Bain & Company How is attrition/relative happiness at the MBBs compared to Big 4/the rest nowadays?
It seems as though the lion’s share of complaint posts on here and Reddit come from Big 4 consultants, specifically around the topics of attrition and issues with their firms, teams, or projects. Does MBB seem quieter because it’s better there, or are the disgruntled MBBers just not as loud as Big 4 folks?
McKinsey & Company Boston Consulting Group Bain & Company
Rough shape. High attrition and low happiness overall with meaningful concerns about the quality/training of our new hires.
^^you ain't lying about that
Big 4 in my experience (I worked at both) is much more political and luck getting on good projects that lead to promotions creates a lot of unfairness. I knew very capable and very incapable people at Big 4 carrying the same titles!
Subject Expert
Or maybe because B4 headcount is significantly larger than MBB headcount.
We vent to our own.
Unhappy or incapable prople get pushed out much quicker in MBB
I think MBBers are more conscious about their brands and don't air dirty laundry as much.
Just not as loud. MBB are also struggling to retain talents
Mentor
Everything above is valid. Personally speaking (n = 1) I'm very content here. Leadership has made a lot of concessions recently due to COVID and MB raising salaries, and there's constant internal discussion about sustainability and checking everyone is happy (almost a little too much for me actually!).
Mentor
I could do without having the Diversity agenda rammed down my throat all the time. The irony of there being a compete lack of any vocal opposition - or at least indifference - if not lost on me.
If I could find a better value prop (along a number of dimensions) then I'd leave. I've looked, interviewed, had offers, but nothing has been (very) close yet.
We get paid more
MBB consultants are too busy to complain (longer work hours)
MBB is probably too busy to even breathe let alone be “loud” haha
Also believe the strict up or out culture with upward feedback also taking seriously creates an environment where there is not as much politics at MBB (exits everywhere) and merit being awarded versus Big 4 where you have to play the game and do +1s to get promoted/staffed on the better projects while also thinking about utilization. MBB does a better job at staffing you in your area of interest and the expectation to deliver is so high due to the higher rates, you do not have any time for +1s and are not expected to do so unless PL/SM/EM level or above. Utilization also hardly comes up. End result is the ability to be flexible in your type of case work and also have the name brand for the best exit ops (such as PE deal side), so do not think they have that much of problem getting consultants to stick around for at least 2-4 years
We get paid more and also understand coming in it is likely to be miserable from a work life balance perspective. So perhaps our expectations are aligned better. I am ex Big 4.
Just a matter of representation. Big 4 plus Accenture employ somewhere around 1.5 million people globally. MBB employ under 100k. So even if the complaint rate was the same, you'd see a lot more from big 4 + A.
Customer is CEO with MBB work. Big 4 works one level or more down.
I think be it B4 or MBB both of us are driven by the customer. For MBB it might be a COO or CEO or whatever, for B4 it might be some vertical head.
Agree with BCG 6. I am an ex big 4 now at MBB. Coming in you know WLB is going to be screwed. And you get paid for it, quality of work is high, brand value which translates to good options if you want to exit. Sustainability is being discussed but work hours have become worse
We are just stronger/better😂
It's from all their turbo-charging👀
The more you pay me the less noise you will hear from me. Hours cannot get worse!
I wonder how tech strategy cases work at MBB be implementation strategy cases at b4. Like is the way of working that drastically different ?
I think the key difference for tech strategy is that Big 4 and A almost always have an answer they want to lead their clients to, so that they have a role in implementation. Less biased way of driving cases as MBB.