4 ms·

Agree in general. However, with MBA programs skewing younger every year, you find people with 2-3 years work experience getting offers from management consultin

Agree in general. However, with MBA programs skewing younger every year, you find people with 2-3 years work experience getting offers from management consulting firms and investment banks at the same salary levels as MBA grads with 5-6 years pre-MBA experience. I think it diverges later on though, especially in consulting. The person with 5-6 years pre-MBA experience tends to climb the rung faster because they have more credibility with clients.

ghaff 11y ago
Fair enough. The big management consulting firms and investment banks are sort of the MBA equivalent of the big-city law firm. (Big salaries, long hours, prior experience not especially required--with the caveat you stated.) In general though, the tail of MBA jobs outside of those areas, especially for people who already have some good work experience, is probably a lot healthier than for law these days.
- exelius 11y ago
  Absolutely; consulting is probably only 25% of the MBA job pool and while they are usually the highest-paid, many people choose to take a slightly lower salary in exchange for not a job that has less travel. Pretty much all of those jobs require long hours as well, but at least you can go home at the end of the night.
  - storgendibal 11y ago
    What's very annoying about consulting, even at the MBBs is that the total compensation is not higher than in big tech when you include equity, at least for the first 3-4 years. Yet the lifestyle is significantly worse. After you hit Associate Principal (at McKinsey) or Manager (at Bain), then it really leaves big tech behind in terms of compensation.
exelius 11y ago
Yeah, that's absolutely the case with consulting. Young kids just don't have the experience or maturity to be a manager at a consulting firm within a year or two, and so it does take them longer to make promotions. I personally don't think an MBA is particularly valuable if you don't have at least some work experience - you'll still make the same dumb mistakes that everyone makes their first few years working, only there will be a lot more attention on you. Investment banks are a different world; they're basically an apprenticeship business where no amount of experience doing anything else can teach you how to do the job. They have been taking far fewer MBAs in recent year.
- storgendibal 11y ago
  That's good to know. I was deciding between PM at a big tech firm and consulting at a couple of MBBs. Went with the PM route, but sometimes consider going back to consulting, although I'd enter at the same, post-MBA associate level. I agree that 3-4 years of work experience really helps during the MBA. 6 is too much though (my case) because partying till 5am becomes a lot harder when you're 30 and all your classmates are 26.

ghaff 11y ago

Fair enough. The big management consulting firms and investment banks are sort of the MBA equivalent of the big-city law firm. (Big salaries, long hours, prior experience not especially required--with the caveat you stated.) In general though, the tail of MBA jobs outside of those areas, especially for people who already have some good work experience, is probably a lot healthier than for law these days.

exelius 11y ago
Absolutely; consulting is probably only 25% of the MBA job pool and while they are usually the highest-paid, many people choose to take a slightly lower salary in exchange for not a job that has less travel. Pretty much all of those jobs require long hours as well, but at least you can go home at the end of the night.
- storgendibal 11y ago
  What's very annoying about consulting, even at the MBBs is that the total compensation is not higher than in big tech when you include equity, at least for the first 3-4 years. Yet the lifestyle is significantly worse. After you hit Associate Principal (at McKinsey) or Manager (at Bain), then it really leaves big tech behind in terms of compensation.

exelius 11y ago

Yeah, that's absolutely the case with consulting. Young kids just don't have the experience or maturity to be a manager at a consulting firm within a year or two, and so it does take them longer to make promotions. I personally don't think an MBA is particularly valuable if you don't have at least some work experience - you'll still make the same dumb mistakes that everyone makes their first few years working, only there will be a lot more attention on you. Investment banks are a different world; they're basically an apprenticeship business where no amount of experience doing anything else can teach you how to do the job. They have been taking far fewer MBAs in recent year.

storgendibal 11y ago
That's good to know. I was deciding between PM at a big tech firm and consulting at a couple of MBBs. Went with the PM route, but sometimes consider going back to consulting, although I'd enter at the same, post-MBA associate level. I agree that 3-4 years of work experience really helps during the MBA. 6 is too much though (my case) because partying till 5am becomes a lot harder when you're 30 and all your classmates are 26.