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What are the pay grades for C's and M's in S&C?
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How much does a McKinsey 1 st year partner make?
Any Bainees willing to chat/refer?
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Always pick BCG or Bain over McKinsey. Reason is promotion process: after 2 years as an ASC promotion is almost automatic at BCG and Bain; whereas McKinsey makes you jump through hoops, committees and a lot of political games (it’s especially painful when there’s not a lot of studies to get staffed).
AP1 - It's interesting that you frame it as a return to "normal" because when McKinsey moved to biannual promotion committees in 2023, it was explicitly presented as a structural fix to the system. At the time, I remember HR talking points like "monthly EM promotions are too easy, not real promotions with barely any salary increase, etc. hence the shift to a more formal biannual promotion process"... which in practice meant no one was getting promoted (as evidenced by all the 3 or 4 year ASC). So I guess McKinsey is now back to the "normal" process which was portrayed as "broken" 3 years ago.
The "fastest path to equity partner" framing is misleading. While it is technically possible to reach partner 6 years post-MBA, what's the share of people who actually achieve that? I bet it's less than 1%, and that's before factoring in the current staffing environment (if you can't get staffed you won't even make it to EM, let alone equity partner).
At the end of the day, these were always recruiting talking points meant to lure in candidates, and they've long been debunked.
Choose McK and don’t look back. BCG has come a long way but McK still has superior support systems, training & development, c-suite / board driven mindset, consistent ways of working / thinking deeply ingrained in culture that can teach you and serve you well post McK. Source: someone who worked at both
You should tell this to the 3-year associates pervasive at McK
Really wish I picked one of the other 2 - don’t come here
Don’t go to McKinsey - Not the Same Place it used to be
Mentor
Nowhere is ever as it was
Can’t speak to McK but we do an absolute ton of state and local work. Senior partner presented to office recently about a collaboration between state education and broader state government we’re working on.
Recommend you reach out to your RD contact and ask they connect you to folks who do this work.
I’m sure McK would have a similar RD person you could ask
not that this would be the key factor but are the offers the same $$?
Very slight differences, but McK is the lowest
Congratulations! Those are definitely the best 2 for that line of work (Bain doesn’t do much in the public sector) You can’t go wrong!
Jealous congrats, similar background a few years ago, would have loved this choice. A number of reasons why not probably, but I always felt like it was because I was already mid-30s and everyone I spoke to was 27 or below.
I'm not saying it never happens, it just didn't happen for me. Anecdotally, everyone who got to the interview stage in my cohort was on the way younger side.
Congrats! Which city/cities?
Mentor
Can’t speak to BCG, but we do a lot of state and local government work - not sure if you’d be able to fully dedicate to just that work but you could align to the practice overseeing those types of clients. As for promotions, they aren’t guaranteed anywhere and would take similar degrees of politicking and luck at either place.
Mentor
If you are on the traditional consulting path then you are not at a lower salary for focusing on this sector - you’d likely have a secondary practice alignment to buffer your supply of projects.
Culture is also a lot better at BCG than McK; seems like you have a pretty clear choice.