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Mentor
Had offers from all 3 and chose Bain. Would do so again due to:
- WLB: yes there are edge cases, but pretty certain we work less, which makes it more sustainable long term. This is driven by culture, team structure, office staffing model
- Business/Work: fastest growing (= more spots at the top), good mix of work with less focus on implementation. Big leadership in some areas (e.g. tech, PE). Huge push to fill in gaps where we have been historically weak (e.g. HC). PE strength gives us access to cool work for PortCos who wouldn’t normally be able to afford us
- Comp: if you’re thinking long term then you can factor in NAP (profit share) as like cash comp (takes 3 years to vest before SM, vests annually after that). With that, we pay the best. SM and above also get co-invest which can be very lucrative
- People/Culture: just seems like people care more about you and people tend to want to build more personal relationships rather than be transactional. Could be self perpetuating, could be driven by hiring or the office staffing mode, I don’t know. But whatever it is, it makes Bain a lovely place to be.
BCG is also a great firm and if you clicked with the people there more than Bain then you should strongly consider it. If you are interested in Healthcare or Public Sector work then you’d also be better off going there as growing our HC business will take time, and we aren’t going to move into public sector anytime soon.
Chose BCG over Bain and McKinsey. You can find great people at every firm so broad statements on here telling you people are definitively better at one are bs. You have your own best intuition of how that fits for you. For me, it was BCG and I felt that was the most important factor.
Other considerations
Staffing - I saw the Bain local office staffing model as a major downside for me as I was restricted to cases served by partners in that office. I liked BCG and McKinsey here because I had more agency. Bain also basically tells you the case you are on for your first year (you did get to input on what factor matters most to you) whereas there is a little more of a free market at McKinsey and BCG (with additional support early on). I.e., my final round Bain buddy could not staff a HC case despite him wanting to be on it, the team wanting him, and him having HC background.
Type of work - I saw McK and BCG as essentially peers in the market with Bain not having many of the same opps./growth. Consistently, McK and BCG partners referenced once another when asking about market competition and never mentioned Bain. Bain PEG is larger relative to their firm overall, but all three seemed plenty big for me to get opps. there.
Exit Opps. - You will get some sort of pitch from the firms that there is differentiation here, but I concluded that there was no noticeable difference here after doing a lot of digging.
Comp. - Was not a factor for me as the benefits are ridiculous at all 3 and never imagined making this much money in my life. After comparing notes with friends after 2 years, it does appear our comp./benefits are marginally better than the other two, but mostly rounding error in grand scheme of things
Time to partner - This was also not a factor for me. Clear difference here though. From fastest to slow (on average) McK then BCG then Bain.
Negative recruiting - McK and BCG never said anything negative about the other two during the conversion process and Bain was aggressively stating "we work less hours" "You won't have as good of apprenticeship" , etc. This really rubbed me the wrong way for a number of reasons.
Mentor
Yes, was referring to Partner at Bain vs MDP at BCG (the fake partner title is ridiculous). Agreed the manager year slows things down, but that’s only relevant if you want to leave in 2 years. Bain comp lags in year 3 because of this, but is then back to being higher in year 4 onwards. Promotion data across NA suggests the range from SM to P is 3.5-5 years with average being ~4.5yrs.
Definitely comp nuances around performance as you describe. Realistically I think it’s easiest to say that for all intents and purposes the comp and progression are identical, with NAP maybe giving Bain the edge when looking over 3+ years (to account for ups and downs).
Not competing in healthcare is maybe a bit strong, but we are sub scale (and are trying to fix this). It’s a tough one though as it requires a lot of technical knowledge that takes time to recruit in.
Would agree about everything else, and if you actually ignore federal/HC we aren’t that much smaller than BCG
Reading all this seems like marketing pitches from each firm :)
Shouldn't it?
I feel the person has already made up his mind and s/he is just looking for validation of his/her thoughts!
Welcome!!!
Mentor
Which city?
Coach
BCG and Bain Chicago both have great reputations! Good choices.
Bain, ended up switching from IB. Obviously my finance background and interest in PE played into choosing Bain. Outside of that, culture I felt, personally, was miles better than M or BCG.