3 ms·

Consulting covers a lot of different companies with different requirements. You very much can find one where you work a large but acceptable number of hours out

Consulting covers a lot of different companies with different requirements. You very much can find one where you work a large but acceptable number of hours outside of the occasional crunch (50-ish is easy to find). Also no one does 100+h/wk. That’s not even physically possible. Even juniors in IB which is notorious for being gruelling are actually not doing much during the day. The main issue is that work really starts when your partner finishes their day of meetings and things have to be ready for the next morning.

voisin 4y ago
I agree that no one is working 100+ hr/wk but you still have to be in the office that long. I.e. you don’t have time away from the office to partake in hobbies and other interests. Any management consultant (McKinsey, Bain, BCG, etc) not travelling at least 4 full days and in the office 2 of the other 3 isn’t making enough money to be relevant to this conversation. Again, it is time being sucked away from other aspects of your life, regardless of whether you’re working or not.
- WastingMyTime89 4y ago
  > Any management consultant (McKinsey, Bain, BCG, etc) not travelling at least 4 full days and in the office 2 of the other 3 isn’t making enough money to be relevant to this conversation. That’s ridiculous. There is a world outside of the top 3 strategy consulting companies where people do make good money. What you just did is akin to limiting IT to Google, Apple and Meta. Plus even there, assignments don’t always have you travelling for days especially if you work from a capital as your clients are likely to be there too. You don’t work 6 days a week every week and the hours get a lot more reasonable as you climb the ladder. And I say that while not even thinking it’s a good job. I have been in and out of consulting (yes you can go back) during the past decade and think this stint will be my last. When it’s nice, it can be very nice but when it sucks, it sucks a lot. Also at some point you actually forget if you really do interesting things or just get really good at selling what you do.
  - barry-cotter 4y ago
    > There is a world outside of the top 3 strategy consulting companies where people do make good money. But no one cares about them. In comparison with MBB they have no cachet or prestige. If you want to make good money there are many options. If you want to tell your fellow Princeton graduates that you did well on the post graduation job hunt you don’t want to say you got hired by Walmart Labs, you want to say you got hired by Google. Deloitte is the Walmart Labs in this analogy, not Google (MBB).
    - WastingMyTime89 4y ago
      > But no one cares about them. In comparison with MBB they have no cachet or prestige. That’s 21 years old with delusion speech. The MBB are nice because they pay better and have a great alumni network. Still I can assure you that both the customers and employees of the other companies do care very much about what they actually do. In the real world, no one gives a damn about the MBB. 99% of the population don’t know they exist and the rest of your promotion is too occupied living its own life to care about what you do. The whole prestige thing is just catnip for insecure graduates which is nice for the MBB recruitment pool that being said.
      - barry-cotter 4y ago
        Struck a nerve, huh? Don’t worry. Like you said in your original comment there’s money to be made in consulting outside MBB and as you just wrote most of the population doesn’t know consulting exists at all, never mind who’s prestigious. But everyone in consulting knows, same as those insecure 21 year olds.
        WastingMyTime89 4y ago
        I like how you assume I have never worked for a MBB. Some of us don't smell our own farts, you know. People view of how things work change drastically between their junior years, i.e. nearly students, and grade above manager where you start selling. I'm highly tempted to answer you: you will understand when you have grown up but that would be a touch condescending, wouldn't it?

voisin 4y ago

I agree that no one is working 100+ hr/wk but you still have to be in the office that long. I.e. you don’t have time away from the office to partake in hobbies and other interests. Any management consultant (McKinsey, Bain, BCG, etc) not travelling at least 4 full days and in the office 2 of the other 3 isn’t making enough money to be relevant to this conversation. Again, it is time being sucked away from other aspects of your life, regardless of whether you’re working or not.

WastingMyTime89 4y ago
> Any management consultant (McKinsey, Bain, BCG, etc) not travelling at least 4 full days and in the office 2 of the other 3 isn’t making enough money to be relevant to this conversation. That’s ridiculous. There is a world outside of the top 3 strategy consulting companies where people do make good money. What you just did is akin to limiting IT to Google, Apple and Meta. Plus even there, assignments don’t always have you travelling for days especially if you work from a capital as your clients are likely to be there too. You don’t work 6 days a week every week and the hours get a lot more reasonable as you climb the ladder. And I say that while not even thinking it’s a good job. I have been in and out of consulting (yes you can go back) during the past decade and think this stint will be my last. When it’s nice, it can be very nice but when it sucks, it sucks a lot. Also at some point you actually forget if you really do interesting things or just get really good at selling what you do.
- barry-cotter 4y ago
  > There is a world outside of the top 3 strategy consulting companies where people do make good money. But no one cares about them. In comparison with MBB they have no cachet or prestige. If you want to make good money there are many options. If you want to tell your fellow Princeton graduates that you did well on the post graduation job hunt you don’t want to say you got hired by Walmart Labs, you want to say you got hired by Google. Deloitte is the Walmart Labs in this analogy, not Google (MBB).
  - WastingMyTime89 4y ago
    > But no one cares about them. In comparison with MBB they have no cachet or prestige. That’s 21 years old with delusion speech. The MBB are nice because they pay better and have a great alumni network. Still I can assure you that both the customers and employees of the other companies do care very much about what they actually do. In the real world, no one gives a damn about the MBB. 99% of the population don’t know they exist and the rest of your promotion is too occupied living its own life to care about what you do. The whole prestige thing is just catnip for insecure graduates which is nice for the MBB recruitment pool that being said.
    - barry-cotter 4y ago
      Struck a nerve, huh? Don’t worry. Like you said in your original comment there’s money to be made in consulting outside MBB and as you just wrote most of the population doesn’t know consulting exists at all, never mind who’s prestigious. But everyone in consulting knows, same as those insecure 21 year olds.
      - WastingMyTime89 4y ago
        I like how you assume I have never worked for a MBB. Some of us don't smell our own farts, you know. People view of how things work change drastically between their junior years, i.e. nearly students, and grade above manager where you start selling. I'm highly tempted to answer you: you will understand when you have grown up but that would be a touch condescending, wouldn't it?