So my friend at PwC said they’re having “utilization concerns” and think it might negatively impact them come EoY… here’s my question - why do firms track this if staffing ultimately has your fate? I don’t think we track this, which makes sense to me because staffing says “hey you’re going to be doing X for date Y-Z.” How can you benchmark people on something driven by business demand?

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Staffing at B4 is very different from MBB. At B4, it's relationship driven and resource management/staffing/whatever their name is largely just does behinds the scenes work and doesn't do much at all to staff people on projects outside of your first project at the firm. It also tends to be a very siloed process with next to no visibility outside of your own network.

Frankly, that kind of staffing model is broken, no matter how much the hardliners defend it in the name of networking.

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Adding onto this, utilization is a metric that rolls up to PMDs via managed revenue. While utilization impacts a single person, managed revenue looks at several to a bunch of people in aggregate. There are also metrics for practice profitability and the like, which all roll back down to tracking utilization for a single person.

Former B4 here. Staffing doesn’t ultimately have your fate, unless you’re a 1st year analyst with 0 network (and first years are given extreme leniency). It’s quite easy to hit utilization as long as you have a good reputation and network. Also projects are much longer there (think 6-12 months) so it’s not like you’re scrambling every 3-6 weeks to find something.

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This is true, and you will certainly have issues, but utilization will not be among them. It is nearly impossible to switch practice areas in the B4 but your current area will do everything possible to keep you stuck there and staffed. TLDR; you’ll be billing a bunch in an area that you have no interest in.

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McKinsey 1 is spot on. Getting on projects in new verticals / groups is like pulling teeth. Lots of alignment/support is needed from your current group and desired future group

Senior management at big firms wants an easily measurable metric they can use to stack rank everyone quickly. Meaningful nuances like the role of staffing, overall business flow and luck are very hard to measure, quantify and rank people with.

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I wish admin utilized Tier 1 supports with teachers. Smiles, appreciations and acknowledging ones efforts would do a great deal to boost morale and climate. I just don’t understand what that is so hard to do.

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