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What’s FDD like at Bain, BCG, or McKinsey?
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Pro - more money than big4, you can progress faster if you are good at what you do.
Con - maternity/paternity leave is poor, less handholding if you are a younger staff so no real training. Comp is based on collections not billings so even if you had a decent billing and don’t collect you are screwed. Also the % you collect is a black hole, no one really knows how it’s determined.
The % is what reflects performance. Within a given level, the range between top and bottom performer is usually about 6-7%. If you perform consistently over time, you should get an extra 1-2% each year as you advance. It’s very transparent.
No regrets. Pros for me:
-Faster promotion timelines
-Far less frustrating bureaucracy and BS extracurriculars
-More control over my clients/projects/workflows and far less unnecessary travel
-Therefore, better flexibility and WLB
-More interesting work and clients
-Far more say in deciding what new kinds of work and clients I take on based on my interests/goals
-Much smarter and more competent teams. In my experience, people at A&M are just more professional and higher caliber than their B4 counterparts
-Much more transparent management, with high visibility into what’s going on at the leadership-level, regular interaction from partners, and partners being much more involved with their teams/projects
-More Entrepreneurial environment with the ability to participate in BD work, pitches, client networking events, and other opportunities to build a book of business from an early stage
And then of course there’s the fact that I make twice as much as I would at B4
The only cons I can think of are that we run leaner so we don’t have fancy offices and amenities, extravagant travel expenses and company events, or a bunch of company swag handouts. None of which are particularly important to me. There’s also the lack of offshore teams but to me that’s actually a positive. Offshore teams are only good if you do commoditized work which luckily we steer clear of
Bro unless you are doing a groundbreaking new time of q of e and ddl and nwc. You are doing commodity type of work lol
I went and came back. It’s essentially a totally different job so I don’t think you can compare it the same. If you left EY and went to another Big 4 you’re basically changing the color of your badge. A&M is very different, from the comp model to how you work.
The first team I was on was 4 Senior Directors and 1 Manager. Everyone was crazy smart and experienced but it felt like a group of individual contributors rather than a team. Each had their own section of the deliverable and essentially wrote that and then they put it all together. This means there was very little learning from each other but more an assumption that you’re already an expert. Similarly my buddy got on a job but it was just him for nearly 9 months. The pieces I like about D are the teams and the people and the ability to learn and collaborate with others and this just didn’t have the same vibe.
On the comp side, A&M had some v good upside but a lot more downside. It wasn’t uncommon for people to have $200k swings in comp year to year which personally made planning a lot harder.
I actually had the individual contributor experience at Pwc and hated it as a senior who wanted to learn from managers and up. Quite frustrating.
Pros:
- $ a lot more, it’s not even close.
- Rates are higher, so more $
- less backoffice people who do nothing, so more $
- a lot less partners that do nothing, so more $
- more complex and interesting work
- no audit = no independence rules
- much higher average caliber of people
- more senior staff = less babysitting junior staff
- high accessibility to senior management
- a lot less bureaucracy
- more flexibility in career and WLB (decline projects, less worthless travel, less go to office for no reason, etc.)
- a lot less worthless non-client initiatives and events
- highly transparent comp and promotion model, much less political
- did i mention, more $?
Cons:
- less training and handholding if you are early career
- bonus is a huge component of total comp, so cash flow could be an issue in the first year
- less brand recognition
- some projects can feel like every thing is on fire all of the time in some groups (ex, restructuring)
- difficult to slack off / cruise
That hasn’t been true in my office unless you are a select few. A lot of people were pressured to come in more often (granted they weren’t showing up for months at a time)
I made the switch and have no regrets. More transparent leadership. Slightly more interesting projects. More money. More “senior” mix of staff on projects.
I agree on everything except for the projects. Majority for me have been super simple add ons or classic PE roll up strategy. Smaller companies generally means more straightforward business. Would still make the move 100x over
It’s a more eat what you kill environment but agree with some of Ds points. Nobody here is going to hold your hand and guide your career. You kinda are expected to be an expert and can be rewarded significantly but have to be proactive about it
Turnover is so low so I would be surprised if many examples- at least in TAG
From what I heard their TAG group is great. I’m curious the base pay for Analyst —> SD. Been looking around but can’t find a clear cut answer.
Also I know that bonus can vary a lot, but usually what percent of base is bonus for Analyst —> SD?
Much appreciated!
Specific to TAG, no regrets and wish I made the switch sooner. Maybe 1 in 50 people who come from Big4 will leave to do similar work, but going back to Big4 almost never happens. Big4 is steady but no upside unless you want to be a partner and stay through retirement for the pension. For TAG type work, there are maybe only a couple other smaller firms that are worth considering.
I do regret it. I had more support at big4 than here in terms of available resources and trainings. A&M is a sweatshop, you do almost everything by yourself. On the flipside, you learn a lot by doing so, but it’s draining. I also think the flexibility at big4 is way better, like you can pick 10 hours per day to work and can run errands middle of the day. At A&M, it is def not easy to sneak out for 2 hrs during the day for appointments/errands because you are expected to be online all the time. This could vary base on your team but it’s my personal experience. Big4 offer better Parental/maternity benefits, if that’s something you want to consider.
Key word used here is “sneak.” Just message your manager saying, “hey - gotta run a couple errands real quick, be back online at XX o’clock.” Never had this be an issue with my staff (unless they weren’t hitting deadlines) or for me.
Turnover typically has ranged from between 3-8% in TAG globally over the last couple of years from what they tell us which I think is way better than B4
Are they chasing you too? :)
Yes their recruiter reached out to me on LinkedIn.
Also know someone who said they regretted it
Did they boomerang back to Bug4?
F
I know a couple of people who hated it - exceptionally sharp elbows
Can you please elaborate?
I spoke with them and job wasn’t what recruiter pitched.
What do you mean?