Consultants = more satisfied than Bankers according to Vault

I thought a good way to compare job satisfaction between consultants and bankers would be to use vault since they have a ranking for satisfaction among consulting firms and banking firms. Overall, the firms with highest satisfaction in consulting (McKinsey, Bain are around 9.3/10) have higher satisfaction scores than those in banking (Houlihan Lokey is 8.9, Blackstone is around 8.7). The biggest difference is when you start looking at the middle: at rank 20, Booz & Co has a satisfaction score of 8.25 while SunTrust Banks has a satisfaction score of only 6.5.

http://careerinsider.vault.com/wps/myportal/caree…

http://careerinsider.vault.com/wps/myportal/caree…

I'm not entirely sure if the satisfaction scores are calculated using the same survey/methodology though.

24 Comments
 

Lol, I work 50 hours a week with very little travelling, and I make six figures. I hardly think that's a bad deal. Oh yeah, and I'm only 23. I can't imagine being more satisfied working 100 hours a week for an extra 20-30k.

-MBP
 
zeropower
everythingsucksLol, I work 50 hours a week with very little travelling, and I make six figures. I hardly think that's a bad deal. Oh yeah, and I'm only 23. I can't imagine being more satisfied working 100 hours a week for an extra 20-30k.

Youre a '3rd year associate' at age 23? Right..

Oh and six figures doesnt count if its paid in fcking rupees.

A friend of mine's starting work at JP Morgan this fall at age 20 so he'll be a 4th year at age 23 (lol you can do simple math right banker?), being a 3rd year at 23 is definitely plausible.

 

c'mon, its christmas and you're all gonna bash on consultants? zeropower - associate is the most junior position at many consulting firms. it's equivalent to an IB analyst.

i'm working in banking and i have enormous respect for top consulting kids. the pay is 70k+bonus (smaller yes but not by much, and I'd rather work at McK for 80k than at almost any other firm for 150k purely because its one of the biggest, if not THE biggest brand you can get on your resume – yes I would say McKinsey trumps every BB, including GS/MS in how difficult it is to get into and how intelligent the people are) and its almost guaranteed HBS/Stanford.

 

Only in the world of IB/PE is 70K right out of school a "small salary". I work just as much as my friends who do paralegal/non-profit and make significantly more.

Merry Christmas bros...I have 10 days off. How about you?

Life, liberty and the pursuit of Starwood Points
 
petergibbonsOnly in the world of IB/PE is 70K right out of school a "small salary". I work just as much as my friends who do paralegal/non-profit and make significantly more.

Merry Christmas bros...I have 10 days off. How about you?

WIN.

 

no exaggeration I swear! I was told 5.5" is average :S lol

@zeropower. I haven't been an associate for 3 years. But I was hired at that level when I lateralled from my old consulting firm. I had a base salary of 70K right out of my MFE at a smallish boutique, but I lateralled 3 months later for a base of 100K. In fact, my first thread on WSO was about asking for advice if 3 months was too soon to switch to another firm.

Also, for the sake of full disclosure, I only decided on consulting because didn't get any S&T offers. But now that I've been in the industry, I'm quite happy about where I am.

-MBP
 
everythingsucksno exaggeration I swear! I was told 5.5" is average :S lol

@zeropower. I haven't been an associate for 3 years. But I was hired at that level when I lateralled from my old consulting firm. I had a base salary of 70K right out of my MFE at a smallish boutique, but I lateralled 3 months later for a base of 100K. In fact, my first thread on WSO was about asking for advice if 3 months was too soon to switch to another firm.

Also, for the sake of full disclosure, I only decided on consulting because didn't get any S&T offers. But now that I've been in the industry, I'm quite happy about where I am.

Your first year and you managed to negotiate a $100K base ? pretty sweet

 
SAC
everythingsucksno exaggeration I swear! I was told 5.5" is average :S lol

@zeropower. I haven't been an associate for 3 years. But I was hired at that level when I lateralled from my old consulting firm. I had a base salary of 70K right out of my MFE at a smallish boutique, but I lateralled 3 months later for a base of 100K. In fact, my first thread on WSO was about asking for advice if 3 months was too soon to switch to another firm.

Also, for the sake of full disclosure, I only decided on consulting because didn't get any S&T offers. But now that I've been in the industry, I'm quite happy about where I am.

Your first year and you managed to negotiate a $100K base ? pretty sweet

Yeah, it was pretty unexpected. A recruiter from my new firm saw my profile on linkedin and asked me to meet with a partner. After the meeting, and a math exam (there are some very quant aspects of my position), they asked me what it would take to leave my old firm, and that's the number I gave them. Surprisingly, they agreed.

-MBP
 

Why are you guys hating on consultants? I'm under the impression that the alumni of the top-tier consulting firms have pretty ridiculous careers - lot's of c-level execs, entrepreneurs, etc.

 
Best Response

Oh yeah, look at all the big players on here, with your big IB bankrolls. Truth of the matter is, at the entry level, the post tax difference between what a banker takes home and what a consultant takes home is insignificant in comparison to the difference in work-life balance.

Any banker will tell you that a few thousand dollars extra (and I mean only a few) is not enough to compensate for the misery of spending Sunday night stuck in a cubicle until 2AM (and the added misery of the MD not looking at what you were working on until the next Friday).

This is from a banker speaking, very easy to understand the greater self satisfaction of consultants, at least at the entry level. Not sure about more senior consultants, but again, once you past a certain level of income the difference in salary once again probably is not enough to make up for satisfaction gained from the nature of the work and work / life balance.

 

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