Bain SF v McKinsey SF

I work at one of those MBB's in SF, and my roommate works at the other. So I will caveat that all my input is based on our experiences.

The biggest difference between our lifestyles I can notice is the travel. In the SF offices, McKinsey travels pretty much every week while Bain does not really at all. I do think this has pros and cons - at McKinsey you meet and work with a wider variety of people, because most of the time you'll be staffed on projects with people from other offices. On the other hand, Bain you tend to work with the same pool of local people, but it also means you get to know those people really well. So it's a tradeoff.

In terms of the work/industry strengths, to be honest my roommate and I don't talk too much about our clients, but I think at McKinsey you definitely get the ability to explore more industries/clients just by virtue of the travel staffing model. Of course, both McKinsey/Bain SF seem to have quite a few clients in tech/healthcare.

If your goal is PE, I think Bain definitely has people who are more interested in Finance, and a higher percentage of the work seems to be DD's. Quite a few Bain AC's are interested in gunning for PE, whereas McKinsey has only a handful in each class (maybe like 10%). That being said, if your goal is PE I don't think choosing one or the other necessarily gives you a leg up though - you can do plenty of DD/Finance work at either.

The last thing is the culture - trying to be as objective as possible, Bain does an amazing job of maintaining their culture and selling it very well: AC class is very tight knit since they often work together/see each other in the office everyday, tend to be sort of fratty but very smart people, athletes, etc. McKinsey just doesn't have that same "fratty" feel - everyone is smart but feels like a more socially diverse group of people (some fratty ppl, some student body presidents, more introverted academics, etc). I think McKinsey still has a great BA culture, but it's just different - you tend to find a pocket of BA's and become really close with them, and mostly see people on Friday's at the office as well as events over the weekend. I think McKinsey tends to win most cross offers over Bain in SF (not that it should influence your decision) but almost always the reason why cross offers cite as their reason for choosing Bain is culture. p to you to decide what vibes with you!