Which Consulting Gigs Are All Hype?
I'm curious—some types of consulting seem to have this aura of prestige, but are they really as high-skill and "elite" as they’re made out to be? Are there certain consulting fields (strategy, econ, management, restructuring, tech etc) that are mostly buzzwords and powerpoint decks rather than real expertise / value-add? If so, what makes them so 'prestigious' & why do they exist? Would love to hear from people who’ve been in the industry or worked with consultants—what’s overhyped and what’s actually legit? Know that this is hugely subjective, and has no bearing on literally anything, but it's something that I've been thinking about.
Also not really focusing on firms, moreso the types of consulting.
Self bump for visibility
It hasn’t even been a day dude
Outside of strategy consulting, which a lot of people just know of because they heard it's really hard to get a job at McKinsey or their nephew got a job there and that was supposedly a big deal, there isn't really "prestige" or "hype" in the field. It's a job that can pay well or not, typically doing a niche type of work most people don't really understand or care to understand, working for a company most people have never heard of / don't really know much about beyond the fact that they saw an ad for them at an airport
I’d agree but what about M&A CO, PE CO, and RX CO?
I feel like management consulting shouldn't really be grouped up the way it is. Beyond the deck construction, the bigger aspect to focus on is that each niche operates entirely differently with different scope, scale and execution of projects with different applicant pools at times too.
Typically, the closer you get to IT Strategy, the closer you get to BA/BSA stream work and product ops job family type work. The closer you get to PE strategy, which encompasses Private Equity Improvement, Principal Investor & Private Equtiy, and other group names, the more transaction experience or PE ecosystem exposure is valued. For Restructuring work, on the quant. side, previous financial modelling experience is valued, on the Strategy Improvement side, previous strategy consulting experience is valued.
The gist of it is that "prestige" kind of exists, but fades pretty quickly once you get into the nuts and bolts of a given group or team. Sure, MBB are the most prestigious, but really, more than the perceived brand value, the reason for their popularity is the optionality in early careers as compared to other firms where you're given the function or group going in.
Put another way, take five candidates, three at each of the MBBs, and two at OW, and Monitor, three years in, their experiences will look nothing alike becaues they'll have focused on the function or domain of most interest to them. Their exit ops will also be heavily driven by their client exposure - so if someone at OW who hasn't worked on the Private Captial team wants to exit into PE, they'll likely need to rotate internally or do an MBA to open doors. In contrast, if someone at Bain wants to pursue a product management gig at a Fintech they just finished a few engagements for, he'll be a front runner for his direct exposure in the PM workflow and exposrue to that specific company.
I'm guessing that you're probably in college or early in your career based on this question? Tbh OP, you'll realize over time that "prestige" is pretty meaningless and is just a dick measuring contest for insecure people with no personality. Once you get in the real world, you'll realize that even things like IT/systems consulting that are scoffed upon on WSO have a very real impact on a company's performance and that nobody can be an expert in everything. Most people just want whoever they're working with to be competent at handling their workstream and getting what they were hired to do done. The only people I know of who still hang their hat on their prestigious positions in PE/HFs are guys who are miserable, despite having all the money in the world, because they have no social or family life to speak of and their bank account is their entire personality.
I think by most objective metrics, strategy at MBB is the most prestigious type of consulting since it pays the most, has the most brand name recognition, leads to multiple opps, etc. Outside of strategy, I don't think anyone would consider any other form of consulting "prestigious". Maybe RX, but that's only at a select few firms, like A&M, and that too because of their comp structure. Having said all that, I know that strategy work isn't a good fit for me because it's not quantitative at all and I actually weirdly enjoy building models in Excel (to some extent) and trying to quantify decisions. I wouldn't thrive at MBB anymore than someone at MBB would thrive trying to build an inventory roll forward to project working capital/liquidity needs.
Yeah, it kind of sucks that someone equally good at "Strategy" as I am at "Corporate Finance" will make more than me, but that's just the breaks sometimes. It's kind of like how a top-tier tennis player will earn more than a squash player, even though they're both racquet sports, because the market values tennis more for whatever reason. At the end of the day though, we're all in a pretty fortunate spot to be making whatever salaries we are at fairly young ages. We can either be happy with what we've achieved or continue to be miserable because there's somebody out there who is not only wealthier, but also taller, smarter, more handsome to boot!
I think a lot of us on this website have a personality of wanting to compete and be better than others (I was in that position too around your age), but most people recognize over time that money/prestige has diminishing returns and that very few people will truly be fulfilled through their career alone.
Very roughly in order of best to worst paying for the average person who stays in it for an entire career, making partner somewhere along the way. But tons of overlap between the lower earners in one type and the higher earners in the next. With top-tier firms for each type of consulting in parentheses.
"Management consulting" is a catch-all term for the above, most closely aligned with the operations & performance improvement group but really can be used to apply to any and all of them.
Consequatur et et delectus sint et illo consectetur. Nesciunt optio labore perferendis sunt.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...