Related Posts
Hello. I am a non traditional student at a target school with considerable experience. I was offered a consultant level role at a B4+ consulting firm with 140 base and 30 sign on bonus. However, I am still in the recruiting cycle for MBB undergrad roles. Should I continue to pursue MBB or cut my losses and go to B4+? McKinsey & Company Boston Consulting Group Bain & Company Deloitte KPMG L.E.K. Consulting EY PwC Strategy& Accenture Oliver Wyman
Conversation Starter
Additional Posts
Post for push testing
Ah now it did.
Post for comments
Post without company
Testing a new post at 12:06PT 5.12
Where is a new build???
On a date with a girl from deloitte
New to Fishbowl?
Download the Fishbowl app to
unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.
unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.
Friend of mine from college is a currently a MD at a BB. He graduated a year ahead of me and looks like he's about 10 years older than I am. He stayed at his first, smaller IB through AS3, then moved to the BB and has been there since. We kept in pretty close touch through his move to the BB, but haven't kept in touch very well since then. His first 6 years or so were awful. For his analyst years, he was consistently at the office for 80-90 hours per week, with another ~20 hours WFH on the weekend. When he made associate, that dropped to 70-80 and 10-15, respectively. When he got the promo to VP, he dropped down to an average 60-70 hours total per week. His base comp at the smaller IB wasn't *that* much higher than what I was making in consulting, but his lowest bonus was ~50% and has ranged to >200%. Frankly, while the TC is great, after seeing how he's aged in his 17 years in IB, I have zero desire to go that route at all.
IB puts in a lot more hours on average than most consultants. But they also don’t travel that much
The decision is whether the incremental ~20 hrs/week (60 vs 80) is worth ~1.5x the salary (120 vs ~200 at my level). IMO those incremental 20 hours are insanely valuable. Like the difference between getting 5 and 7 hours of sleep per night, being able to exercise 3-4 times per week and having my weekends largely work free
100 vs 220k is not a fair rank comparison.
Lol these comparisons are totally off base
So my question is how hard actually is it and how bad are the hours? Is it worth it or are you really sacrificing a lot/too much?
Not hard. Just long hours.
Aren’t ibankers getting Laid off now because it’s a recession?
Depends on what sector / product areas you are aligned to
Ibankers make much more money than consultants at junior level but I believe once one makes partner in consulting, it levels off. I have a few friends who are doing banking post mba, their base is more or less similar to mine but their bonuses are 100-150% of base usually so in TC they make much more. But post partner level it is fairly equal. If you are in this for the long run, I feel consulting provides that balance but if making money in the short-term is important to someone, banking provides the upside but you sacrifice your personal life
My 2 cents — while I find that the hours in consulting seem to be better comparatively at a junior level, they don’t really change as people become more senior. I’ve had managers/senior managers/sometimes even mds pulling the same hours I work as an analyst. Ibanking analysts work a lot more than I do, but their associates and vps have hours that become better and better with each level
This. When I was at D, my SMs routinely worked the worst hours of anyone on my engagements. It was routine for them to log 70-80+ hours per week between client work, BD, and FI. The SM on my last engagement there went 6+ months straight billing no less than 80 hours per week in his promo year.
Salary being similar at certain levels between consulting and IB is a nice thought but the fact their bonus is 100-200% puts them way above. Almost makes salary talk a moot point. My cousin works in IB and he said aside from this year since it’s pandemic, if people didn’t get 100% bonus they’d be upset and maybe leave. Getting 500k in one paycheck compared to the 10% we get just seems unfathomable. It would def make suffering long hours worth it with some light at the end of the tunnel