Hours in MBB/Big 4 Consulting

Thank you so much for replying.

Hey thanks so much for replying!! I was wondering if you could give me idea of what these exit opps might be?

Even at MBB there is variability, driven by the culture of your specific team and managers and the case you're on (a high intensity 2-week case will almost certainly have weekend work, for example).

Having said that, I almost never work weekends unless I choose to (i.e., if the end of the week got busy, instead of working till 11pm on Friday I go home at 4pm and do some work on Saturday). That seems pretty consistent with the experience of others I've known. I average right at 60 hours/week with occasional spikes to 80, the hours aren't bad at all compared to law.

http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/consulting-hours

I've polled 30-40 MBB'ers. Typical hours seem to be in the range of 55-70/week. 80+ for PE due diligence engagements. Weekend work is occasionally dictated by team norms, but not usually on a sustained basis. More often, a half day Sunday might result from attending a networking event on Friday afternoon instead of staying in the office.

brj:

I've polled 30-40 MBB'ers. Typical hours seem to be in the range of 55-70/week. 80+ for PE due diligence engagements. Weekend work is occasionally dictated by team norms, but not usually on a sustained basis. More often, a half day Sunday might result from attending a networking event on Friday afternoon instead of staying in the office.

is PE due diligence a good engagement or bad engagement?

Good question. Some people seek them out, some people avoid them like the plague. Like many projects, you work when the client does. In this case that equates to trench warfare. I suppose they make good resume fodder if you want to move to PE at some point, but the hours are brutal. McK and especially Bain do more of them than BCG. L.E.K. (Bain spin-off) does a ton as well. At Bain, you can opt for a 6-month rotation with their PE Group. At 2-4 weeks/project, you can rack up some serious experience in that timeframe.

1. For PE projects at a consulting firm: No. For PE jobs; IB, MBB, or previous PE experience helps a lot.
2. No idea. PE jobs in general are hard to come by.

I would echo everyone above. I have only had weekend work when I am on an intense project, and the managers I have had have been very apologetic about it.

I believe it also depends on the office - NYC would be more intense than other offices, all else being equal.

As far as the PE recruiting question goes, there is definitely a pipeline from consulting, although it's narrower than that from banking. There are specific PE firms that look for consultants, so your best luck would be with those. Headhunters start reaching out to you within a few months of starting work, so you won't have any problems learning about different opportunities.

I only rarely do weekend work and even then it is usually by choice rather than necessity (I.e. I've fucked around on a Friday and not done what I was supposed to do).

Reasonably project is about 60hrs/week....tough project is 80 hours/week. Occassionally (typically a due diligence) you might get beyond that and then it really gets into the weekends but they are rarer and usually short projects anyway.

As always, it's very individual and so much depends on office/manager/type of case etc

60 hours a week is pretty normal with some spikes near 70. A good case with a stable long-term client may even be a little better @ ~55.

I worked about 75 hours a week at McKinsey in London and I say that was pretty normal.

When I started, I used to pretty regularly work one day each weekend (I was overly desperate to prove myself). By the end I was much better at putting down boundaries and didn't used to do any weekend work except for Sunday evening, when I'd usually spend a few hours getting ready for the week.

If I had been smarter, I could have set clearer boundaries from the start and very rarely done any weekend work at all without impacting my trajectory or career.

I wrote in a bit more detail about my working pattern here: http://www.theconsultingcoach.com/articles/how-much-will-i-work-as-a-ma… (apologies for the plug!)

One thing to specify is whether the above estimates include or exclude travel. I can confirm a 58 to 65 hours per week average at my MBB, but that does not include travel which can add about 10 hours. This matters more to some people (say with small children) than others. It's also worth noting that some cities have incredibly easy airport access (think Boston vs New York) and the difference can really add up over the course of a project.

Go to the /r/consulting and search "survey results" There are enough McK/BCG responses to draw some decent conclusions across geographies.

10-12 is standard, unless you're on a due diligence case and/or your manager has no life outside of work

GSB or bust:

10-12 is standard, unless you're on a due diligence case and/or your manager has no life outside of work

For some reason I read that as 10AM-12AM-.

10-12 is more likely typically in by 730-8 out by 7

Ahh okay. One of the things that attracted me to consulting was the hours. Earlier this year I was looking at i-banking, consulting and asset/wealth management (all very different). This summer being at my internship and being around family and friends has really made me realize that i-banking is not for me. I don't mind sacrifice and working hard -- it's necessary at our age and we've had it easy for 21 years of our life so I definitely don't see harm in busting my ass for the first couple of years out of college. But I do need my occasional "me" time, family and friend time and dating time. Relative to i-banking and from what I've read in the Vault guide, consulting hours are nothing compared to i-banking (50-80 hr wks vs. 80-110+ hr wks, respectively) and what has lured me to consulting and away from i-banking. And after reading the thread "Ambition dying, dead, or just put on hold?" and reading the OP working 16 hr works days and many weekends, I'm thinking to myself, if that's the lifestyle, shouldn't I just do i-banking? I do realize hrs vary across firms, but I'm trying to get a holistic "50-foot view" before I start studying for these case studies and applying for FT positions.

I haven't started yet, but speaking to many of my future colleagues has led me to believe that 10-12 hours per day is pretty standard.

FYI, regarding my post, my manager is a workaholic, and so is his boss, the partner. So bear that in mind. Not everywhere is going to be like that. But you do have an astonishing lack of control over your life if one of those partners happens to have you on their radar at your firm.

very much dependent on your project and your director/partner. In my experience 10-12 hours is about right, although some projects are 8-10, and some are 12-14. In a year with a firm I am yet to work weekends. The longest day I had was 7am-1am, due to presentation due by 8am next morning, which was later cancelled.

I had a 2:40am to 1:00am day (due to time change)--that was one of the worst days ever. But I've been told basically to be in the office from 8-9/9:30, as a base. But again, I drew a bad card--the worst part is this project won't end until sometime in 2014. It's looking to be my only project in consulting, lol.

remember that on most projects, you'll really only be working the 4 days a week you're on the road, and maybe half of friday.

You guys are awesome -- thanks for the helpful feedback!

This was my schedule last week:

Monday: Wake up at 4:00AM to catch 6:00AM flight. Don't work on the flight Arrive @ client site around 9:45AM. Work until 7:00PM. Dinner until 8:30PM and then work until 10:00PM. Tuesday & Wednesday: Wake up at 6:45AM and arrive @ client site at 8:00AM. Work until 7:00PM. Dinner until 8:30PM and then work until 11:00PM. Thursday: Wake up at 6:45AM and arrive @ client site at 8:00AM. Work until 4:00PM. Leave to catch 6:00PM flight. Work on the flight. Arrive back in NYC around 10:30PM (flight delayed 1 hour....its been rough getting into LGA the last couple of weeks). Friday: Work in office from 9:00AM until 5:00PM Saturday/Weekend work: It varies, was just 5 hours yesterday but can go from 2-10 hours.

Equates to around 55 hours of work (excluding an hour for lunch every day) during the week

Optimistic Consultant:

This was my schedule last week:

Monday: Wake up at 4:00AM to catch 6:00AM flight. Don't work on the flight Arrive @ client site around 9:45AM. Work until 7:00PM. Dinner until 8:30PM and then work until 10:00PM.
Tuesday & Wednesday: Wake up at 6:45AM and arrive @ client site at 8:00AM. Work until 7:00PM. Dinner until 8:30PM and then work until 11:00PM.
Thursday: Wake up at 6:45AM and arrive @ client site at 8:00AM. Work until 4:00PM. Leave to catch 6:00PM flight. Work on the flight. Arrive back in NYC around 10:30PM (flight delayed 1 hour....its been rough getting into LGA the last couple of weeks).
Friday: Work in office from 9:00AM until 5:00PM
Saturday/Weekend work: It varies, was just 5 hours yesterday but can go from 2-10 hours.

Equates to around 55 hours of work (excluding an hour for lunch every day) during the week

Which industry are you consulting in, if I may ask?

Been pulling 7:30 am - 11:00am on average M - W. ~20 minutes for lunch, ~40 for team dinner.

Varied +/- 2 hours depending on whether or not there's a big meeting coming up.

Thursday is cut short due to the flight. Friday's are laid-back.

~60 hours/wk with occasional very light weekend work (2 - 3 hours)

Typical work week feels like:

Monday: Wake up at 6am to catch 8am flight (floatplane/helicopter) to client. Arrive at office around 9am, work until 7pm.

Tues-Wed: 8:30am-7pm, dinner/gym, then answer emails/random stuff until 10pm

Thurs: 830am-4:30pm, hope on flight back to home office, get home around 6pm, answer emails etc. until 8pm

Fri: 9am-5/6pm, generally super casual

Rarely any weekends, maybe 5 hours total (Sat+Sun) if needed

Works out to be 50-60hrs/week. Have had some late nights, but those are usually once or twice a month.

These lasts couple of posts are making me smile inside!!!! LOL. Like I said, I understand that hours will vary across firms, projects and etc. but I'm glad (based on last couple of posts) that hours are turning out to be between 50 and 70 hrs vs. 80+. Like I said, working my ass off is never the issue. However, I would like my time to go the gym, see my family and friends occassionaly, reflect on my life, etc.

With that being said guys, do you feel that you all have an appropriate balance of work and play? Are you satisfied with the time you get to have your "me time" or hang out with family/friends or date or whatever else social?

Thank you all so much for your feedback!!!

All of these posts seem a bit on the light side of my experience.

8 - 11 is typical. I also take a red-eye about 3 out 4 Sundays. I sleep for a few hours on the plan, then work until 11 or 12 on Monday night. This is typical.

I tend to run a bit harder than others in my company, but that's a point of reference. Keep in mind MBB or similar will work longer hours than Accenture or similar.

How do the hours change as one becomes more senior? Is everyone on the junior team working the same hours? What about for a manager / principal / partner?

The norm on my local case (in MBB) is M-Th arrive at client site by 8:30am, work until 7:30pm, go home, eat dinner, work another 2 hours, then sleep. Friday's are 8:30-6:30 and there is rarely weekend work. This ends up being about 60 hours per week, but very crucially, unlike in other jobs I have worked, there is no downtime/facebook time during the day. I work basically nonstop.

Make sure if you ask people this question you don't frame it as "when do you leave the office?" because everyone works from home.

Pretty similar to what most people have posted. On this project, Monday through Wednesday is ~11 hours of in-office client work per day plus 2-3 hours of client/non-client work after dinner in the hotel room.

Thursday is around 6 hours of work, and Friday is around 4 hours of actual work and the rest is messing around in office, networking, happy hours, etc.

It really depends on the project and how well you can "navigate" your project to get a good role. Also, I try to get ahead on work early in the week so my week is mostly done once I get on the Thursday night plane.

I rarely do work on weekends, though sometimes I will spend a few hours catching up on non-client work and learning new things.

I am at a large tier 2 firm FYI

Anyone?

I would like to know as well...what IS exactly done by consultants (especially analyst ones)? From what we've done in strategy and consulting projects, I feel like it is a lot of bullshit. No offense-it just seems like lots of buzzwords and 'frameworks', but at the end of the day, either nothing is really added or its something management could have done themselves, if they just thought about it a bit.

Anyway I would love to hear otherwise.

This topic has already been written about. Check the Ibank and Consulting Cabaret boards. I can't remember which one.

ok i will roam around searching for the threads but atleast tell me what the hours are like.

no

Only once you make partner, or principal in some cases. Project Leaders work as much if not more than Associates/Consultants do. A lot of people say that your first year as a PL is the worst year ever. With principals it is more varied, some are basically PL's on speed (managing multiple projects with deep involvement), others can be less hands-on/more high-level, with a lot of focus on business development - these are usually close to partnership.

I think it gets worse continuously out of uni until about Principal level and then stays at that level. I also think that in terms of risk-return it CAN be a great career if you're in the right spot.

Thanks, we're talking 65+ hours per week here right?

This is a cop out answer, but it varies by project. I would say in general, no the hours do not get better when you become more senior - you may not be spending as much time doing the grant work, but you will have to allocate your time towards other things - managing people, reviewing work products on analyst, more meetings, proposals, etc..

You'll get more responsibility as you grow senior which will require more of your time.

No.

55-65 is normal. Spikes to 70+ only for big deliverables or PE DD work. Partners tend to do far less production (XLS/PPT time) and much more traveling (2-3 sites/wk), selling, and internal dev stuff.

p.s. pretty busy in that M-Th. I hear IB has more breaks and "waiting for work". Less of that in consulting, if what I hear of IB is true

It varies greatly by project, and by role.

At post MBA, I'd say 50/50 at most. Generally more like 20/80 for client interaction / making slides, doing analysis, reviewing decks, administrative stuff, etc.

i've had projects (due dilligence) where we rarely interacted with the client (5/95) and phases of this current project where more of our time was spent talking to employees, gathering information, than was spent on analyses/slide production/administrative

Interned there for 4 months and worked on mainly 2 detailed valuation projects in Germany. Towards the deadline hours got long (however, I was sometimes being told "you're only an intern, you don't have to work that long... yadda, yadda" from one responsible senior manager on one of the projects) and had to stay until 11pm a couple of times. But in general, I'd say I had to work maybe 50 hours per week (I often stayed longer and did additional research or just got further into all the WACC-/multiple-/DCF-models or Bloomberg to learn), with that being roughly the average hours/week for the majority of employees and nobody working on the weekends. Usually, the higher the rank, the longer the hours.

In my MBB office, the average hours were displayed on a billboard. It was 65-70. Being staffed abroad is the worst as for the hours, since you basically just sleep in a hotel and work the rest of the time.

However, hours vary depending on the office, as some of them face tougher competition from the other firms.