Charles Aris 2015 Strategy Consulting Compensation Study released
I've seen a lot of questions about salary progression and exit-ops salaries for ex-consultants. I found this, it is very helpful.
I've seen a lot of questions about salary progression and exit-ops salaries for ex-consultants. I found this, it is very helpful.
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Fantastic find. Finally some quantitative data on exit title and compensation.
I think this report really sheds light on why so many go into consulting post MBA. 3-5 years at MBB leads to senior manager or director level positions that are paying above 200k all in. Clearly there's going to be a ceiling somewhere for a lot of people, but making 300k by 40 working 50-60 hours a week in a desirable location wouldn't be a bad gig by any standards.
It goes beyond MBB, I'm at a boutique and headhunters do call. The exit options are far better than a lot of people realize, especially outside of corp dev/strat.
My thoughts exactly - even if you aren't planinng on doing it forever you will have leaped ahead of your peers who went straight to f500 likely in both title and comp
very interesting find. +1
great study.
thanks for sharing, great find
Holy shit. Have you seen those MBA salaries from 2007 to 2013? They went from 300k to 170k, while probably working more hours.
Your reading the graph wrong. It's not how much recent graduates were making it in 2007. It's what people who graduated in 2007 are making now (7 years into their consulting career)..
Are you sure?
It says: ''Average Compensation BY Graduation Year''. Not ''SINCE'' graduation year.
It sure is helpful. SB-ed.
This looks fishy. The MBA 2007 offer that they show (Sr. Director at a Corporation) has consulting base+bonus of $288 which is impossibly low for something who's been in consulting post-MBA for 7 years. They should be a partner at that point making at least 2x that in cash at minimum.
The study doesn't include partner data, probably because there's just too much variation at that level.
Great study is there anything like this for other industries?
That's still low even if you assume they are pre-partner (e.g., AP at McKinsey).
Starpoints, a combination of factors may pull it down.
Only 2/3 of data points are from MBB. The other 1/3 (LEK etc.) pull it down.
At MBB, maybe "up or out" is enforced more rigidly so among the 7-year AP data points, MBB might be an even lower percentage.
If they haven't made partner by this late stage, they might be low performers so bonus is accordingly lower.
It might include developing countries where local compensation is lower (probably not, looks US-only).
Perhaps AP comp really is lower than we think (WSO tends to be optimistic about these things).
Combination of number 1 and number 5. If you look on Glassdoor (I know, not 100% accurate but good ballpark), the average McK AP is at ~400k (40+ data points), but there are some who definitely make less. If you look at AT Kearney (just a sample T2 firm), Principal comp averages ~300k (25+ data points).
Yet, the number on this site (or anywhere really) who actually pull either of those feats off will be a laughably small number of people.
McKinsey has a compensation cap for APs, plus they get 1/2 share of profit sharing. $400k is a pretty reasonable all-in estimate, which varies a lot based on the profit sharing number. There is a healthy bump after making partner.
Lots of adverse selection in the data in this study for the 2007 and 2008 MBA data points. Also Charles Aris tends to place more people in F500 type corporate roles which brings down the comp averages a lot.
Now can you imagine, slaving everyday of your life for $350k a year, only to see the government take half of it. I'd kill my self.
That would mean, out of 40 years of work, the government will steal 20 years of your productive life via the income tax. Then if you add property tax, consumption tax, all sorts of fees and inflation, that's another 5 years gone. So, out of 40 years of productivity, you get to keep 15 years.
And then, when you're 70, thinking about retirement, the FED will come out and say that inflation is not high enough, and they'll obliterate your savings.
Enjoy the future!
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