Specializing in an Industry at MBB
Hi all,
I am interested in MBB potentially post b-school and wanted to better understand how and when folks specialize at each of the MBB firms. If you enter post b-school, are you able to indicate a preference for what industry you'd like to work in? Is it a formal/hard alignment or just a preference that they try to keep in mind when staffing you? If not a hard alignment, at what point at each of the MBB firms does it become more formalized where you would pretty much work exclusively in that industry?
Finally, I think I've seen some info around this somewhere, but would appreciate any insight on whether each of the MBB firms tend to really stick out as stellar in one or two industries?
McKinsey is moving away from the generalist model, but by function not industry...So operations, BTO, Risk, Sales and Marketing, etc. Bain and BCG are pure generalist and you can't really specialize early on. You can suggest certain projects in certain industries, but deal flow will sometimes make this impossible...especially if you're at a smaller office.
Usually at McKinsey/BCG you start specializing at year 2-3, and at Bain around year 4-5....You can do it a bit early if you really want to though.
Strategy& lets you specialize by industry from the start.
Actually, my experience at MBB is NOT this.
Formally you can specialize by function (e.g., ops, BTO, risk, etc.).
Informally, you can specialize pretty much anytime you want, assuming the work is there. If you go to an office in the south and want to specialize in tech, that may be harder than if you were in an office on the west coast. But, assuming the work is there, you can push to get staffed in a certain industry and assuming you do good work, can keep getting staffed in that industry.
This is all that happens a few years out -- you find a home of partners / more senior people you like working with, and you develop expertise in an industry / function. I've seen many cases at MBB where people do this right off the bat, and don't wait 3-4 years. I'd say most people (over 50%) spend their first 2 years after b-school at least somewhat concentrated in an industry. Different people like different things, and they lean towards what they like in staffing, or based on people they've worked with, or based on what type of work has been selling a lot.
The F500 companies are well-split across all three - proportional to their respective sizes. Differences in specialization probably differ more by office location than by firm.
Ops dude covered 99% of it. Caveat might be - all three firms to some degree allow earlier specialization in PE DDs if that's something you want. Secondly, you generally don't have much pick for your first case, but you can start listing prefs as very early on (active networking will also help you here).
But mostly, take it as a privilege that you don't have to specialize early on. There's a unique experience in that.
p.s. earlier specialization happens even more for PhD candidates coming in than business school people
Thanks for all the responses so far. I guess to ask the question a little more tactically, when you enter each of the MBB firms post b-school at the Consultant/Associate level, does your internal profile in anyway designate you to a specific area of the firm? If you come in with previous industry/consulting experience in a specific industry, can you indicate a preference for it and be aligned to that industry going forward right off the bat? Or do all people coming in at that level essentially get assigned to a generalist Consultant/Associate pool, free to be picked up by any project/manager?
It seems that what is consistent based on the previous responses so far is that, at least at McKinsey, you can specialize immediately - but only by function, not industry. If you can't specialize in an industry formally right away, is there specific criteria/milestones to specialize or does it just sort of happen after some time as noted?
Apologies if the questions seem really meticulous - really just interested to understand the difference in how this works across each of the MBB firms. Thanks again.
To my knowledge, except for McK, you come in as a generalist. Through your network and possible expertise, you develop a specialty. I know people out of MHA programs and MBA programs in healthcare that ended up specializing in energy and tech.
Sour patch kid is right on.
That said, time to specialize based on network and possible expertise can vary by person. It's generally more organic and less formal.
Choosing Area of Focus at MBB - Post MBA (Originally Posted: 12/28/2014)
Do post MBA associates at MBB get to choose their area of focus? I have prior ecommerce experience (founded an ecommerce company) and am considering going into MBB post MBA with a LT goal of working in early stage VC focused on ecommerce. Would it be possible to get a position at MBB where I would get to focus on retail/ecommerce exclusively?
Depends.
In general, they use a generalist model (although McKinsey has begun to change...you can apply directly into operations, risk, marketing & sales, etc).
Assuming you come in as a generalist, there's definitely a bias at most firms to get you to work in industries you're familiar with, so if you have retail experience and want to work in retail, it shouldn't be too hard. Bain seems to want people to get more diverse experience in general, so expect for it to a bit harder to do retail only there.
Also, e-commerce doesn't exist as a sector, but retail does. MBB (and most 2nd tier two firms too) is aligned on industry and function. To only do specific things within retail will be much more difficult, especially when you consider how staffing works.
Lastly, it'll never be "exclusively," the consulting firms want you to at least some experience in more than one industry, as they feel it makes you a stronger employee (They love to tell stories such as how they applied queuing knowledge they learned in fast food to airlines boarding for example).
Thanks OpsDude, thats helpful. Is it safe to assume if I focused on retail I'd get significant exposure to ecommerce?
In my experience, no one cares that much - you get staffed where the firm needs bodies
What firm, Optimistic Consultant? At my MBB I've been able to influence industry/function significantly.
At my MBB firm, there is a lot of choice. You can choose to not work in your area of expertise at all if you so choose. That being said, most people try to leverage their backgrounds in some way.
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