Related Posts
Hello folks at Uber, I’ve been approached by a recruiter for the role of a Regional Operations Manager - Eats’ Marketplace team. Wondering how this fares against the Strategy and Planning team (which I’m guessing is the most elite Strategy team at Uber). Also, should I be looking out for any other non-engineering teams within Uber that are well known for what they do?
Best perks/benefits of working at Google?
I am a B.Tech graduate in EEE . I worked in an Automotive supplier company for 6 months as a GET. Then I moved to Deloitte and working as an IT Auditor with 1 year of experience. What should I do to switch career as a grid automation engineer / Energy consultant in ABB/ Siemens / Hitachi? Is M.Tech mandatory?Siemens ABB Hitachi ABB Power Grids Hitachi energy
More Posts
NWA❗️
Got the call for this piece yesterday.
Senior service desk analyst
Additional Posts in Consulting
CAIA vs CFA?
Deloitte Finance Strategy what work to you do?
Rising Star
Is that email true?
New to Fishbowl?
unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.
It all starts with the clogging of the system at the top. Look at how long directors take to make partner at this firm (4 years on average). Also consider that many directors aren't counseled out, but given another 1-2 years or a path to becoming an "expert." In turn, that clogs up manager promos, which clogs up SA promos, which clogs up A promos.
How did that come to be? Well, first of all, there aren't many partners - in S&, only ~10% of staff are partners; according to publicly available info, ~18% of McK consulting staff are partners (more if you count AP's who have shares in the firm, albeit at lesser amounts).
So, between higher concentration of firm profits in the hands of a few people (without even counting the partner pension) and a lack of a true up or out system at higher levels, it becomes very difficult to provide the promotion pipeline you and I are looking for. Very common story in professional services firms (law, finance, etc.)
Ummm let's be real that every other competitor's promotion takes 2 years and it's pwc's way of being cheap and lowering costs to reconcile with promoting slower with actual capabilities. For the record to all you A2s, I had 90% at next level and the rest partially at next level and I wasn't promoted. There was just no need for more SAs - my partner was honest about it.
MC1- welcome to the world. It's also the "incompetent charmers" that sell instead of do the work and keep your ass in a job
And to be fair to our firm - this is true at almost every place. It's hardly unique to us in consulting. I suspect D might be worse, for starters. Even Bain has a long promotion path; they just happened to hit a great niche with PE and M&A work and had great people, enabling them to keep enjoying success.
It sounds like people started to expect a 2 year promotion which is unreasonable considering it should only be ~10% of the class. That said, the whole black and white of the situation bothers me. If someone truly deserves it and there is a business case, they shouldn't be held back because of some dumb rule.
In my practice anyway
Yeah my practice is top heavy with directors
In MC1's defense, those charmers MC1 was referring to are those who don't sell work, otherwise they wouldn't be considered incompetent. Selling work is their job after all. I'm not expecting a manager to sit and crunch work out with me, though that would be nice
@S1 you have a point there, I'm trying to think about the broad effects of the operating model on counseling out and personal incentives. Here is an oversimplification, but one that I hope is illustrative:
(1) Firm profits are concentrated in the hands of a few partners, and specifically, a few senior partners, meaning that there is less pie to go around for junior partners and directors.
(2) In turn, this blunts the motivation of junior partners and especially directors; the path and criteria to partner isn't especially transparent or necessarily fair, so why work really hard for an uncertain reward?
(3) Nevertheless, the firm requires more people who can sell at least some work and/or provide critical expertise. Therefore, it keeps more directors around.
(4) Repeat steps 2-3 recursively until you reach the associate level.
No one was promoted that year within 2 years - only A3s made it to SA1. Just FYI. Some times it's a bottle neck issue.
They also bring MBAs in at SA. Two years out of school is going to be a tough sell to a client who has the alternative of an MBA with probably 2x experience for the same price.
Right, but the broader question about performance isn't addressed. If all the SAs are spectacular, I'm sure more A2s would accept waiting three years. It's when we see SAs who are underperforming that we get discontent with doing more work, higher quality work, their client facing responsibilities, etc.
Same issue across though. Unfortunately the incompetent charmers with charisma are the ones that get ahead and it's only those under them who notice how bad they are
Guess the new cohort model isn't going to be good for high performers since it's no longer an up or out model and therefore fewer spots at the next level will be open
S1, it is true that clogging at the top occurs. However my point is that while it's hard to coach out directors, we should be coaching out underperforming SAs and Ms. My practice is too top heavy
Or maybe they only think they are outperforming.... 😝
If you don't feel that you are being properly rewarded for your service then you should find a job that meets your expectations.
@S1 - Directors make Partner in avg of 4 years for Strategy&?? That's crazy. In my Advisory practice that's unheard of. At least 5-7 years at Director level before Partner.
Oh yeah - it was a real shock to me when I started seeing some 5 and 6 year people. I know of people who did it in 2 or 3. Personally that is what I would shoot for - that's the real reason I would jump for McK/BCG if I want to keep going in consulting