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Any Ohmies in here? $OHM
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Mentor
I'm an old-school big 4 audit partner
(I did spend a number of years in consulting as a newer partner)- no PE firms involved. I would do this again in a heartbeat. I have worked my butt off in my career and, while things are constantly changing, making partner is still one of the best ways for a smart kid growing up without money to make it. Working hard is what I always did. I might as well get compensated for it.
Aim for Partner but understand the different cultures at different firms and see where I best fit with the culture. Why exhaust myself swimming upstream when I can swim downstream in a different river?
But is the path to consulting partnership still there in 2026 and beyond? I keep hearing it’s getting harder to make the jump. McKinsey admitted one of its smallest cohorts. AI seems to be changing the staffing and delivery model.
It is but it is rightly becoming more selective. Too many partners in prior years were there because they just hung around the hoop. Firms are looking more closely at whether you’re actually bringing in new business, leading clients, developing teams etc or just riding on others work. If you back yourself and you believe you’re good enough it’s absolutely still viable (and in much greater numbers than in industry).
Absolutely. There aren’t many career options that have the flexibility and personal development opportunities that are paid at the level we are. Even in the new PE models, while base pay is lower, bonuses and enterprise value growth make it more appealing. The expectations are higher but they were higher when I made partner vs the generation before me. When I made partner average partner compensation was significantly lower than it is now even with the conversion from K1 to W2.
thanks for the explanation - wasn’t aware that the PE owned shops have moved to W2s.
Knowing what has happened to the market and industry, I’d have never entered accounting.
When i started, my partner rolled in at 10 and left by 3 to go chat up clients at the petroleum club. No partner worked past 5. Overtime was for managers and seniors especially.
I foolishly thought with the demographic change, my generation would have a shot, but instead the firms were sold to PE and all we have is a ‘job’ where the prior generation looted the firm.
P1, P2 - perspective on shooting for MD?
Mentor
EY1 - MDs at our firm make a good living and the compensation is not that massively different for a "line partner" when compared to an MD. Remember, as a partner, you pay your own FICA, your insurance is double what the staff pay, and you pay tax on firm income you will never see (phantom income, for things like unallowed business expenses). All in, your gross is about 30% higher as a partner, but not a lot to show for it.
Big leadership roles are where the big money is (they also skew the "average partner" income higher), and those people are going to be offered partner/principal or be converted from MD. You can make a great living as an MD without ever getting to those roles.
no
How can one decide if they have a fair chance at becoming one or not. I am 37 at manager level soon to be SM. I hear people saying that I am a bit late to become a Partner and that ship might have sailed for me…