important for me than paycheck, hence this thread.
Why not discuss with firm about part-time arrangements if hours are an issue rather than going to the extreme of changing company?
Why not choosing Bain instead of Mck/BCG or even worse OW, for a local staffing model so less travelling? If not in Bain, why not moving from BCG, Mck etc to Bain? BY THE WAY several partners from Mck have done JUST that.
I am going to try and answer your questions... but I don't think you are really grasping the concept here. Give me a little background on what stage of the job search you're in... are you a college student? High School? Why do you want to be a consultant. Do you really understand what consulting is and how the industry operates? You've thrown out MBB all over this forum, and fail to recognize other strong firms, in fact you even said "Why not choose Bain... or even worse OW".
FYI, OW is a great firm...
Now to your questions -
This is definitely an option, and many firms will accommodate. It is more costly to hire a backfill, than to work with your employee on flexibility in travel arrangements. That said, there is also a benefit of the consultant to change firms for higher pay, more responsibility, a promotion, etc. Changing firms can be just as tactical for someone's career. For example, If I want to stop traveling, takke a 20% increase in pay to change jobs and even a promotion with the understanding my travel would be less, why not do it, even if for non-MBB? Later in your career, prestige is less of a concern.
See my response above... not sure why you are so stuck up on MBB? Sure you can move between MBB, or other firsm, or go to industry. Regarding your comment about several partners moving between MBB. Yes, that is true. But they also move to Big 4 Consulting, Accenture, LEK, OW, ATK... And also smaller boutique shops. Many Partners may leave and take VP/SVP/Sr. Exec positions in industry.
I think you have bought way to into the #MBB4LYFE mantra harped by so many on this forum (mostly by college students, I would argue).
Thanks, my background: BSc degree, going to start master in finance. Why consulting? Better lifestyle/hours/people than IB, not so narrow learning, open doors to PE, flexibility to change offices, good salary, promotion, etc. What is consulting for me? Similar to PE without implementing advices. How industry operates? Maybe you can give me your impression on this?
About OW, I said that just because of the global staffing model, I'm not sure it that would work with my gf.
About the questions:
So it people are looking for a 9-5 or less travel, again why not choosing part-time option? For me leaving a nice environment or job to go somewhere else to reduce hours/travel which I can do in my firm doesn't seem a good idea. Going somewhere else to have a higher salary... ok, but my questions was only about the hours.
Here I'm talking about the local staffing model of Bain which for me is the reason why partners from Mck move to Bain.
All I see here is what consulting is not, rather than what consulting is. And because you don't know what consulting is, you can't understand why people would do it. Frankly I don't know why you would do it not knowing what it is either anyway.
You know consulting is about frameworks right? Here's one: get a sheet of paper, draw two big buckets, title one push, and the other pull.
Please put your wso username on your cv so we can all ding you.
Look at this poster's WSO track record - really nice of you to type this all up, but I wouldn't spend any more time on the back and forth. He just doesn't get it.
So if you get it, illustrate us...
Speaking as someone who spent 2+ years at an MBB, left shortly after a promotion, and saw numerous colleagues leave for a variety of jobs and reasons, I am hopeful that I can help here.
1.) I think one key factor here is one that many people (myself included) underestimated prior to entering the workforce: there are many many reasons to change jobs beyond money, prestige, and lifestyle. Most people I know, myself included, are not indifferent between different work. Many people work at BCG and quickly realize it is a very good temporary stop in a career - you learn a lot, build a great level of credibility and develop a strong network - but it is not the type of work that engages them for the longer term. This can be because of the lack of ownership (you can give great advice and watch it put on a shelf to gather dust), the mis-alignment with clients (it is often easier to dazzle clients with a pretty presentation and complex analysis than to deliver thoughtful work), and "purpose" (a surprising number of people leave for non-profit / public service jobs) among many many others.
2.) Even when the question comes down to work-life balance, lifestyle is not as cut and dry as it may seem at first blush- even the firms with local staffing models can be travel-intensive at times (the Atlanta office may well send you to Memphis for a "local" project, for example). Part-time models are difficult to implement well and, based on my experience, are not implemented well. It was a running joke at my firm that the 60% work option was actually just a 60% compensation option. When you work with Type A teams who prioritize work above all else, effectively creating and maintaining boundaries is not as simple as flipping a switch. I know many people who went from the part-time option to a full-time job at a client and saw a dramatic improvement in lifestyle.
3.) When people talk about consulting "opening doors," they are usually referring to a very broad set of opportunities that may include private equity. Many people start at MBBs with the explicit plan of gaining experience or credibility before doing so. I don't have data on this, but the two big waves of departures for most cohorts appeared to be after performance reviews and after promotions. My cohort experienced nearly half of its departures in the ~6 months after promotions were given (including me).
Finally, one overall comment that may help frame your thinking (because I recognize certain tendencies from my own thinking as a student): while many people view jobs (and, more broadly, life) as an exercise in stack ranking or comparisons, that is often neither the most accurate nor most useful approach. Especially during recruiting, this is a common way for students, career services, and even on-campus recruiters / interviewers to think and speak. After a few years working, though, most people are not simply steering their career to optimize for the tradeoff of compensation / prestige vs. time commitment. Working on projects that are interesting day to day with a team that you like is an incredible experience and worth optimizing for even at the expense of more quantitatively comparable factors.
Good luck
Thank you very much for your wise answer, signposts. It made me think a lot.
I also would like to work on interesting projects with a positive impact and a nice team. The problem is that my financial situation is bad so I'm being pushed to earn money...
I read all of OP's answers in the xtranormal "So You Want To Be A Consultant" voice
I was trying to find the Wharton Follies video about PE and all the monies and unfortunately it is no longer up. That video and the one you reference sum up the original post nicely.
changing consulting culture (Originally Posted: 02/11/2018)
Will like to get inputs from fellow current and alumni consultants on their thoughts on if culture changes are making consulting less attractive?
Can you be more specific?
I know consultants who quit because they felt that consulting was drastically different from what they had anticipated. One of the reasons that many of them stated was that they felt there were way too many "rubber stamping" projects and they did not actually feel like they were making any tangible differences to the companies they were working with. (But majority of these guys were mainly in Infrastructure, O&G, Financial Services)
Culture provides a set of norms which define the way an organisation sets about achieving its objectives. Sometimes with the help of culture change consultants, organizations are able to change mindsets, decisions, and behaviors that define culture. Cultural change must be supported by those at the top all the way down the organizational chart so everyone can make changes and practice them until they become automatic.
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