Colleague culture

Just wondering how the employees of an MBB firm behave with each other. Is it the same dog-eat-dog mentality like in ib or is there camradarie, good friendships blooming under all the high pressure work?

How often do firms have something like a cocktail party/dinner/trekking camp etc to ensure co-workers develop a good rapport with each other?

 
knowledgeispower:

people are pretty much the same everywhere fucktard..i wasnt looking for a 4 page detailed report..just a brief idea

That's your response to a perfectly reasonable statement? you sound like you're going to be a blast to work with

"Yes. Money has been a little bit tight lately, but at the end of my life, when I'm sitting on my yacht, am I gonna be thinking about how much money I have? No. I'm gonna be thinking about how many friends I have and my children and my comedy albums."
 
Best Response

A few thoughts from someone currently in a MBB

My gut says that this is fairly accurate across the 3 firms and geographies

Yes, generally there is a lot more camaraderie than say in IB (when I compare with my summer internship in IBD and my housemates who are FT BB analysts). Everyone is a bit more relaxed and friendly. Probably a few reasons why...

  • Everyone is less sleep deprived, which makes a huge difference
  • People generally have more of a life outside work (largely work-free weekends = time to do stuff = better adjusted people = more things to talk about than work and work politics)
  • The MBB firms are (largely) a meritocracy, you succeeding as an analyst/associate will not impact the chances of others. There is no quota for who gets B-school sponsorship or who gets the promotion. Yes there are politics and a bit of jockeying, but honestly all the people I've worked with have been easy going about this kind of stuff. Maybe cause our bonuses are tiny...
  • You also rarely work with someone at the same tenure as you, so there is very little in-your-face direct comparison. I have no idea how my cohort is doing Mon-Thurs, and really don't have much visibility on whether they're doing good work or note. The fact that you're not in each others faces 24/7 5 days a week also minimises general b*tchiness.
  • This is controversial, but I'm pretty confident that consulting recruits/self-selects less a$$holes than finance.

A few downsides though

  • You're traveling Mon-Thursday and are not staffed with people of the same tenure, so it takes quite a bit of time to develop good friendships with your cohort.

  • Your social experience fluctuates constantly depending on what your team is like. Some teams will be super fun and active, others will be more work orientated (e.g., if you get a manager with young kids, or if all the young guys/girls on the team are married)

As with all firms and all jobs, your mileage may vary. You could end up in a great office or a bad one, with a sociable intake or a intake where no one makes the effort.

Re: Social events. There's the regular friday afternoon drinks in the staff room, and general office events which happen every few months. Team events happen once or twice during a project, and can be pretty much anything your team settles on. Could be a weekend away at the Partner's holiday home, laser tag, bowling...or just a nice dinner.

Hope this helps - MBB isn't some sort of amazing, super-friendly nirvana - but on a whole the rapport is there and you are working with a nice bunch of people.

 

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