Bain & Travel
I've read here and in some books that Bain tends to travel less than BCG and McKinsey and while that has been changing the past few years, a strong number of Bain travels for 1-3 days per week rather than 4-5 days per week. I've also read that Bain will talk to you before you start and assign you to a case/industry depending on how frequently you want to or don't want to travel? Is this true, especially today? I don't mind some travel, but the slightly reduced travel that I've heard about from Bain makes Bain consulting sound more appealing to me.
How Does Travel Vary at Different Consulting Firms?
Anyone looking to break into consulting knows that the job typically involves a lot of travel. The work/life balance does vary by firms, often consulting travel is more likely to vary by office or project more than firm. Hre is one WSO user’s take on travel models at top consulting firms:
From @brj"
- McKinsey: National/global staffing model. You could be staffed anywhere with anyone. Travel tends to be 4 days/week.
- BCG: Regional staffing. Most projects are staffed with teams from the same region (west coast, midwest, northeast, southern, etc). The client location could be anywhere though. Travel could be 2-4 days/week. Still often 4.
- Bain: Local staffing. Most projects are staffed with teams of people from the same office. This means you only need to be on-site for interaction with the client. Like the others, the client could be anywhere, but you can meet with your team face-to-face in your home office. Travel is often only 2-3 days/week.
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The variance by office is far higher than the variance by firm, and the variance by project is greater than either. If you're not willing to travel, this job is not for you. I happen to not travel much -- I've done less than 20 days on the road this year -- but there are people in my office who have done the 4-day-a-week thing for years. It just comes down to what you get staffed on.
As for asking for a case with less travel, as with anything else in life the amount of stuff you can ask for depends on how much pull you have. If you want a local case, you may have to settle for an industry or function you're not interested in, or a team with a less-good reputation. If you're a superstar you may get to choose only sexy local cases, but if you're not you probably won't get to 100% pick what you work on. And if the firm needs someone and you're the only one available and there's no other project you could be working on at the moment, then you're packing your bags.
If you're already looking for ways to get out of travel, that's not a great sign.
Thanks, I know that consulting leads to a lot of travel and I'm okay with that, but I saw here and in books that Bain had a different travel schedule than the other big firms and I just wanted to clarify that as it sounded more appealing. At the same time, I don't mind travel, but it seemed like picking your city/industry/how often was the best of both worlds, but a little too good to be true at first.
All three firms have a different travel model, which results is the potential for less travel at some firms.
McKinsey - National staffing model. You could be staffed anywhere with anyone. Travel tends to be 4 days/week.
BCG - Regional staffing. Most projects are staffed with teams from the same region (west coast, midwest, northeast, southern, etc). The client location could be anywhere though. Travel could be 2-4 days/week. Still often 4.
Bain - Local staffing. Most projects are staffed with teams of people from the same office. This means you only need to be on-site for interaction with the client. Like the others, the client could be anywhere, but you can meet with your team face-to-face in your home office. Travel is often only 2-3 days/week.
I'll be starting with Bain later this year. Can confirm that, for my office at least, a lot of people don't travel much. Can't give hard numbers, but it's definitely way less than the guys at McK and BCG offices in the same city.
Have never heard about this going on: "I've also read that Bain will talk to you before you start and assign you to a case/industry depending on how frequently you want to or don't want to travel".
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