Hi everyone,
Happy to host a Q&A session.
Brief background:
- Bachelor from semi-target university
- 2 years at a large bank (non-IB role / strategy & digital)
- 5 years at Bain, multiple projects in M&A, strategy, VCP with PEs, corporate and family-owned clients
- Worked across US, Europe, Asia
Thanks for doing this. How tough is it to get HSW after spending three years at Bain? What’s been the toughest part of working at Bain?
It's not tough to get into HSW after 3 years at Bain. Depending on geo, you will have a lot of your supervisors / peers coming from one of the schools or you could at least network with them. Besides, at Bain you have regular dedicated calls where you get some insights and inputs on how to apply to top-tier schools.
Toughest part of working at Bain is learning how to quickly adapt to various working styles of your supervisors and their feeling of what proper is.
Best way to break into tech BizOps (think Google) coming from Bain SF? Is it worth it to start in PEG as an AC?
It is worth to start in PEG as an AC, but not to break into BizOps. PEG as an AC would mainly bring you in corporate M&A, PE/VC jobs and sometimes HF. To get into BizOps at Google or similar you probably just need to make several cases with the entreprise technology practice (which should be big in SF) and get some relevant expertise. You could also do MBA in between.
Super helpful, thank you. In that case, would you say rapid toolkit development is the main benefit of PEG for someone with my goals (BizOps; maybe CoS @ Series B+)? Or should I just try to skip it if I don't see myself gunning for a finance exit?
Do you think the MBA is value accretive compared to a direct exit/extra years of work exp at Bain? Or is it just a good opportunity to focus on recruiting? Undergrad was at HYPSM, if relevant. Want to stay in the Bay Area, so would probably only consider GSB (lol).
wow, how common is it to work across multiple countries at bain?
It is pretty common. There are 2 options:
1. your local staffing could put you on international project (esp if partners sell internationally, but still want to work with people they know).
2. you transfer to another office (either for 6 months or permanently). Very liked option actually
What are some traits you see in folks that can succeed beyond the two/three year timeline vs those that exit early? What do you enjoy most about Bain?
To succeed at Bain you need several things. First, you need luck, so that your personal traits are valued by the case leadership you work with. Sometimes same people but in different setups get very different reviews and promotions. Secondly, you need to become something beyond a generalist & have some topics you like and understand. If you do so, you have higher chances to get on a project where you could show expertise - both to the team and client. Thirdly, you still need to be a fast learner and be able to dive into completely new topics and survive there. In comparison to some other consultancies, up until Manager/Senior Manager you could be staffed on almost anything with any set of supervisors.
I like about Bain most that you get into high-stakes discussions and decisions early. If you are good, even an intern (ACI) can hold presentations with clients and conduct workshops. You also early on start to coach junior employees and sometimes lead small teams already as senior associate consultant.
Thanks for doing this! Two questions:
I'm an incoming intern, but I'm curious about how to do this when I start FT
College sophomore here so lots of questions
What part of Europe if you don't mind me asking?
Did you request transfers for the three continents? If so, how common/easy is it to transfer?
You mentioned you can be staffed on international projects. Does Bain group people from different offices to staff certain projects? Have you ever worked with people from LATAM offices if that's the case?
Hey, I work in western Europe. I didn't request transfers for all three continents, I had only 1 transfer to Middle East for 6 months. I worked across continents just as part of my regular case work mainly. It was less easy to transfer (beyond Middle East) after Covid and it's picking up now.
Re: staffing of international projects - it depends a lot on the partner setup. For instance, if there're only 1-2 partners, both from same office, they potentially can sell a completely European team from their office to an Asian/American/ME client (leveraging local partners only selectively and not staffing local teams at all). However, sometimes people from different offices are indeed grouped together, this happens especially if a very senior partner has sold a project and involved multiple partners from different offices to conduct them and/or if partners who sold the project came from different offices.
and I didn't work with people from LATAM offices unfortunately
Very helpful, thank you
Thanks for doing this.
I’m an incoming IB FT analyst who’s realized that they’d be far more interested in consulting but unfortunately missed the FT recruiting cycle. Have you seen IB analysts make the jump to MBB 1 year mark and if so what’s the best way to go about this? Thanks again.
Hey - I love to say that bankers and consultants are basically ‘cousins’ :) there are plenty of people coming from banking to consulting, some years ago one other MBB was even doing some sort of lateral hiring (aka you become similar position by seniority as you were in the bank). Also, actually doing a move after 1Y is easier sometimes than later to not lose seniority.
Re: what to do - a lot of things depend also on the geo. I really advise to learn the toolkit, especially excel, as it’s a very transferable skill. Also, at PEG and/or in financial services practice, your experience could be also highly valued (at PEG or similar also due to the modeling skills). You would just need to prepare a clear CV and have a good story to convey during the behaviorals of course
Hi, I'm sure you got this question a lot but I wanna ask about your view on the work in consulting vs. banking. I am a senior student still deciding whether to go into banking/consulting.
Do you think the work in consulting still brings value considering most desktop research can be done through AI? I understand some expertise are not fully solveable through AI alone, but do you think going into banking first is the best choice since you will at least develop some hard skills like modelling?
hi, first of all, consultants don't do much desk research. We have dedicated people to do that, of course some of that you still need to do yourself. Secondly, desk research usually doesn't cover all the questions. Most of smart PEs and Corporates have internal departments, doing market research and having all the numbers on market shares, development, etc. What is, however, valuable and not replaceable by AI are expert interviews, which you can conduct up to 50-200 for a case. During these interviews you find out non-searchable things, such as margin ranges on specific products, reasons for doing/not doing M&A in the space, some failed R&D experiments and reason behind that, etc. All of that could not be found by AI.
Also, generally speaking consultants are paid not for the research, but for cracking things. E.g., you need to understand how to land some external benchmarks on the client, considering all political and investor headwinds and tailwinds. Again, AI cannot help you here much. I personally strongly urge my junior team members to leverage AI as much as possible, but think with their own heads and adjust what AI tells you.
Lastly, your choice depends more on what you want to do in the future. If you do banking, you get the hard skills of modelling and valuations, which have a pretty narrow application. If you want to be in it, than prob banking is better. However, in consulting you not only get less narrow toolkit, but you also learn how to use excel at proficient level :) We don't do valuations, but we build complex market models, to evaluate reasoning to buy/acquire a target.
"Also, generally speaking consultants are paid not for the research, but for cracking things. E.g., you need to understand how to land some external benchmarks on the client, considering all political and investor headwinds and tailwinds. Again, AI cannot help you here much."
How can AI not help here?
Hi I am an incoming IBD summer analyst in a US BB (MS / GS / JPM / Citi / BofA) and I have always had an interest in joining an MBB firm.
Recently, however, I've been striking out of MBB associate consultant roles despite a range of experiences in IBD.
Has the recruiting landscape for consulting changed such that it is now focused on people with past consulting experiences as opposed to any type of corporate background?
Hi - no, i don’t think so. I regularly have in my teams people coming from banking - had it just recently. I don’t do screening of CVs, but I do recruiting. I doubt that HRs reject at CV screening stage if you have no prev consulting internships and at interview stage we do ‚blind‘ interviews & don’t know your resume
How common is it for someone in MBB to go into HFs/PE funds. I’ve accepted an offer for MBB starting soon and keen to hear how common exit opps to PE firms/ growth equity firms. If so, how should one position themselves in MBB for the first couple of years to maximise chance of going there?
Hey - HF and PE are 2 very different topics. Basically, if you want to break into PE best is to go to PEG of Bain (PIPE in other MBs) and/or make as much as possible M&A, VCP and similar related cases. LMK if any further questions.
HF is a different story. Do you want to do high frequency / algo trading or something more traditional?
And how common is it for those in PIPE to exit to PE? Obvs hard to say but intrigued if I can optimise PE route well? I’ve heard it’s mainly IB people making the switch to PE as opposed to MBB. are there particular PE funds that prefer MBB consultants > IB?
Hey, 2nd year student at UK target. I didn't get mbb summers, but I got a summer strategy consulting role at a top fintech. How can I best prep for grad roles and do you think grad recruiting is harder than internships. Also there is the possibility I convert my summer to a grad role, is it worth staying and maybe working up to Senior manager then try and get into mbb there? Thanks.
Not OP but based in UK MBB and was in similar position - did a strategy internship at a big tech firm in my 2nd year uni. Grad recruiting in London is significantly easier than internships - the number of applicants is similar but MBB typically take a lot more grads vs interns (very different to IB where the opposite is true)
Starting FT at a top fintech like Revolut is a very good career option, but just be aware that MBB will discount experience (e.g. you could do 2 years at Revolut then only come into MBB as a new BA/Associate)
Hey genuine question, but do you feel satisfied working in MBB? I've heard some people live it, the travel and the benefits, others say it's just not as bad as IB, and others absolutely hate it. I want to get more insight into the non hyped up reality of it.
Do you want to learn what toolkit to build or what experiences you need in your CV? As for the toolkit I’d focus on excel and a bit of PPT. In terms of experiences - be mindful to bag some strategy work, business development, go to market, opportunity screenings, etc. they will be valuable for your application and interviews.
As for staying until SM - don’t think it’s best if your goal is to make career in MBB. It’s usually much more difficult to apply as experienced hire and likely you get in as Manager tops (likely even as Consultant / Associate). I suggest focusing on grad roles, a lot of people start directly after university,w/o previous internships
Wow it's it's harder even with more experience? So should I try for grad right after I finish uni, but then if I don't get it, I should keep applying each year for 1 or 2 years then just give up lol? Or try to get into T2 then mbb? Tbf the work at the fintech is genuine strategy, like they advise big banks and other fintech (Revolut, starling etc) on new market entry strategies, how to up usage etc
Hi, thanks for doing this. College freshman here struggling to determine minors. How important coding skill is in consulting industry? Do you think it will be more/less important?
Not important right now at all; usually only some boutique consultancies make consultants do code. We have dedicated departments for that at MBB
Hi, I come from a boutique generalist strategy firm.
- Would MBB would count my experience? (I.e. would I be able to lateral to my same level)
- Have you seen much movement from boutiques to MBB?
- Are exits from MBB considerably better than from a boutique? Have you encountered much ex-boutique folks in Corp Strats or Ops roles?
Thanks
- Would MBB would count my experience? (I.e. would I be able to lateral to my same level) Likely you will get your level discounted. Eg managers get in as Consultants (=1 level down)
- Have you seen much movement from boutiques to MBB? Yes, it’s very common. Again, would suggest you check via LinkedIn - just type your company + Bain and you gonna see some examples
- Are exits from MBB considerably better than from a boutique? Have you encountered much ex-boutique folks in Corp Strats or Ops roles? There a lot of people from boutiques, however currently it’s easier to hire ex MBB or ex T2 due to number of alumni
Thanks for your response so far
Hlo, I'm trying to make my career as a risk analyst. I have also qualified FRM P1 exam. My question is as you are a consultancy what skills would be beneficial for me which could help me in my career. Thank u
Could you elaborate a bit on what you mean? MBB is not a risk consultancy, so my knowledge might be limited
sorry replied to wrong comment, plz ignore
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