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McKittensey & Company, anyone?

Can we cut down on this WWIII hype already?
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I feel that I accomplished nothing and I am still in the beginning of the journey...
It never ends. It’s a perpetual race to “prestige” and it’s meaningless but there’s some pressure to chase after that. A lot of my cohort is exiting to PE funds and FAANG in a bit and for me, I feel like I have to do that next, too. (Even though I completed an internship as a SWE at FAANG and didn’t like it.)
But I’m also taking a hard look on what I actually want to do, and I honestly just want to write and draw all day. I don’t know how that can be a part of me beyond being hobbies but certainly thinking of alternative master programs other than (just) business school.
I agree on selectivity, not so much on salary. A lot of roles are prestigious but don’t pay a lot (e.g. TFA, political roles, etc)
Pro
You think it will make you happy, but it doesn’t. Nobody cares and you’re still you.
Love this
Rising Star
I’m living my dream
I used to do strat/ops at a FAANG and I'd see all these folks in our group with so much prestige, like HYP-MBB-PE-HS and we're all still making these sillyass slides sometimes. It makes me wonder, what's the point of all this?
There’s no point. We’re all in the rat race and slaves to an insatiable hunger that is rooted in our insecurities. Life is too short to walk down a path without knowing why we’re on it
McKinsey was the best 2 years of my life - incredible people, paid way more than I deserved, and felt like my projects really mattered. I recently took a secondment with a lower prestige company, but it’s a company whose products I’m passionate about. I’m similarly happy/satisfied with life now as I was at McKinsey, despite much lower prestige.
At our levels (ie doing “fine” financially compared to most of the world) I think 80% of it is a mindset/attitude and 20% is actually based on your company (caveat for crazy bosses, life situations, etc)
Agree with the what most have already said. I joined a “prestigious” hedge fund after working in academia. I’m way less happy. Honestly if I knew what I know now, I’d probably wouldn’t have come.
I think there will always be additional hoops to jump through and peers to compare yourself against. I went from HYP to MBB and never feel satisfied as I’m generally chasing some new accomplishment and thinking I could be doing better (e.g., getting the best ratings, getting into HSW). Not sure how healthy it is to be this way but it is what it is.
It’s satisfying but never completing. Accomplishing anything that very few people can is always a great feeling. But That isn’t always correlated with happiness
I would imagine that top PE fund pays the most? I mean if you’re at black rock, you could make your way to millions of dollars like 10-30 million based on deals etc ?
Let me say two things
1. That range is top .01% at PE firms
2. I have a friend of a friend legit that closed a deal that made him over 8 million
Rising Star
I made it to where I thought I wanted to be (Strategy focus reporting to a F100 CEO) and all it did was help me realize what I really wanted to do, which was work with non-profits in education.
Older I get the less igaf