How Much Do Consultants Travel Post COVID (2024)
Hi Y'all frequent poster on the finance side of things, but have very little consulting knowledge. I have a friend considering it as a career and was hoping I could get some details on the travel schedule for consulting to set expectations. Mainly concerned with MBB groups and would love pre and post covid how things are different. If possible would love the below from people willing to share:
- City/Title
- Average Travel schedule (once a month for 2 days, 3 days onsite, 2 days in home office with 3 month at home gaps, etc.)
Appreciate the help and glad to answer some IB/PE/HF finance questions in return!
2nd year BA/A/AC in southern office. Have been on client site Mon-Thurs every week for current project past ~6 months. Project before this was 3 days onsite, and two projects before that were fully remote. Essentially is highly dependent on office location, industry and client/partner expectations & norms.
Appreciate the comment.
City/Title: 2nd year at MBB (joined out of undergrad), based in New York.
Spent a fair bit of time in my firm's Private Equity group (dedicated group of consultants that only does DD related work) and never traveled during that time. Left that a few months ago and currently on a project with client in the South where we travel onsite Mon-Thurs every other week.
Pre-COVID, from what I've heard Mon-Thurs weekly travel was the norm, with Fridays being the most busy day in the office since everyone was back home. Post-COVID, this has completely flipped and now Fridays are one of the most empty days in the office with people working hybrid/remote in many cases.
From what I can observe, post-COVID case teams have become a lot more flexible (at least at my firm) about travel requirements. Travel frequency is also highly dependent on project type and the city you're based out of. For example, if elect to do a lot of financial services work, I'm hardly ever going to travel outside Manhattan. But if I'm working on projects in consumer products, I might find myself regularly flying out to Milwaukee, Wisconson to visit a distribution facility.
Thanks, very helpful. I assumed COVID changed everything since on the banking and PE side it is incredibly different. I also knew PE groups traveled less.
Assuming someone went in as a generalist in a non-NYC city, you think average is Mon-Thur every other week? Again, appreciate the help.
Correct - on average, travel frequency has definitely declined so every other week sounds about right
Can I get your 2c on juniors in MBB specializing? Specifically interested in biotech/pharma.
The people who usually specialize in biotech / pharma tend to have PhDs or MDs in these fields. My firm actually has an "expert consulting track" specifically for these types of hires.
If you're coming in from undergrad or MBA though, most people don't specialize in a specific industry - the traditional role is generalist and while you can voice staffing preferences, usually you don't start "specializing" in a topic area until you become more senior.
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