Bain & Company Why does tier 1 consulting pay so much less than tier 1 tech when consulting candidates (usually) go to better schools? I’m talking about software engineers making 200k TC at FAANG vs 130k TC MBB? McKinsey & Company Bain & Company Boston Consulting Group

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Serious answer: MBB has a better trajectory if you’re willing to grind it out. I did FAANG swe internships but didn’t like it and now I’m an EM after 2 YOE and my FAANG friends and I are roughly equal in pay or I outearn them (based on what I think my TC this year should be).

If I make AP in a couple years it’ll really start to diverge. Making L5 isn’t even easy in tech it’s super political and it depends on your team (if you’re on a team that isn’t growing your only promotion hopes are via attrition).

Tech really beats consulting in 2 ways: junior comp those first couple years out of undergrad - not even close - and also the lack of “up or out” means you can get to a level you feel good at and coast for the rest of your career.

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60% of EMs starting as BAs doesn’t mean industry poached half of them. Most of the rest of them started as Associates.

What a clown show

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Object Oriented Programming is harder than aligning shapes on PPTs

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Yea I don’t understand the comparison either - they are completely different jobs. Makes no sense to compare.

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The work my public university professor did in AI. There were only a few hundred people in the world who had that kind of knowledge.

He was paid 600K by my public university and that was “low” considering he could easily go to Google for 2-5MM comp.

So compensation is not some cosmic moral justice of how good, virtuous or hardworking a person you are. It’s about demand and supply for your skill set. Also luck and being at the right place at the right time can make a big difference when it comes to investment related compensation .

You bet there are people who work 2 hrs/day and make millions. But they have a rare skill set and experience that warrants that kind of luxury

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Pay scales very differently in both careers and is an entirely different value proposition. Tech starts higher but does not accelerate as fast for people that stay in the same company. Theoretically consulting scales quicker, especially given that the entry barriers for consulting are much lower, it’s a fair trade off imo

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Apples and oranges. Unlikely an L8 eng could be a Partner or vice versa. Flipside AP and Partners are common hires into Google Amxn etc as t L6-8 but not the other way around ?

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No one “exits into” consulting unless they get fired or laid off

An entry level SWE actually has tangible skills and they don't grow on trees. Much harder to find a competent SWE than a competent business analyst

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Supply and demand

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Your university in tech is a data point but not a significant one. It’s more a product of your parents/income and geography. Can you do the job and deliver tangible outcomes, if you can your degree becomes largely if not completely meaningless.

Asking an MBB firm for tech advice and guidance is also generally a bad idea because they lack the domain expertise and knowledge because they’ve never actually built or maintained these kinds of products.

Also WLB is generally way better in tech

likesmart

Best product manager on my team started in a call center 6 years ago and thought college was bullsh*t. Shes a machine and knows our cx, ux, and what drives nps at a level that you only have in knowing our customers so intimately.

Devs without degrees isn’t uncommon either.

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Because FAANG are tech companies, MBB are consulting companies.

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The better people get the better jobs? It’s not rocket science 😂

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Ludacris thinking. There are tons of brilliant people who don't do mbb nor fang because they aren't engineers or commercially motivated. Plenty in R&D or other low key jobs - don't diss them, you're not necessarily superior

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Nobody is stopping you from hopping over to the Tech side.

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Aptitude probably is, though

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It’s simple, the more in demand and value you bring, the more companies pay for you.

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The question is do you want to put all your eggs in one basket and only have time for that one basket.

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Everything is driven by market and companies from Blaine to Big 4 water down true consulting

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Because top SWE is more scarce - and their companies are far richer.

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Do we consider Product Management as “tech” in this discussion? I left consulting to do Product and it feels like the best of both worlds

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Currently at a finance company but will likely shoot for tech after 2 years of PM experience

For example, I grew up in a rural area and my friends who went to non targets and into tech make more than people I know who went to HYPSM and into consulting at MBB

Guess your friends are smarter. Just how it is, consulting woukd change their salaries if thry needed more applicants.

Because tech is boring af

And getting paid in RSUs means you are giving up a six figure chunk of your net worth or more unless you stay in one role your whole life

Four years.

Which is very typical.
The military - Typical 4 Year Contracts (6/8 as well)
Medical Residency - 4 Years
RSU vesting - 4 Years

Completely different talent markets. I didn’t work in tech but took CS in school and had lots of peers go to FAANG. There’s a relatively small number of suitable candidates who can be solid software engineers (CS and SE majors) coming out of school compared to candidates who could realistically add value in consulting (high number of business grads, and even this isn’t a pre req)

Also OP, are you at a point in your career where you could easily pick between the two (or pivot if you’re still continuing education)? Might be helpful to tailor an answer in the way that helps you most

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Honestly you answered yourself within the question. There’s literally no such thing as a “better” school when they teach the same curriculum and the students that go there held inherent potential as individuals before attending. If you truly believe someone should pay 20k more for a person who went to Baylor rather than community college….you don’t understand how value works and that’s why you’re confused by people who do. The students have the same value proposition, therefore the only differentiator in your question is tech industry vs consulting industry. So you answered your own question, because the industries are different and the school you went to doesn’t matter unless someone in the hiring process acts on a bias over it.

Lol my friend, as someone who went to a low tier undergrad and a top tier grad school, I can tell you the experience was night and day.

Local universities typically teach to the bottom of the class. Elite schools teach to the top of the class and everyone needs to keep up. Also, when your classmates are much smarter and more driven in general, you get way more out of teams and class discussion.

If there were no such thing as a better school then frankly target schools wouldn’t exist.

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Might also have to do with the revenue models, in consulting revenue is a factor of how many resource hours you have at your disposal - so you cannot pay more per resource hour than you are bringing in.

I’m tech you are productive so you a single resource hour can be worth more because you can sell that same product to as many customers as you want without having to significantly scale up resource hours.

Essentially the margins in tech allow for the ability to pay higher amounts. Additionally the talent pool of strong software engineers may not be as large as the pool of potential consultants.

Not margins - overpriced equity

I want to clear a big misconception on this thread about tech. L6 aka 500-600k is NOT a terminal level in tech like partner is at MBB. Any random SWE is allowed to interview for L6 at Google from any low ranked company after they have experience.

The equivalent of L6 or Lead in Tech is Engagement Manager at MBB

So this whole concept of “making it” at L6 is false in tech. L6 is hired externally from many other tech company if you have the required experience.

A better comparison to partner in MBB is VP or Senior Director at least at Tech. VPs at Tier 1 Tech make 2-10M/ year easily and to get there only a single % of SWEs will ever make it that far so you’re not earning lesss in tech if you compare apples to apples

I’m an L8, I moved into tech as an older L6 in my early 30’s from consulting and promoted fairly quickly to L7.

Level matters but so does job family. Some years my partner friends make more, some years with RSU, I make more. None of us are struggling financially. I make more than a more junior partner but more senior partners at B4 or MBB are going to make as much or more (equivalent of L10+). My travel is way better than theirs.

Sometimes I have more WLB, but mostly I work 60+.

Also it can definitely be up or out because if you’re making L8 money you better have an L8 or and responsibility and if you screw up at best more than twice, you’re out.

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