Why do people want to go into consulting? Seems like a lot of people want to get into MBB, but I don't understand why. I'm a current SWE at a small biotech company 1 years out from graduation making 240k total comp. I also got return offers from FAANG after graduation for 180 TC, 120 base, that I turned down.

Even at McKinsey, base seems to only be ~90k, and most people I know in consulting work 40-50 hours per week. I don't know anyone in my cohort that works more than 25-30.

What gives?

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In no particular order: diversity of work, interesting colleagues, long term salary trajectory, optionality, lifestyle

Bachelor’s in electrical engineering from an HYP who turned down a SWE role for MBB. TC next year (three years out) will be $200k in cash, typical workload of 65hr/wk.

Worse on paper, but the trajectory keeps climbing, even with an exit, and the kind of projects I’ve been able to work on and places I’ve travelled has been amazing. I have some friends who have insane work travel stories from the pre-COVID times.

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I just left faang. Work is just without a doubt cooler. It’s immediately apparent. Depends how much you like programming though. I also wasn’t getting an amazing amount out of my free time anyway. Video games and working out… it gets old. Hobbies aren’t that cool when you don’t have cool friends. My faang friends weren’t that cool. McKinsey people… seem cooler.
And my salary will catch up eventually. Could exit to PE if I really wanted. The graphs intersect at some point unless you’re a truly exceptional programmer at one of a few select companies.

Consulting doesn’t require a foundation of any hard or technical skills, unlike software engineering. We make up for it through having good general problem-solving abilities, communication skills, and work ethic.

Basically, it’s a safer path to more money and better trajectory than most professions, with a few exceptions (software engineering being the main one that people tout coming out of college)

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Great answer

It’s not that deep lol - there are some people who just aren’t interested in SWE. Salaries don’t matter since they didn’t want to pursue that career path in the first place.

Must be nice being you

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