Hi, I’ve been in consulting for 5 years now (EM) and kind of always assumed that the more senior you get, the less you work (after EM/AP level). You can focus on strategizing, rather than creating slides and excel, and you can rest more while the team is completing work. Recently, I started noticing that my seniors (APs, partners) still have no life. My partner recently complained he can never go to see his son’s soccer team play unless it's a ”good time” on a weekend. So all senior Blinders in consulting - how is your lifestyle? Do you have any regrets about not leaving earlier? Or the life actually gets better and it’s worth to wait a bit? PS. I refer more to pure strategy firms (MBB/OW/S&/Kearney etc), I know lifestyle is a bit different in Big4/Accenture. #consulting #burnout #partnerlife
I work for a boutique. We pay less but most of our senior consultants have great wlb. Basically you have to steer your career path between being a specialist sold resource, being a de facto sales person and doing strategy or having loads of people management. The latter two gives you much more flex wlb
I just quit bcg as a PL for this exact reason. I didn’t want the next 5 years to be 60-70 hr weeks
Where did you go?
It definitely gets more stressful when you're responsible for bringing in revenue and maintaining the relationships. You're pretty insulated at junior levels by the people above you but who insulates your partner from the client and other partners?
Does not get easier at all here
I left right before principal/AP for this reason. I wanted to leave 2 years earlier and kind of regret suffering for that long knowing I wanted to leave But I probably would have had worse exit opps if I left 2 years earlier, so I don’t know whether the suffering was worthwhile in the end
I know I’m not MBB, but you’ve been around long enough at your firm to see the lifestyle of partners. If not, you’re at a point now where you can ask them how they manage their schedules.
No $hit that you discovered that now! Took you 5 years, Sherlock?
Any MBB or B4 are just brand name sweatshops imho. These companies know that their name is worth weight and exit opportunities is where the comp is. I work at a boutique that matches Faang salary. We do Cloud consulting and implementation. Better WLB, higher salary than MBB, and i can shut off after work. I'd say life stays the same at those levels, WLB doesn't change as you climb the ladder at MBB
What firm?
Cloud or tech firms that are in specialized sectors pay the most. Onica revamped their salaries to match FAANG, Slalom, Taos, Sourced Group also did the same. Some of these firms are not known as there not a catch all firm, there specialized and work in specific IT domains (multi cloud, DevOps, site reliability engineering). Hence the TC numbers. Example, our consultants -- Mid/Sr/Architect level makes 150-220k base, not even including the bonus numbers. Entry level or less than 5yoe? We pay 100-130k
Junior partner here . Life doesn’t get better . I continue to work 80+ hour weeks