Case Team Leader and Manager equivalents at McKinsey and BCG?

What are the equivalents of Case Team Leader at McKinsey and BCG? Is Bain's Case Team Leader equal to McKinsey's Junior Engagement Manager, and is Bain's Manager equal to McKinsey's Engagement Manager, or is Case Team Leader equal to McKinsey's Engagement Manager and is Manager equivalent to McKinsey's Senior Engagement Manager? My understanding is that at McKinsey, most post-MBA consultants automatically become Junior Engagement Managers after a while but moving to Engagement Manager requires a formal promotion where a significant percentage of people do not make it.

At BCG, does Case Team Leader map to Project Leader?

6 Comments
 

At McKinsey:

Post MBA/JD/PHD's enter as Associates. The next formal role/promotion is Engagement Manager. "Junior Engagement Manager" or "JEM" is an informal apprentice-like role. You are not a "designated" EM. You are just trying it on for size in a smaller, lower risk setting. If that goes well, you get promoted.

From what I have observed, most people (75%) that really want to make EM generally do. Don't forget that a lot of attrition at McK and other consulting firms is voluntary. People just want to leave.

 
Best Response

Project Leader, Case Team Leader, Engagement Manager, Manager.... it's all the same. Almost every major consulting firm has the same career path but call the level different names. Generally it's:

  1. Post-college, pre-MBA: the equivalent of Analysts in IBD. You do lots of research, analysis and deck building. You generally stay here for 1.5-3 years before promotion.
  2. Post-MBA: the equivalent of Associates in IBD. You pretty much do the same stuff as the pre-MBA folks but might lead a workstream within a project. You also generally stay here for 1.5-3 years before promotion.
  3. "Manager:" As mentioned, there are a lot of names for this position. You generally lead the day-to-day operations of an engagement. You generally stay here for 2-4 years or so.
  4. "Senior Manager:" Also has a lot of different names. Similar to Manager but you may span multiple projects and operate at a slightly higher level (sometimes). You generally stay here for 2-4 years or so if you're on partner track. If you're not you're usually either cut or can stay here for a bit.
  5. Partner: The top of your first career path and the bottom of your second. Once you hit partner you are back at the bottom, this time of the partnership. Beyond standard entry-level partner there are Managing Partners (McKinsey calls them "Directors") that run service lines (i.e. CPG Strategy, FS Tech), practices (i.e. Strategy), industries (i.e. FS), offices (i.e. NYC MP), etc. This space is not as defined as pre-partner levels and varies wildly by firm.
 

Just FYI, at Bain, Case Team Leader (CTL) isn't a true promotion. You automatically hit CTL once you've reached two years tenure as a Consultant. There will be varying time lengths at which someone will stay at the CTL level.

Also, just like with Managers, the CTL role can look very different. There will be CTLs who will run an entire project and there will be CTL roles who manage a smaller workstream on a larger engagement.

Is there a reason why you're concerned with this topic?

 

Thank you for your reply! This is helpful. I'm asking because my team is reviewing resumes, and we see someone who left Bain as a Case Team Leader after having been at the company for a total of 3.5+ years. I was wondering if that's not a great sign, e.g., maybe the person wasn't promoted to Manager.

 

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