• Jobs in management consulting can be difficult to land, especially at prestigious firms.
• Management Consulted offers coaching from former MBB consultants and online courses.
• The COO said case interview prep and keeping options open can help aspiring consultants break in.

Jobs in management consulting can be notoriously difficult to land, especially for job seekers hoping to join a prestigious MBB firm — McKinsey, Bain, or BCG.

That's where career coaches come in.

Some aspiring management consultants call in the professionals to walk them through every phase of the application process, from choosing which firms to apply to, submitting their resume and cover letter, and prepping for case study interviews.

Management Consulted, founded in 2008, has worked with more than 15,000 candidates and helped them land jobs at over 170 different firms, according to Namaan Mian, chief operating officer. In addition to online curriculums, the company has around 25 coaches, all of whom formerly worked at an MBB firm.

A top coaching package offered by Management Consulted costs $4,500 and is aimed at those who are at least six months away from actually submitting job applications to firms. The package includes 20 hours of 1:1 sessions with coaches, edits on your resume and cover letter, and access to their online classes.

According to Management Consulted, 80% of their premium clients get at least one job offer from a consulting firm.

For anyone interested in getting into consulting, with the help of professional coaches or not, Mian emphasized a few things that all candidates should focus on.

Don't put all your eggs in one (MBB) basket

Some people interested in consulting are set on joining a prestigious firm, like an MBB or a Big Four — EY, PwC, KPMG, and Deloitte.

While some Management Consulted clients do land at those firms, Mian said it's important applicants keep their options open, and that there are often great opportunities at lesser known firms.

"There are literally hundreds of consulting firms out there doing amazing work," he said. "Some of them pay just as well as the MBB or the Big Four, and nobody's ever heard of them."

Mian noted that Management Consulted's salary report, which includes salary data from more than 100 firms, shows there are plenty of lesser-known companies with high-paying starting salaries.

He said they generally advise clients to identify and focus on six to eight firms. The goal is for clients to have several offers at the end of the process that they can leverage against one another.

Timing is key

Hiring in consulting works on pretty specific timelines, which vary depending on where the applicant is in their schooling, Mian said.

For undergraduates, applications are typically due in June or July, interviews are conducted in August, and offers are given by September or October for positions that start the following summer.

That means undergraduates should ideally figure out by the second semester of sophomore year that they want to go into consulting, so they can start prepping and applying to land internships for their summer after junior year.

For first-year MBAs seeking internships, application deadlines are typically in November, with interviews in January, and offers extended by the end of January for positions that summer.

For second-year MBAs looking for a full-time role. Application deadlines are in August and September, followed by interviews and offers.

Mian said being aware of these timelines so you can prepare and network well in advance is key to landing a consulting role. He said how long you've prepared is "the number one determinant in terms of success."

"If you wait to start preparing for the interview until you already have one, it's almost always too late," he said.

Focus on mastering case studies

Case interviews are a unique and notoriously tough part of getting hired in consulting.

In a case interview, candidates are presented with a business problem and need to develop a plan to solve it in real time. Preparing for case interviews can be the most time-consuming part of getting a job in consulting.

"Case interviews are a skill that I would say don't come naturally to any human being," Niam said, adding, "You have to talk, you have to think, and you have to write at the same time."

Getting to the level of competency needed to succeed in a case interview requires a lot of practice, and specifically practicing out loud with a friend or coach.

That's why starting to prepare early, well before you even submit your application, is crucial, he said. If you wait until you get an interview there won't be enough time to get good as case studies.

Make sure you actually love business

Mian said that although it may seem obvious, before deciding to become a consultant you need to make sure you love business — reading about business, thinking about business, and talking about business.

"At the end of the day, you are solving business problems for larger organizations, and all of your projects have one of three outcomes: You are either working to increase revenue, decrease costs, or update the organizational design," Mian said. "That is my second-grade definition of what a consultant does."

Plenty of people are drawn to consulting because of the prestige and high-paying salaries, he said, but find once they are actually in the job, often spending the majority of their days as a new consultant in Excel, they don't enjoy it.

"If you don't like solving business problems, you're not going to like consulting," he said.

Have a news tip or a story to share? Do you work in consulting or have you worked with a consulting career coach? Contact this reporter at [email protected].

• A team of eleven lawyers from EY have left the firm to join Hunton Andrews Kurth, a US law firm.
• US law firms are expanding their presence in the UK to serve global clients.
• EY's legal division has cut jobs over the past year and is reportedly considering restructuring.

Eleven lawyers from the Big Four firm EY have been poached by the London office of Hunton Andrews Kurth, a US law firm.

The team of departees includes Charles Morrison, a partner and former head of EY's energy-services team; three other partners; a counsel; a consultant; and five associates, the firm said in a statement. They will focus on transactions in the energy sector.

Hunton Andrews Kurth is an energy and infrastructure specialist. It's the 70th-largest law firm in the US by employee numbers, with 754 lawyers in 2023, according to Law.com.

Sam Danon, Hunton Andrews Kurth's managing partner, said that the group "aligns well with our international growth strategy, which is focused on ensuring that we've achieved critical mass in key practices, in core industry focus areas and in geographies where client demand is strong."

Hunton Andrews Kurth has seen demand for its services rise in recent years. Law.com said the firm's revenue rose by 3.5% to $823 million in 2023.

The team's move also plays into a wider trend in the industry — the growing presence of US law firms in the UK. Firms like Latham & Watkins have been building their UK teams to leverage their American client bases in Europe, often poaching staff from legacy British establishments.

Ferdinand Calice, a managing partner of Hunton Andrews Kurth's London office, said the energy-focused corporate and disputes teams in London had "experienced tremendous growth" in the past year.

Since August 2023, more than two dozen lawyers, including two more former EY staffers, have been added to the London office.

EY's legal division in the UK has been struggling. In the past year, the firm has closed down a business unit and held several rounds of layoffs, Financial News reported.

In October, sources told the paper that EY was reviewing the future of its legal arm in the region, considering further layoffs and a joint venture deal with a major international law firm.

EY recorded its poorest performance since 2010 this year, with global revenue rising 3.9% on the previous year to $51.2 billion — a decline on the 16% growth recorded the year before. The slowdown has also hit fellow its Big Four firms: PwC, KPMG, and Deloitte.

EY did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Do you work in the legal division at one of the Big Four firms? Contact this reporter in confidence at [email protected].

• McKinsey will promote about 200 people to partner this year, The Wall Street Journal reported.
• That's down from about 250 partner promotions in 2023.
• Partner payouts at the Big Four consultancies have been falling amid a tough climate for professional services.

Consulting firm McKinsey is promoting one of the smallest groups in recent years to the level of partner.

The firm is only advancing about 200 employees to the coveted position, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing unnamed sources. That marks a 20% reduction from 2023 and as much as half the level of other recent years.

In 2023, McKinsey created about 250 partners, while the number was more than 400 in 2021.

Many employees at major consulting firms view reaching the role of partner as the pinnacle of achievement, a sign of excellence and dedication. Partnerships are participatory, giving individuals a say in the direction of the firm, and those promoted to equity partner receive a share of the annual profits.

That also means any downturn in demand for services hits partners' pockets.

The falling number of partner promotions comes as McKinsey's global staff numbers have grown rapidly. According to its website, there are about 45,000 staff globally, up by almost 50% from the roughly 30,000 people it employed as recently as 2021.

McKinsey did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

McKinsey's partners are not the only senior consultants facing harder times. Partner payouts at the Big Four consultancies have fallen this year.

At EY, partner payouts in the UK were down by 5% this year. UK partners received an average of £723,000 (about $938,000), compared with £761,000 (about $987,000) the previous year.

At PwC, more partners will take early retirement at the end of this year.

Do you work at a consulting firm? Contact this reporter in confidence to share your thoughts on the industry at [email protected]

• Consulting firm McKinsey has agreed to pay over $122 million to settle bribery claims.
• The plan earned McKinsey and McKinsey Africa profits of about $85 million, the US DoJ said.
• A former senior partner at the firm's Africa division pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge.

McKinsey has agreed to pay more than $122 million to settle bribery claims stemming from its work in South Africa, the US Justice Department said in a statement on Thursday.

The payment forms part of a three-year deferred prosecution agreement that would dismiss the charges if McKinsey met certain conditions.

The consulting firm was under investigation for its involvement in a plan to pay bribes to officials at two state-owned and operated companies in South Africa between 2012 and 2016.

According to court documents and admissions, a senior partner agreed to pay bribes to receive confidential and non-public information from officials at Eskom, South Africa's largest energy company, and Transnet, a port and freight rail operator, which helped secure multimillion-dollar consulting contracts. Under the arrangement, McKinsey Africa's partners paid a portion of their fees as bribes to officials at Transnet and Eskom.

The Justice Department said that McKinsey and McKinsey Africa earned profits of about $85 million as a result of the arrangement.

The firm was charged with one count of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in the Southern District of New York.

"McKinsey Africa bribed South African officials in order to obtain lucrative consulting business that generated tens of millions of dollars in profits," said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department's Criminal Division.

A former McKinsey senior partner, Vikas Sagar, separately pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the FCPA.

In a statement, McKinsey said that Sagar had concealed his conduct from the company and had been fired. It added that fees had been repaid to Eskom and Transnet several years ago.

"We publicly apologized in 2018 and chose to take accountable action, including taking responsibility for Sagar's conduct," McKinsey said in the statement.

"McKinsey welcomes the resolution of these matters and the closure of this regretful situation. McKinsey is a very different firm today than when these matters first took place," the firm said.

McKinsey and Company Africa operates in South Africa as a wholly owned and controlled subsidiary of the international consulting firm. The $122,850,000 that the firm has agreed to pay includes a penalty in South Africa.

The Justice Department said McKinsey Africa had received credit for cooperating with its investigation and conducting anti-corruption training for employees.

McKinsey, which is widely considered one of the top three strategy consulting firms in the world, is also close to paying $600 million to settle a separate investigation into its work advising opioid manufacturers on how to boost sales, the FT reported in November.

• AWS recently laid out growth plans for 2025 in internal documents.
• One of the initiatives is focused on working more with consulting firms.
• Accenture was among several consulting firms mentioned by AWS.

Amazon Web Services wants to work more with consulting firms, including Accenture, part of a broader plan to spur growth in 2025, according to an internal planning document obtained by Business Insider.

AWS is looking to expand work with external partners that can sell its cloud services to hundreds of their existing customers. AWS sees an untapped market worth $250 billion and thousands of contracts up for renewal, the document explained.

Beyond Accenture, AWS mentioned Tata Consultancy, DXC Technology, and Atos as partners in the planning document.

AWS will prioritize these partners' existing customers and proactively reach out to them before contract-renewal time, and help the partners become "cloud-first," the document explained.

AWS pioneered cloud computing and still leads this huge and growing market. Over the years, the company has done a lot of work with customers through in-house cloud advisers. So the plan to expand its relationships with outside consulting firms is notable.

Ruba Borno is the VP leading the initiative, which will "review and prioritize partner's incumbent customers based on workloads and relationship," the document also stated.

Borno is a Cisco veteran who joined AWS a few years go to run its global channels and alliances operation, which works with more than 100,000 partners, including consulting firms and systems integrators and software vendors.

These plans are part of new AWS growth initiatives that include a focus on healthcare, business applications, generative AI, and the Middle East region, BI reported last week.

These are part of the AWS sales team's priorities for next year and Amazon refers to them internally as "AGIs," short for "AWS growth initiatives," one of the internal documents shows.

A spokesman for Tata Consultancy declined to comment. Spokespeople at Accenture did not respond to a request for comment.

• McKinsey, Bain, and BCG are top strategy consulting firms with low acceptance rates.
• These firms, known as MBB, serve Fortune 500 companies and offer competitive salaries.
• MBB firms provide prestigious exit opportunities, often leading to senior roles in various sectors.

McKinsey & Company, Bain & Company, and Boston Consulting Group — collectively referred to as MBB — are widely considered the top three strategy consulting firms in the world.

Sometimes referred to as the Big Three, MBB firms are among the most prestigious consulting firms and their clients include many Fortune 500 companies as well as government agencies.

CEOs often turn to these firms for their expertise in business strategy and solving complex problems, whether it's handling mergers and acquisitions or budgeting and cutting costs.

Jobs at MBB firms are famously difficult to land and are among the most sought-after positions for MBA students at top schools. The acceptance rates for these firms is less than 1%. Applicants to top business schools are also far more likely to be accepted into MBA programs if they come from an MBB.

MBB firms typically offer highly competitive salaries, generally paying more than other consulting firms, and often come with demanding work responsibilities and expectations.

MBB firms are also well known for the exit opportunities they provide — employees at these firms are highly sought after for other jobs and often end up with senior positions at Fortune 500 companies, startups, hedge funds, and private equity firms, or start their own companies.

The Big Three is sometimes confused with the Big Four, which refers to the professional services firms Deloitte, EY, KPMG, and PwC. The Big Four are the largest accounting firms in the world though they also offer consulting and other services.

The MBB firms are strategy and management consulting firms. Here's how they compare.

McKinsey & Company

McKinsey is typically considered the most prestigious of the Big Three. It's also the oldest and was founded in 1926.

Headquartered in New York City, McKinsey is also the largest of the MBBs, with more than 45,000 employees across 130 offices worldwide.

McKinsey generated around $16 billion in revenue in 2023 and is led by Bob Sternfels, who serves as the firm's global managing partner and chair of the board of directors.

McKinsey told Business Insider it receives more than one million job applications each year and that the company planned to hire about 6,000 people in 2024, about the same as the year prior.

That would mean McKinsey hires around 0.6% of applicants.

McKinsey's average base salary for new hires out of undergrad is $112,000 and for MBAs $192,000, according to the company Management Consulted, which provides students with coaching for consulting interviews.

McKinsey is notorious for its demanding workload, with even entry-level analysts working 12 to 15 hours a day. One former employee told BI that the experience took a toll on her mental health but she came away with confidence and a Rolodex of contacts.

Boston Consulting Group

BCG was founded in Boston, where it is still headquartered, in 1963. The company had 32,000 employees as of 2023 and 128 offices worldwide.

BCG had a global revenue of about $12 billion in 2023.

BCG is led by Christoph Schweizer, who has served as CEO since 2021, and Rich Lesser, the Global Chair of the firm.

BCG's head of talent, Amber Grewal, told BI more than one million people apply to work at the company each year and that only 1% make the cut.

Amid the boom in generative AI the firm is hiring for a wider mix of roles than it did in years past. "It's going to change the mix of people and expertise that we need," Alicia Pittman, BCG's global people team chair previously told BI.

The average base salary at BCG for hires out of undergrad was $110,000 in 2023 and about $190,000 for MBAs and PhDs, according to Management Consulted.

Bain & Company

Bain was founded in 1973 and is also headquartered in Boston.

The smallest of the Big Three, Bain has around 19,000 employees with offices in 65 cities around the world.

Bain's revenue in 2023 reached $6 billion, according to the Financial Times.

Bain is helmed by Christophe De Vusser, who serves as the worldwide managing partner and CEO.

Bain's average base salary for undergrads in the US is around $90,000, while for new hires with an MBA or PhD it was around $165,000, according to Management Consulted.

Despite the grueling hours and high expectations, Bain is known for a collaborative culture.

"We have a motto, 'A Bainie never lets another Bainie fail,'" Davis Nguyen, a former consultant at the firm, previously told BI. "We all work together from entry-level associate consultants to senior partners. I think that is what makes Bain's culture what it is — that we all work together to achieve a goal and make everyone around us better."

Bain is also considered the "frattiest" of the top firms and is known for a "work hard, play hard" culture, according to Management Consulted.

• The "Big Four" accounting firms employ about 1.5 million people worldwide. 
• Many of these employees make six-figure salaries and are eligible for annual bonuses.  
• Business Insider analyzed data to determine how much employees are paid at these firms. 

The so called "Big Four" accounting firms — Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), KPMG, and Ernst & Young (EY) — are known for paying their staff high salaries. 

An entry-level consultant who just graduated from business school can make over $200,000 a year at the four firms when you include base salary, bonuses, and relocation expenses. 

Several of these firms have faced layoffs and implemented hiring freezes over the past year as demand for consulting services has waned. Still, they're a good bet for anyone looking to land a six-figure job straight out of school. 

Business Insider analyzed the US Office of Foreign Labor Certification's 2023 disclosure data for permanent and temporary foreign workers to find out what PwC, KPMG, EY, and Deloitte paid US-based employees for jobs ranging from entry-level to executive roles. We looked through entries specifically for roles related to management consulting and accounting. This data does not reflect performance bonuses, signing bonuses, and compensation other than base salaries.

Here's how much Deloitte, PwC, KPMG, and EY paid their hires.  

Deloitte paid senior managers between $91,603 to $288,000

With 457,000 employees worldwide, Deloitte employs the most people of any of the 'Big Four.' It pulled in close to $64.9 billion in revenue for the 2023 fiscal year, marking a 9.4% increase from 2022.

Deloitte did not immediately respond to a request for comment on its salary data or 2024 hiring plans.

Here are the salary ranges for consulting and accounting roles: 

• Analyst: $49,219 to $337,500 (includes advisory, business, project delivery, management, and systems)
• Senior business analyst: $97,739 
• Audit and assurance senior assistant: average $58,895
• Consultant: $54,475 to $125,000 (includes advisory, technology strategy, and strategic services)  
• Global business process lead: $180,000 
• Senior consultant: average $122,211
• Manager: average $152,971
• Tax manager: average $117,268
• Senior manager: $91,603 to $288,000  
• Managing director: average $326,769
• Tax managing director: average $248,581
• Principal: $225,000 to $875,000

Principals at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) can make well over $1 million.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) is a global professional services firm with over 370,000 employees worldwide. The firm reported a revenue of more than $53 billion for the 2023 fiscal year, marking a 5.6% increase from 2022. 

PwC did not immediately respond to a request for comment on its salary data or 2024 hiring plans.

Here are the salary ranges for both consulting and accounting roles. 

• Associate: $68,000 to $145,200
• Senior associate: $72,000 to $197,000 
• Manager: $114,300 to $231,000
• Senior manager: $142,000 to $251,000 
• Director: $165,000 to $400,000  
• Managing director: $260,000 to $330,600
• Principal: $1,081,182 to $1,376,196

KPMG offers managing directors anywhere between $230,000 to $485,000

KPMG has over 273,000 employees worldwide. The firm reported a revenue of $36 billion for the 2023 fiscal year, marking a 5% increase from 2022. 

KPMG did not immediately respond to a request for comment on its salary data or 2024 hiring plans.

Here are the salary ranges for consultants, accountants, and leadership at KPMG. 

• Associate: $61,000 to $140,000
• Senior associate: $66,248 to $215,000
• Director: $155,600 to $260,000
• Associate director: $155,700 to $196,600 
• Specialist director: $174,000 to $225,000
• Lead specialist: $140,500 to $200,000
• Senior specialist: $134,000 to $155,000
• Manager: $99,445 to $293,800
• Senior manager: $110,677 to $332,800
• Managing director: $230,000 to $485,000

Statisticians at Ernst & Young (EY) make salaries ranging between $66,000 to $283,500.

EY employs close to 400,000 people worldwide. For the 2023 fiscal year, the firm reported a record revenue of $49.4 billion, marking a 9.3% jump from 2022. 

The firm did not immediately respond to a request for comment on its salary data or 2024 hiring plans.

Here are the salary ranges for consultants, accountants, auditors, and chief executives at the firm: 

• Accountants and auditors: $54,000 to $390,000
• Appraisers and assessors of real estate: $166,626 to $185,444
• Computer systems analyst: $62,000 to $367,510
• Management analyst: $49,220 to $337,500
• Statistician: $66,000 to $283,500
• Financial risk specialist: $62,000 to $342,400
• Actuaries: $84,800 to $291,459
• Economist: $77,000 to $141,000
• Logisticians: $72,000 t0 $275,000
• Mathematicians: $165,136 to $377,000
• Computer and information systems manager: $136,167 to $600,000
• Financial manager: average $320,000

Aman Kidwai and Weng Cheong contributed to an earlier version of this post. 

• Deloitte is planning to cut more roles from its advisory division.
• The "ongoing challenging market" is forcing the firm to restructure, a spokesperson said.
• The growth rate in Deloitte's global consulting division has fallen from 19% in 2023 to 1.9% in 2024.

Deloitte plans to cut more staff from its advisory division as demand for consultancy services declines.

The Big Four firm informed staff on Tuesday that parts of its UK business would be undergoing a restructuring process that would "put some roles at risk of redundancy," Deloitte told Business Insider.

A Deloitte spokesperson said the job cuts were still subject to consultation. Under UK law, all companies making more than 100 redundancies must carry out a consultation for at least 45 days before dismissing employees.

The cuts will affect 180 staff from the strategy, risk and transactions, and the technology and transformation divisions, according to people familiar with the decision, The Financial Times reported.

Deloitte's restructuring is the latest in over a year of redundancies and firings as it tries to balance costs and workforce numbers against slowing demand for consulting services.

This fall, the firm fired about 250 employees from advisory services in the UK who it deemed to be underperforming. A source with knowledge of the matter told Business Insider in October that about 1% of the UK workforce had left the company as part of internal "performance management processes."

Deloitte also carried out 100 redundancies in February 2024 and 800 redundancies in September 2023.

"In the context of an ongoing challenging market, we have to carefully consider the shape of our firm," Deloitte told BI on Wednesday.

The upheaval comes as the major consulting firms struggle to adjust to slowing demand after a surge in growth during the pandemic.

According to its latest annual report, Deloitte's global consulting revenues grew by 1.9% in the 2024 financial year ending 31 May. Over the same period in 2023, consulting revenues grew by 19.1%.

The slowdown has also affected partner payouts at the firm, which fell by 4.5% to about $1.27 million. Equity partners took home roughly $63,000 less than they did a year ago.

Deloitte's global workforce expanded to 460,000 in the 2024 financial year, an increase of 3,000. Tens of thousands of new hires were made in the previous two years.

Do you work at Deloitte? Contact this reporter in confidence to share your thoughts on the industry at [email protected]