German Consulting Market/Hiring/etc. and experiences with different offices

Question

Hello, I'm new to this site but I did some digging around in the archives and could not find an answer to these questions, so I hope some of you might help.

I'm looking to go into consulting early in 2019 (off-cycle hire/not from BA) and am wondering what the current hiring market is like in Germany right now. I've read a few comments and other online articles that several firms were hiring a lot this year, but could anyone give any insight into if this is correct/why they're hiring more people than usual? Or just elaborate on the subject in general? Will that trend continue into 2019?

Also, does anyone have any experiences (interviewing or otherwise) with different MBB offices in different cities in Germany? I'm German but have no connections in consulting so I am getting started with networking now. I'm young and single and my family lives in the UK so I'm open to different cities. I'm wondering for example the differences in office culture between Berlin/ München/Düsseldorf/Hamburg/Köln/usw. as I know often the city impacts office culture more than the firm itself. I'll be doing my best to network with people from different offices, but wanted to ask here in case I could get a feel for which cities I should focus more on. I know this is especially important since some (all?) of the MBBs do their interviewing in two main offices (I think I read Düsseldorf and München for BCG?) so I won't really get a chance to get a feel for different offices.

Thanks in advance and good luck to other applicants.

Answer 1

Agree with Guennael.

So every office will have their own culture. (WARNING: Stereotypes ahead!)

Berlin - lots of hipster beards
Munich - posh, skiing and Oktoberfest are the two most important seasons of the year
Hamburg - posh, but less in your face about it than Munich.
Köln - probably the mellowest, go crazy around Carnival. People are quite open and approachable. A lot easier to make friends there than in Hamburg or Munich.
Düsseldorf - quite similar to Köln, just a bit posher. Carnival is true there as well
Frankfurt: Why would you go to Frankfurt? ;-)

As you will have guessed by now, there are pointed over-generalisations. However, each office does have their own flavour, which comes from the city it is based in (and obviously the people self-selecting to that office/city). Every office is proud of its city and probably considers it the best / coolest / nicest city in Germany. But it's usually just friendly banter. Except for Cologne and Düsseldorf, they're mortal enemies ;-)

Answer 2

The market is very hot, in Germany and elsewhere. Indeed, a number of offices are constrained by how many qualified people they can hire vs. how much work they have

PS: Regarding 2019... if the economy remains strong, I don't expect the situation to change. If the economy falters... all bets are off. My magic ball is broken, can't tell you more than this sorry