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Consulting is good to build skills. If you are in it for money, then probably missed the point. We make less than banking, PE, hedge funds. The way I look at this is to get the experience of working with executives early on, then leave to be a leader yourself. I do not think of partners as true leaders, mostly because they did not build their own business. To me, they are more like wealth management brokers. Have their own client book and work that to create impact and have a sound financial platform. However, the best and most driven leave for other opportunities. If you want to really get deep in sth and lead more people, then industry is your next step. You can do startup too. In general, the goal for me is to be independent, own something and build a business by using skills I learned.
To be honest. It was the first job I had out of university. I came from very humble beginnings. I actually was temporarily homeless for about 1 week in SF, but I had a car so it wasn’t to bad. I literally cried when I got my signup bonus in my bank account
For some folks here, consulting is definitely just a job. For me, it is like school. I came here to learn. Not a fan of work hours.
Coming out of UG:
1) money is better, unless you go front office banking or programming in tech. But otherwise, this is very competitive.
2) chance to live in a big city. Corporate is mostly in suburbs.
3) variety, challenge, intellectual stimulation, learning curve. Consulting years are like dog years. Every year in consulting means so much more than a year in corporate. Also how many of us actually know exactly what we want to do coming out of school? Consulting gives us the chance to try industries and types of work out until we know. It’s a good stepping stone.
4) people. Some coworkers are bad (especially more senior ones), but people are generally great to work with.
5) balance. Compared to other types of work (thinking of finance and corporate), I think we strike a better balance in comp, intellectual stimulation, work variety, WLB, and trajectory. Sure other types of work are better in some areas but I think overall we strike a good balance.
A couple reasons: 1) I think Consulting is the right place for me on the risk/reward spectrum. It has a lot more in common with entrepreneurship than a corporate gig, but it spreads the risk out across a broad set of Partners. 2) I think the trajectory and ceiling are both generally greater in Consulting than in corporate. 3) I think relationship between compensation/ advancement and performance are greater in Consulting than corporate. 4) I think once you hit Manager, it’s difficult to find the niche corporate roles that justify my current level of compensation.
Because I hate being bored. Consulting allows me to change things up all the time and tackle many different issues for my clients
I had a lot of experience in industry and a masters degree but I wanted to share this with multiple clients in addition to increasing my exposure, credibility, and skill set.
Great 1st interview pointers.. i should note these responses down
The money! The fast paced learning! The ever changing business needs! Well rounded career experience that you can never get in industry. And the PEOPLE! I work with so many talented, smart, ambitious people!!
Believe it or not I enjoy the lifestyle, new cases every 4-12 weeks, new teams, new city’s. I feel I’d get bored pretty quick in industry. Yes, the travel sucks but I think overtime consultancies will rethink the whole constant travel aspect to achieve better sustainability, I know we ate already working on that at BCG
$$
^^ same, definitely humble beginnings. I guess I never had much money, so this was never a driver for me. It is more about impact and folks I work with. I will leave if I cannot do the type of work I came here for. But it is an amazing experience.
Problems throughout my career. Now that I’m a few years in, really wondering if I’m clear on the rationale for staying vs. leaving. For others is it financial security? Future financial opps? Truly enjoy the work in the present state? Don’t know what else to do now that you’re here? Would love to know why you choose to work where you work instead of choose to leave
I was working longer hours in a higher stress job for exactly half my current salary
@A4 I also came from humble beginnings. I’m glad you came through that !
Op here - I suppose what I was wondering was is there some higher order or longer term rationale? Like if you follow the train of ‘so that...’ how far does it go / where does it stop? A lot of what was shared (which is all great and honest stuff!) was about the near term. Where does the bigger picture rationale land you? For example, if you said money and learning, is it...so that I never have to worry about retirement and can put kids through college, and so that I’m the smartest girl / guy in the board room when I’m 60? Just an example but curious what the bigger picture is.
Pay off student loans quickly. 2nd best industry in the US to get a green card after Tech. Harsh but true
It’s interesting that we have so many responses about money. At what levels do you think we are paid more? I know of a lot of folks at all levels associate to director that leave to go to industry, startups, even public sector and non profit and make the same or more than we do. I definitely stay for the people. Generally smart and motivated, the culture of my group is very collaborative. And I like the feeling of helping my clients realize their goals and advance in their careers
Because it paid more money than my engineering offers. But as it turns out: working 50% more (40 vs 60 hours) is not worth making ~7 grand more at all. There’s more earning potential in consulting but it seems to be directly/linearly tied to doing more work. And I mean more hours not just more responsibility
OP it sounds like your asking a more existential question whereas I think generally speaking, many people who get into consulting don’t think through it that far (hence the responses about $). The stability of knowing the career progression, having project variability, and making pretty good money is enough for most to starve off the existential big pic questions... with you coming from non profit, you probably at least had the feeling you were making a big picture difference in the world. Hard to come by that feeling in mainstream consulting. Solving large scale problems in and of themselves isn’t actually life changing - it depends truly on what you are solving that gives you meaning.