Welcome to Management Consulted, I'm Jenny Rae, the Managing Director. And
today we have the first part for you of a three part series which is focused on
the major types of firms in the consulting industry. We have three types
of firms we're going to focus on across these three videos. One is the top three
firms, the second are tier two firms, and the third are big four firms. So as we go
through this series it's going to be incredibly helpful. I'm going to compare
each of the firm's on six aspects and I'm doing them in groups because of their
relative similarities about each one of them's. So the focus of today's is on
McKinsey, Bain, and BCG. So what sets McKinsey, Bain, and BCG apart? Like I said,
there are six factors that I think distinguish each of the firms from one
another, so I'm going to highlight what McKinsey, Bain, and BCG bring to the
table. The first is branding and prestige with clients. Because McKinsey, Bain, and
BCG have been around, in general, the longest out of the top consulting firms,
they have the greatest niche focus just on pure strategy and command the highest
price point because of generally their expertise but also their brand. They're
able to have access to clients in the Fortune 1000 realm around the world as
well as key executive officers with inside the firm, not only the chief
executive officers but also operating officers in each of the specific divisions.
Because of this the firms are able to create a tremendous amount of
impact and what that would mean for you if you work for one of the firms is that you
have access to really interesting business problems, decision makers at
very senior levels, and also the ability to have an impact on the corporation
that many of you may even know as a household name. The second area are
salaries and perks. Because the firm's command the highest price point
they're generally able to pass that on, not entirely but in part, to the people
who are working down in the trenches - the analysts and associates. And the key goal
here is that you feel valued while you're at the firm, that you're able to
feel adequately compensated, and also that you're able to stay re-energized
based on the fair compensation they give. Usually this compensation is
under what investment bankers would make, but above what any other consulting firm
would pay in the industry. And not only is the salary an important aspect of
the compensation structure, but the perks that go along with it are also important.
In top consulting firms, you're generally put up at very nice hotels, you're given
access to pretty lax expense budgets and you're able to really focus on
lifestyle aspects that are important to you. In addition you are treated with
special perks like in-sight and off-site entertainment. You have a break room,
there's generally food that's pretty free-flowing, and a lot of things that
make the day-to-day job a lot easier. The third aspect of the consulting firms is
training. With training you have both on-site and off-site training. On-site
training starts the first day that you're on the job - that happens formally
usually for two weeks at the beginning of the job, then informally by way of a
mentor. There's ongoing training that happens every one or two months in the
office as well as biannual or annual off-site training usually at a Worman
setting location. The fourth area is culture. Because of the very rigorous
structure that you have to go through in order to get hired at the firm and the
incredibly processed training structure that you go through, there's a lot of
trust in the core skills that a consultant at one of these firms builds -
which means that there's tremendous cohesiveness across the firm. In addition,
interestingly while the firms are brutally competitive with one another
when they are actually you know going head to head when you're working for one
of the firms, after you leave the firms there's generally a mutual respect for
someone who comes out of any one of the top three firms, and there's very little
difference in light of your perspective or the perspective of the industry. Which
leads me to point number five - exit opportunities. Exit opportunities
from the top three firms are essentially limitless. The top three firms are
generally open doors to just about anywhere you might be interested in
going, from private equity to a Ph.D. program and anything in between. You may
be interested in international development or nonprofit work, you may be
interested in entrepreneurship, and generally not only are there
access opportunities that are formal - people that are calling you or access to
job boards - but also the informal network of the firm, again very tight-knit, but
also very far-reaching in many of these realms. Finally point number six - the
interviews. What really distinguishes the top three firms against the others at
least at this point in the game for many of you is that their interviews are very
different - they're incredibly rigorous, they're very expansive so they focus not
only on how you would work with the client but also on how you solve
problems, how you do math, how you think out loud. They test every part of your
communication structure and they're very focused and really understanding who you
would be as a professional on the job. We're going to cover these interviews in
greater detail later on in our series, so make sure that you stay tuned for that.
For now if you have further questions about any of the top three firms, we have
firm profiles on our website and you can also read much more about them at managementconsulted.com.