MBB Job Hopping - How does it work?

Hi all,

I was looking to seek some advice on job hopping across the MBB, as I seek to learn more about the long-term.

I know friends (apprentices) have gone onto do similar, and it is a common practice in Accounting to try switch firms should you not get what you want/for pay increases (i.e. an Audit apprentice at PWC can't move internally to Transaction Services/gets paid better at Deloitte, so moves to Deloitte).

I also am under the assumption frequent job hopping may look a bit poor on a resume, i.e. doing one year at X, moving to Y for 1 year, then to Z for another year. Please correct if wrong.

But, I was looking to enquire about what this is like in MBB. In a more specialised industry with 3 firms at the top (and assuming I want to maintain my brand by sticking to MBB only) - does job-hopping work/exist? Is it common to move, or, is it more a case of being relatively loyal and making a switch sparingly should you ever need to?

If it does exist, what are the logistics of employees moving between MBB go up the hierarchy in each of them (that can differ slightly) i.e. may they lose a year in their seniority?

I am asking as I'd love to know what it takes to obviously go up the chain of command & wondered if job hopping affects that, trying to learn a bit more about the typical progression of consultants (understand also some pivot into PE; some work with PE clients, can build relationships, etc...)

Apologies if I make any poor assumptions, happy to correct if anyone spots any.

Thank you!