Transition in MBB firms: frequency & outlook.

Hello everyone.

I just wanted to ask one specific question: How frequent is it for one person to move from an MBB firm to another, in a short timespan, especially when at the lower seniority levels (picture a, say, McK intern interviewing and landing a follow-up internship, or even an undergraduate entry level role, at Bain)? And, by extend, how is this transition viewed both inside the industry and outside of it?

Please keep in mind that I am not discussing the reasons behind such a decision or even the likelihood of making that happen. I am only focusing on the frequency and (positive or negative) perceived outlook of such an action by the industry professionals.

Thank you all in advance.

 

Internship to full-time role at some other MBB happens often and is not anything noteworthy, full-time MBB to another at junior level is very infrequent and I think it would raise some eyebrows, although I would not classify this as a red flag still. This is in Europe.

 

I've seen it happen in non-US offices a few times, especially in markets where all firms are growing quickly (e.g. Middle East, India). It is usually because they weren't able to secure a promotion at their current firm (often the SM/ EM/ PL promo) and they believe that it was due to circumstances out of their control. People have varying levels of success moving, but frankly, it doesn't work out in most cases. 

 

I'm familiar with the UK and North American markets, in these markets such moves are  rare. There are two big reasons:

1. There aren't really any good reasons to move. The firms offer incredibly similar experiences and outcomes so no one has a good reason to leave one for the other. There are also transaction costs from moving - having to walk away from your old network and build a brand new network/ reputation from scratch at your new firm 

2. Other firms won't want to hire you. Due to the above reason, the firm you're trying to move to will assume that the only reason you want to move is you were pushed out at your old firm. Given these firms have roughly identical standards, they don't want to hire someone pushed out by another firm 

 

i might say a good reason to say move to or from bain would be that you do / do not want to do PE work. it's a significant enough part of their business that basically everyone there is expected to do it. otherwise, mostly agree with the points here. 

no, it is not common for people to move between MBB at this level

 

Not necessarily true, especially recently. Some people have gotten MBB offers at a substantial pay bump to their entry-level MBB pay. And there can be reason to move (especially from BB) if the regional/local staffing models restrict opps to work on industry of interest and an internal office change isn't possible.

 

I support most responses here. Outside of interning at one firm and securing a FT offer elsewhere (for which there could be dozens of variables at play...), it's pretty rare below the Partner level for a few reasons:

1. Each firm has their "way of doing things" and often avoid lateral hires. For example, why would McK hire a M from Bain who would have to learn the "McK way" when they have more than enough Associates to promote in? Often they would require a step down (e.g., from Principal to Manager) and why would someone want to do this?
2. Among cohorts, the pay is pretty comparable across each firm so it's unlikely you'd secure much of a raise.

3. These are highly diversified firms and if you want to do a different kind of work (e.g., CDD -> corporate), you can usually do this in-house. Ditto goes for geographic moves - if you want to live somewhere else you needn't move to a new firm - you can do this in-house.

4. Partners tend to nurture younger consultants and "bring them up" so it can be really hard to integrate into a new firm and rebuild reputational capital while competing with people who have already established themselves as rising stars.

5. Exit opps are pretty comparable across the firms so this also isn't a major reason to move (or at least comparable enough that they don't outweigh the problems with #4 above).

This isn't necessarily true at the Partner level primarily pay is far less formulaic / predictable so this negates #2 above.

The one exception might be when these firms build out new practices. E.g., BCG's PIPE group, which is hiring like mad and recruiting heavily from Bain, EYP, etc. These moves may come with a title bump and the chance to build something new, which is a cool prospect. These aren't opportunities that pop up very frequently given the scale of these firms.

 
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Here's where I've seen it:

1) Intern doesn't get a return offer or didn't get into their MBB they wanted, so they re-recruit the next year for full time and move

2) Manager/PL/EM doesn't get promotion, laterals over to the other firm. Not very common, but I've seen it a couple of times

3) Partner gets poached. Rare, swept under the rug when it happens, burns bridges but for some it's worth the extra money (epecially moving from Bain to BCG or McKinsey, because partners make more over there)

4) I worked for someone that was a consultant at McKinsey, who then went to industry, that got hired by Bain a decade later to lead a practice. Very uncommon.

As for An AC/BA/As moving over, or someone just after business school, I've never seen that happen before. I'm sure it has once or twice, but it's exceedingly rare. Once you have MBB on your resume, the exit opportunities are the same (except Bain has the edge in PE and BCG/McK have the edge in government) so there's no real point in moving over.

That being said, BCG and McK do pay more than Bain and promote you quicker (even after accounting for NAP--don't try to gaslight me), so if you're looking for progression, might as well throw the resume in the pile. Can't hurt, and in this environment, you'd probably get picked up pretty quick.

Remember, always be kind-hearted.
 

what's NAP?? 

i personally know 2 different partners at BCG who got to AP at McK, exited to industry, and then returned to consulting with us. and this is just in my region, i'm sure there are more examples of this elsewhere

 

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