Career in world’s biggest consulting firms: What you need to know
By Sagamite
(Sagamite is a UK-based Nigerian)
One of the advantages of consulting is the rapid progression if you are in it, and the good exit options when you leave it.
When I say good exit options, that means when you decide to leave consulting and go to industry, it you were in any of the good brands, you are likely to be hired at a grade that is quite high in the company in industry you join. A grade that would have taken you more years of experience to get to if you were not coming from consulting.
It is normal for companies to regard every year of experience in consulting to be equal to 2 years experience of their high performing non-consulting-background staff member. In civil service, they might even compare it 1 to 4. So when you leave consulting, you are most likely going to find yourself hired at a grade where people have a minimum of double the years of your experience. Mine on average has been a ratio of 1 to 3+ but less than 4.
In terms of rapid progression within consulting:
Strategy
These tend to have a 5/6 grade structure, where you are expected to spend 2/3 years on each grade before you progress to the next grade. They have an “up or out” policy. If after 3 years in a grade, you have not qualified for promotion to the next, you get kicked out. Top strategy firms (the MBBs) release 1/3 of their staff every 3 years (lower strategy firms are a bit more relaxed). The ones that make partner make it between 8 to 13 years of being a graduate hire. The ratio of ‘Partner* to Non-partner Consultants’ is usually between 1:6 and 1:12. *For Mckinsey, I have included Directors as Partners.
1. McKinsey grades
– Business Analyst (those with only bachelors)
– Associate (MBA applicants)
– Engagement Manager
– Principal
– Partner
– Director (and Senior Director for the most senior ones)
2. BCG
– Associate (those with only bachelors)
– Consultant (MBA applicants)
– Project Leader
– Principal
– Partner
3. Bain
– Associate Consultant (those with only bachelors)
– Consultant (MBA applicants)
– Case Team Leader
– Manager
– Principal
– Partner
4. Roland Berger
– Junior Consultant (those with only bachelors)
– Consultant (MBA applicants)
– Senior Consultant (MBA applicants also)
– Project Manager
– Principal
– Partner
5. AT Kearney
– Business Analyst (those with only bachelors)
– Senior Business Analyst (those with only bachelors plus 2 years of top quality experience)
– Associate (MBA applicants)
– Manager
– Principal
– Partner
General Advisory/Full Service Advisory
These tend to have a 6/10 grade structure in their Management and Technology consulting arm. The 10 grade structure is normally in their IT consultancy arm. I will focus on only Management Consulting.
There is no ‘up or out’ policy. You usually spend a minimum of 2 years in a grade, but as you become more senior, you can spend far longer on a grade. Only in the junior grades do you rapidly progress until you reach the MBA entry grade. It is usually 2 years each for the first two grades, 3 years for the middle grade and then getting stuck, or 2-5 years on average, on the 2 grades before partner. These other consultancies need scale and there are many consultants that love their work but are not too keen on taking on the stress of higher level, so these consultancies are quite happy to have them. The ones that make partner make it between 10 to 20 years of being a graduate hire. The ratio of ‘Partner to Non-partner Consultants’ is usually between roughly 1:14 to 1:20
Am beginning to like this consulting stuff o, @Sagamite, Private Equity and Consulting, any relationship?
Private Equity has a relationship with consulting. The relationship (based on employment patterns of PE firms) is essentially with Strategy Consulting, not the general Management Consulting. PE and Consulting both involve trying to change a business to operate faster, better and or cheaper so as to maximise shareholder return. The difference is that the PE people do this as THE shareholders, while consultants do this as pure advisers.
PE firms tend to only employ Strategy Consultants from Strategy Houses because what the PE firms do is essentially strategic investing, which means they need people with strong strategy skills and good understanding of Corporate Finance. In Consulting, such work is virtually always found in Strategy Houses (especially MBB and the strategy arm of Oliver Wyman), not in General and Full Advisory firms. There second pool of hires are normally Corporate Finance guys from investment banks.
That said, PE firms tend to hire consultants from the General and Full Advisory firms to advice on implementing the changes required. They hire them on contract or external consultants, in contrast to Strategy consultants that they employ as permanent PE staff.