I’m working at Big 4, should I join McKinsey, BCG or Bain?

Many Big 4 consultants wonder whether they should try to join McKinsey, BCG, or Bain. Joining an MBB from the Big 4 comes with many advantages but also disadvantages. We discuss them in this article.
Jan 5 / Case Interview Hub

The Advantages

Higher Salary & Better Benefits

One of the most obvious advantages from joining MBB (McKinsey, BCG, Bain) from a Big 4 firm is the much higher salary. The revenue upside varies across regions but will be ~50%, depending on the region. For exact numbers for your specific region, check out glassdoor. The numbers there are mostly correct up to project manager at the MBB firms.
A disclaimer here: the salary at the MBB firms is internally very transparent and everyone pretty much knows what base salary you can expect for which level. There is also no negotiation or so going on. So if the person next to you is a project manager just like you, you know that you have the same base salary. The bonus varies of course based on performance and that is why it is hard to generalize salary. Based on your internal rating, the bonus could be anywhere from 10% to 30% of your base salary.
At the Big 4, the salary varies heavily across roles. If you join Strategy& (EY’s strategy consulting practice, formerly Booz & Company), you can expect a much higher salary than joining PwC as a consultant. On a very high level, Strategy& will be more focused on strategy topics similar to the MBB firms while PwC consulting is more focused on operations and tech transformations. Of course, the differentiation is not clear cut and Strategy& will also work on operational efficiency projects and potentially also compete with PwC in certain areas.
The salary upside of course also depends on in which role you can join at the MBB firm. For example, if you are an associate or a senior consultant at the Big 4, you can join as an associate at the MBB firms. Joining on the same level up to project manager is usually not an issue. However, if you have been a manager at the Big 4, it is highly unlikely that MBB firms hire you right aways as a project manager. You probably have to take a step down and work as an associate for a defined period to prove your skills and then secure your promotion to project manager. This could nonetheless mean an increase in salary as associate salary at MBB firms is higher than the manager salary at the Big 4 in some regions.
Thus far, we only touched upon salary, yet the benefits at MBB firms are also better in our experience. Depending on the region, you will get a company car, great private health insurance, free food and drinks at the office, deals at leading retailers, etc. Check out our article on how glamorous working in consulting actually is to learn more about the benefits.
To summarize, whenever you make the move from Big 4 to MBB you can expect an increase in overall compensation. How much this increase actually is heavily depends on from which Big 4 practice you join (e.g., Strategy& vs PwC) and whether you can join at the same hierarchy level at the MBB firm.

More Strategy Projects

The focus of the MBB firms has historically clearly been on high-stake strategy work. That was the starting point and purpose of McKinsey, BCG & Bain and this still holds true. Compared to the Big 4, you will get the chance to work a lot more on general strategy projects like the following ones:
  • Defining the 2030 growth strategy for a leading retailer
  • Developing the inorganic growth roadmap for an insurance player
  • Preparing the strategy for the global expansion of a US based tech company
As you can tell by the these examples and their impact on a company, these type of strategy projects are usually a priority of the executives of the respective companies.
This doesn’t mean that will all of a sudden only work on strategy topics. MBB firms have been branching out lately, also doing more work in operations, implementation, and digital. Check out our article on the consulting industry to learn more about the latest trends and developments.
Nonetheless, you will definitely only work on projects that are a top priority for the senior management, no matter if they are in strategy or finding operational efficiency levers. The reason for that is that the fees for a team of MBB consultants for a week are 2x to 3x higher than for a similar team of Big 4 consultants (excluding Strategy& here - they have a similar (yet lower) fee structure compared to MBB firms). As a client, you will only pay 3x the fees to get an MBB firm if the project is a top priority for you.

More Exposure to Senior Clients

This point goes along with the previous one but is worth mentioning as a separate advantage given that it is a major upside at MBB firms. As you do more top priority work for clients, you will also naturally get more exposure to senior management and executives at the client. With senior client exposure come many advantages.
First, you will be able to learn a lot from senior clients. These executives often have decades of experience in the respective industry, being a decision maker for many years. Among others, you will learn the following things:
  • How executives think about the impact of initiatives on their business
  • How they communicate in meetings and with their employees
  • How they measure success
  • How they communicate and position big strategic decisions in the company
  • How they think in a bigger picture
Some of these points may sound fluffy but let us give you an example. Being able to clearly communicate a strategy and positioning it in the right way with the bigger picture in mind is not an easy task. Companies are often very resistant to change as not every employee is driven and wants to improve the company on a daily basis. Some of the employees are happy with their routine jobs and want to stick exactly to that routine. So learning from executives how to approach strategic transitions and managing to bring all the employees on board is a crucial skill. This not only helps if you are aiming at being a senior management in the industry but also if your goal is to found a start-up.
Second, you will learn about the strategic priorities and operational challenges at the client. Working with the executives on these topics helps you understand how these executives prioritize these topics and in which order they approach them to not cause too much disturbance to the daily operations of the company. This not only helps you for your career in the industry after a potential exit but also to serve your clients better as you have much more transparency about potential initiatives than most of the employees at the client. Knowing so much about the strategic priorities and challenges allows you to be a trusted advisor to client, building a strong relationship. And this leads us to the next point.
Third, you will build a strong network with senior executives. As mentioned in the previous paragraph, after some time serving a client you will have full transparency over strategic priorities and operational challenges. Thus you will be able to form a strong bond with the senior executives. This trust-based relationship not only helps you in your consulting career but also afterwards. You will have a strong network that will help you find a great exit in the industry, joining a client or a competitor. The strong network will also help you if you want to found a start-up as you have a strong relationship with senior executives – this will be especially handy if you found a start-up in the same industry. Check out our blog post about exit opportunities to learn more about the topic.
You can also have exposure to senior executives at the Big 4 but you will have to actively search for these kind of projects. At MBB firms, working for senior executives comes with nearly every project. Thus you will build a strong network with senior decision makers naturally without actively pushing for it. Building such a strong network of senior executives at the Big 4 requires more proactive work. 

Global Staffing

The MBB firms offer global staffing for projects and also rotational programs to offices across the globe. The global staffing opportunities vary across the MBB firms so to learn more about it check out our article on the cultural difference at McKinsey, BCG & Bain.
Global staffing is definitely an upside of the MBB firms compared to the Big 4. Big 4 projects are usually more locally staffed or from the specific region. There are multiple reasons for this. Big 4 firms are much larger than the MBB firms as they not only have consulting but also tax, auditing, etc. Deloitte has ~450,000 employees worldwide, McKinsey is approaching ~50,000. So the pool of local consultants is much larger. A MBB office in a city might have a couple of hundred employees, thereof 70% consultants (the rest is support staff). A Big 4 office in the same city might have a couple of thousand employees.
Another reason is that many of the strategy projects at MBB firms are global initiatives. If you have a project that touches every region the client operates in, you ideally want a global team. So if follow up with projects to implement the strategy in each region later, you already have MBB consultants in each region that know the initiatives and can help your employees implement them. Moreover, MBB firms always want to bring the best to the client. So they will not hesitate to bring in experts from across the globe if it helps the client. This usually becomes more relevant for you once you are a project manager. If you have worked on a niche topic 5 times you can already add tremendous value to a client who is working on the topic for the first time. So if you find your niche you will get to travel a lot and work with senior executives around the globe.

Stronger Internal Network

The MBB hiring process is highly restrictive and only around ~1% of applicants actually get a job offer. Thus, you can imagine that only the most driven and ambitious people end up with a job at McKinsey, BCG & Bain. So the group of people you meet at MBB firms are usually people that will end up in senior positions earlier or later in their career – either in consulting or after an exit.
Working with these ambitious people and building a strong network is very valuable for your career. MBB firms are a bit like a cult – so if you were once at an MBB firm you always feel like you are a part of it. So if you are looking for an exit opportunity, you can just check out the alumni network and reach out to people at companies that you are interested in. And the likelihood of that alumni getting back to you and helping you out is very high. For years there has been a discussion in consulting and among MBA candidates which network is stronger – the alumni network of McKinsey or the one at Harvard Business School. The fact that there is no obvious answer just goes to show how strong the alumni network of MBB firms actually is.
Moreover, if you want to found a start-up, you already have a great network of potential co-founders or early employees. Having an ambitious group of people working towards one goal in a start-up is not only a tremendous growth boost but also helpful in finding investors. 
This doesn’t mean that the network at Big 4 firms is not strong. They also hire ambitious and driven people. But given that these firms are larger and not as restrictive as the MBB firms, you also have people that might be not willing to go the extra mile. Moreover, given the up-or-out culture at the MBB firms, it is natural that MBB consultants exit consulting and find their way in the industry. Up-or-out is not a thing at Big 4 firms so it can be that case that you have manager who is not moving up to director and just keeps on working as a manager for years. So this manager might become complacent, doing projects only in topics he or she knows well and remaining in that position for years. This will not happen at MBB firms as people either make it to partner or leave consulting. Thus you will not have complacent people remaining in their role for a long time at MBB firms.

Exit Opportunities

The exit opportunities are just a consequence of a combination of the points we mentioned in the paragraphs above. As you are working closely with senior executives on pressing strategic topics and operational challenges, you build a strong network with decision makers in the industry.
These close relationship are a door opener for exiting consulting. Most often, clients will approach you proactively, asking whether you are planning on making the move into the industry, offering you a job. As you have been a trusted advisor for years and the client exactly knows what he or she is going to get, you usually also don’t have to run through a series of interviews to get the job. For more on exit opportunities after working McKinsey, BCG, or Bain, check out our blog post.
In addition to the great relationships you build, you also get the ‘MBB stamp of approval’ on your CV. In the business world, every executive knows how difficult it is to get a job at an MBB firm, how fast paced the environment is, and how high the quality standard is. So just having worked a couple of years at an MBB firm already turbo boosts your career.
You will of course also have great exit opportunities at Big 4 firms but they will just be a bit different. You usually will not work as closely with senior executives, especially in more junior roles. Nonetheless, you will have a very attractive profile for an exit.

Clear Value Proposition

MBB firms have a very clear value proposition to clients: they act as trusted advisors for priority topics for (senior) executives. All they do is project work related to improving the performance of a company. There are of course certain conflict of interests and thus Chinese walls are in place. You can’t for example work for two competitors in the same industry. But these conflicts are not as drastic as the ones at Big 4 firms we describe in the next paragraph.
Big 4 firms are a bit difference when it comes to their value proposition. On the one hand, they offer consulting services, but on the other hand they are also working as auditors and tax advisors. This requires very strict internal Chinese walls given that you consult companies on their strategy and operation while at the same time auditing the company. Without Chinese walls, this is a classic conflict of interest. And the latest plans of EY to split the consulting and auditing business just go to show how difficult this topic is. In the end, they did not follow through.
This clear value proposition of MBB firms is not only clear internally but also in the business world. The perception is that MBB firms are strategy consultants – that’s all they do and they are the best at it. If you are working for an MBB firm, you don’t have to explain to someone familiar with McKinsey, BCG & Bain what you do. This is not as clear if you work for a Big 4 firm. You could be doing consulting work, be in tax advisory, work on financial due diligence, or be an auditor.
Of course, once you spend a couple of years at an MBB firm, your job is not to do strategy across all industries. You will specialize yourself in an industry and also a function. But to the outside world, you are a strategy consultant helping companies make decisions. And this makes looking for an exit opportunity easier as your value proposition is clear.

Clear Value Proposition

Last but not least, the prestige that comes with working or having worked for an MBB firm. This point is a culmination of the previous paragraphs.
We already mentioned in the paragraph on Exit Opportunities that a ‘stamp of approval’ of an MBB firm boosts your CV. Anyone working in a management position in a corporate will have heard about the MBB firms and their reputation. They will know about how competitive the firms are, how fast paced the environment is, and what the quality of the work is. This will not only make it easier to transition into the industry but also to find investors or co-founders for your start-up (check out our article on exit opportunities for more information).
Next, having worked for an MBB firm is a great conversation starter at social gatherings/networking events. Especially business majors will know about the MBB firms but the exact type of work the MBB firms do is often nebulous to them if they have never worked with them. Thus, people familiar with MBB firms are often highly interested in what the job actually looks like and what your daily routine actually looks like. The notoriety of the MBB firms also comes with the downside that many associate McKinsey, BCG & Bain with job cuts and cost saving projects, especially people that are not in management positions. However, this is not much different from the Big 4 – for many they have the label as being ‘the annoying auditor’.
This does not mean that working for a Big 4 firm is not prestigious. Similar to the MBB firms, people in the business wolrd know the Big 4 firms. However, their exact type of work is not as clear cut, as we touched upon in the section on value proposition. At the Big 4, your job could involve anything from tax advisory to consulting, so you will have to do more explaining what your actual role is. Moreover, there are many more Big 4 than MBB consultants, making it a much rarer occurrence to meet an MBB consultant. There are around 1.5mn people working at the Big 4 firms while there are only around 100k people working at the MBB firms.

The Disadvantages

We will only briefly touch upon the differences between MBB and Big 4 in this article as we already discussed the reasons for leaving MBB firms extensively in another article.

Worse Lifestyle/Work-Life-Balance

This point heavily depends on which type of projects one is doing at the Big 4. The lifestyle at McKinsey is always bad with some projects being worse than others. As the Big 4 are doing more long-term projects, it can be that consultants find a sweet spot with good lifestyle. We are not talking 9 to 5 here but 9 to 8. Finding projects with that kind of lifestyle is more likely at the Big 4 than at the MBB firms.

Up-or-Out Culture

The up-or-out culture is also a policy that is much more present at MBB firms. The Big 4 offer consultants roles in which they can stay long term. We already touched upon this in the section on the Stronger Internal Network.
'You want to work as a manger with no ambition of making partner at Deloitte? No problem, go ahead.'
At McKinsey, BCG & Bain, this would not be possible. You either move up the ranks or you leave - it’s as simple as that. This can be a downside of working at MBB firms if you value career continuity and just enjoy working in a certain role.

More Time Abroad/Travel

We touched upon the global staffing model of MBB firms in the section on Global Staffing section. This can not only be an advantage but also a disadvantage if you prefer to work locally. We touched upon how tedious travel can be in our article on how glamorous consulting actually is. There are more and more local staffing models to make the job more family friend and to accommodate the needs of parents but in general you will travel more at MBB firms than at the Big 4.