<p>Hello everyone-</p>
<p>Can anyone give me some basic info about the field of management consulting?</p>
<p>More specifically, I'd like to know the pay range right out of school, and how much successful people in this field are making after a few years on the job. Also, what is one promoted to after an entry level mgmt consulting job? Lastly, what are the hours like? </p>
<p>Any other information is certainly welcome.</p>
<p>Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>Some (extremely helpful) advice sent to me...author requests to remain anonymous. </p>
<p>Recruits to consulting firms straight from undergrad are hired as "Analysts". My first position out of college was with a firm which offered me $62k (but no signing bonus). Friends who got recruited at smaller boutiques were offered $55k, with a $3k signing bonus, and a lot of variations around that. McKinsey specifically offers less than market, because part of the value of working there is in the brand name on the resume, so they save money on that basis. (goldman sachs does the same, from what I understand, at the analyst level).</p>
<p>Lateral hires after a year or two, and positions that are in between Analyst and Associate roles are sometimes called Consultant, Senior Consultant, Junior Associate, etc. Typical salaries in that range are 75k-95k depending on experience. Less than a year out of college I was offered a position at a rival firm for $76k.</p>
<p>Students coming out of top MBA programs who get recruited to top management consulting firms will have the title of Associate, and get offered between $105-120k, with $120k becoming more and more typical. Top analysts may get promoted to Associate directly, although that is rare. An intermediate title like the above ones are much more typical, and some firms require that you get your MBA before they promote you to Associate.</p>
<p>The hours can vary considerably. At a total sweatshop like First Manhattan Consulting Group, 80-90 hour weeks aren't uncommon. Firms that operate on a contingency basis (i.e. a % of money saved for the client, rather than a retainer basis, being paid by the day for each consultant) will work their employees harder because, hey, the more you work the more the partners make (which isn't necessarily true with retainer deals).</p>
<p>The average workweek for the average analyst at the average management consulting firm, based on my experience and people I speak to, seems to be 60-65 hours. That means 9am - 7pm 2 days a week, 9am - 9pm 2 days a week, 9am - 11pm 1 day a week, and the occasional weekend day where you have stuff you need to get done. Some firms load you up with so much stuff that weekend work is routine; others (like Deloitte) won't push you nearly as hard. I had a few 90-hour weeks where I was essentially working 7am - 3am 4 days in a row, and then a presentation day. None of these rough approximations include travel time. 6am flights across the country (required if you need to be on-site at or shortly after 9am) require waking up at 4am at the absolute latest, on a monday morning usually. This can suck, although you can sleep on the flights (and you WILL learn to do so). The major difference in lifestyle between management consultants and investment bankers is that it is possible for consultants to get enough sleep (although many aren't as smart about it, or see sleep deprivation as a macho bragging point). That, and consultants are on the road a lot more.</p>
<p>More info:</p>
<p>"OK,</p>
<p>"Anyway, I have a couple more questions. Do you enjoy the work?"</p>
<p>There were parts of it that were fun. Pure strategy engagements are generally pretty flattering and interesting exercises. However, the only consulting firm that really pays the bills with pure strategy work is Bain. Everyone else, including McKinsey, keeps the lights on with Sourcing work. </p>
<p>Sourcing is tremendously work-intensive stuff, identifying the unit rates that a company is paying for commodities - like, say, raw metals, or printing services, or legal, or IT contingent labor - and then sending out RFPs (Requests for Proposal) to various vendors and getting them to bid against each other to drive the price down. You then beat up a few of them until the costs get even lower, get the client to sign a deal, and collect a portion of the savings as a contingency fee. It can be very creative work, but at the analyst level, you are breaking your ass with databases and excel sheets and international vendor phone calls. In a small firm, you may be lucky enough to be involved directly with vendor negotiations, which is fun (and GREAT experience), but the bigger the firm, the more rare that is.</p>
<p>"Do you find it intellectually stimulating?"</p>
<p>The strategy engagements, sure. Those are practically textbook problems which have real-world implications of millions of dollars - and you are being counted on to provide insights and add value. Sourcing engagements are less so - perhaps 10% of the work is the interesting job of figuring out how you might be able to solve this problem and save costs, and the rest of the time you're implementing those recommendations, which is painful and methodical and not tremendously interesting. </p>
<p>And if you get on an Outsourcing engagement, where you are advising the client on (essentially) who to fire, like Bob and Bob from office space... well, that ends up basically being a year or more of holding the client's hand through a bunch of meetings where people rubber-stamp the (poor) decisions that management has already made, and you're juggling the politics of the situation constantly.</p>
<p>"And finally, what would be the best case scenerio for a 30/35 year old guy who began management consultant after graduating from a respectable school (NYU) and has excelled in the field?"</p>
<p>By that age, you are likely a partner, or shortly will make partner. Best case scenario is either:</p>
<p>1) You are a partner in a major firm. You make 300-500k base salary and a bonus of up to a million per year. Your job is networking your contacts throughout the industry to find possible opportunities to sell work, and selling that work, and your bonus depends on your ability to sell work (in fact, making partner depends on your ability to sell work). </p>
<p>The cool thing about industries like management consulting (and to a slightly lesser degree, law firms) is that there is no rigid pyramid hierarchy. At most companies, there is ONE president, and a set number of vice presidents, and tremendous competition to get those jobs... but really, many factors you can't control will factor into your career path. But in consulting firms, ANYONE can be a partner as long as you can sell work. And once you've sold that work, you bring in your team, and your trusted managers and senior managers, to execute the engagements and deliver the advice to the client. In the right firm, it can be a really fun job... (although you're still flying around the country every week, don't get much time with your family, and have a tough time getting enough sleep)</p>
<p>2) You leave your position as a partner at a top firm to start your own firm, or you are a manager or senior manager who is brought along when a partner above you (who likes you) decides to leave and start his own firm. Small firms can be even more profitable, because you're sharing the rewards with fewer people... but there's more risk attached.</p>
<p>3) If you work for Bain (or, to a lesser extent, McKinsey), you may get an offer directly from a client who you have advised (as a manager or even as a partner), to join their executive team as a senior executive. They'll offer you a ton of money to leave your firm, and from then on you'll have the ability to move from executive position to executive position (as long as you do decently at it), always leveraging your network of contacts.</p>
<p>Note: many consulting firms may talk about this as being common, but it really isn't that common even at BCG or Booz Allen, to say nothing of smaller boutiques. They simply don't have the network of relationships with top companies whose survival depends on the consulting firm's continued support."</p>
<p>Would the best route for one wanting to be a management consultant be to go in general management or operations management?</p>