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> 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 re

> 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?
      - barry-cotter 4y ago
        As far as I can tell the proportion of those who have any excuse to do so who smell their own farts well exceeds 50%. If you deny yourself that pleasure more power to you. It’s still the case that just as more is written about Harvard every year than about all community colleges combined there’s more written about MBB than about the rest of the strategy consulting industry combined. People love prestige. If you have inside knowledge might you be able to confirm the dumbest thing I’ve heard about McKinsey, that they have an absolute bar on hiring people with subpar academic credentials? The example I heard was a guy who was being recruited as an MD and when they discovered he’d gotten a third class honours they had to rescind the offer.

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?
    - barry-cotter 4y ago
      As far as I can tell the proportion of those who have any excuse to do so who smell their own farts well exceeds 50%. If you deny yourself that pleasure more power to you. It’s still the case that just as more is written about Harvard every year than about all community colleges combined there’s more written about MBB than about the rest of the strategy consulting industry combined. People love prestige. If you have inside knowledge might you be able to confirm the dumbest thing I’ve heard about McKinsey, that they have an absolute bar on hiring people with subpar academic credentials? The example I heard was a guy who was being recruited as an MD and when they discovered he’d gotten a third class honours they had to rescind the offer.