Struggling at 10 months in MBB

Hey there, I’m really sorry you’re going through this! Being on PIP, especially coming straight from academia, can be emotionally draining and can make you question everything. You’re not alone in this, even if it feels that way right now.

MBB can be particularly tough if your first projects don’t go well or you don’t immediately “find your tribe.” A few unlucky cases or misaligned managers early on can disproportionately shape perceptions, and many strong consultants don’t have a smooth first year.

A few thoughts that may help you navigate this:

First, reduce the mental pressure.
As prestigious as MBB is, it’s still just a job. It should be challenging and push you out of your comfort zone, but it shouldn’t feel like a constant threat to your self-worth. Taking some pressure off yourself often improves performance.

Second, make the feedback concrete and actionable.
“Independent thinking” and “hypothesis-driven insights” are vague labels. Try to translate them into specific behaviors:

• In which situations did this feedback come up?
• Was it about structuring upfront, prioritization, or drawing conclusions without being told? Speak with former managers or someone you trust to understand exactly what triggered the feedback.

Third, be very deliberate about your next staffing.
Work closely with your PD / staffing manager. Be transparent about needing a project where you can clearly demonstrate progress on this feedback. Before the project starts, align with your next manager on what success should look like by the end, framed as development goals, not as a PIP situation. 

Fourth, optimize for exposure and sponsorship.
Try to understand the workstream, end product, and level of partner exposure upfront. Strong partner feedback is critical to get you out of this situation. Ideally, you find a partner who knows you well and is willing to vouch for you, that will make a real difference.

Fifth, do your diligence on teams.
This is always important, but especially now. Talk to people who’ve worked with the manager/partner before. Are they supportive? Do they invest in junior team members? Will they give you room to grow?

And finally: if after honest reflection you realize you don’t enjoy the work, environment, or lifestyle, it’s not a failure to step away. While 2 years is often ideal, leaving earlier after genuinely trying is far from career-ending. No job is worth sacrificing your health or happiness, especially if your long-term goal is entrepreneurship anyway.

If you want to talk this through in more detail, feel free to reach out. Sometimes having an outside perspective helps cut through the noise :)

hey there :)

This is more common than it feels, especially coming straight from academia, and being on PIP at 10 months does not define your potential or your future. The feedback you mention is very coachable, but it usually takes time, reps, and the right managers, and bad case staffing can really skew outcomes early on. If your long term goal is entrepreneurship or startups, MBB is not the only nor the necessary path, and leaving does not mean failure, it can be a smart re optimization. I would use the PIP period to honestly assess whether you want to adapt to this job or simply extract the brand and move on intentionally, both are valid. Happy to chat if you want to think through next steps calmly.

best,
Alessa :)

Do you enjoy the actual job? 

If not, then it might make sense to already think about switching. But do press your thinking to figure out whether you really don't enjoy it, or whether you don't enjoy it now because things are just not going according to expectations. 

If you do enjoy it and want to turn the situation around, there are a few things you can do. 

First, find a mentor internally OR a coach externally. 

Diagnose with them what is going on and HOW to work on improving on those areas. 

Then you likely need to make some changes internally, re your expectations. One of the things I see often with new consultants, and I had the same experience starting, is that they overdo it. And as a consequence of this, they perform worse. Meaning, they try to push too hard, too many late nights, too few boundaries. That sets off a negative spiral. 

I'm happy to help. Feel free to reach out directly. I've worked with multiple existing consultants on similar situations.

Best,
Cristian

This is a brutal spot, and you are far from the first person to experience the academic-to-MBB culture shock. That shift from deep, comprehensive research to high-speed, hypothesis-driven, 80/20 thinking is the hardest curve we see, and it’s exactly what the feedback ("independent thinking" and "hypothesis driven insights") is pointing toward.

The tough reality you need to internalize quickly is that being put on a PIP at 10 months means the firm has already largely made a decision. While the plan offers technical runway, the internal mechanism is designed to manage the exit process. Fighting to change a fundamental performance dynamic against a timeline is rarely the highest-ROI use of your energy, especially when the required skills gap is so wide.

Given that your ultimate goal is entrepreneurship, the most strategic move is to pivot now while you still carry the title. The immense market value of the MBB brand is maximized when you successfully transition to a post-consulting role. Continuing through the PIP risks an involuntary, fire-coded exit, which complicates your professional narrative and immediate marketability significantly.

Shift your focus entirely. Stop trying to master the MBB performance metrics, and instead focus every spare moment on networking and interviewing for high-growth startups or venture-backed operational roles. Leveraging your current status for a clean exit into your desired field is far more valuable than trying to claw your way back into a job that was merely a stepping stone for you anyway.

Hi there,

What you’re experiencing is more common than it feels especially for people coming straight from academia into MBB. The learning curve is steep early staffing and manager fit matter a lot and being on PIP at 10 months doesn’t automatically mean you’re not capable it often means the transition hasn’t clicked yet. That said the feedback you’re getting independent thinking hypothesis driven insights and prioritization is core consulting muscle and if your long term goal is entrepreneurship or startups those skills are valuable but not strictly necessary to develop inside MBB at all costs. If you feel you can realistically course correct with better staffing and targeted effort it can be worth pushing through short term. If the role is draining you and hurting confidence it’s also completely reasonable to explore exits earlier especially given your stated goals. 

Best,
Evelina

Hello friend!

Happy to mentor and guide you until we turn this around for you! 

Can share a wealth of experience, having been with McKinsey for seven years. This is something you can 100% turnaround (if you feel that's the right thing to do)

All the best! 

Hi there,

Sorry to hear that you're going through this. If I were you, despite the hardship, I'd still try to learn as much as I can from the situation and take it as a challenge to see if I can improve on the feedback that was received. I'd be curious to try and understand how they expect me to demonstrate those skills. Your next steps, whether in a start-up or elsewhere, you will get to this sooner or later. Until then, I'd simply try to not throw in the towel just yet, and try to maximize my learning. In this case, you are still fresh out of school so learning should be your priority.

Ten months in and on PIP is tough. But the feedback you are getting, "independent thinking" and "hypothesis-driven insights," that is not about you being bad at the job. It is about a specific skill gap. You are probably doing solid analysis but waiting to be told what to do, or presenting findings without a clear "so what." Academia trains you to be thorough. Consulting wants you to be decisive. That is a real shift, and it trips up a lot of smart people.

Do you actually want to fight for this? Because you can turn it around. People survive PIPs. It takes focused effort, finding a sponsor, getting on a better-fit case, and showing clear improvement fast. But it is doable.

That said, your goal is entrepreneurship. MBB on your resume for 10 months still means something. You learned the pace, the frameworks, the client exposure. If you leave now on your own terms, you can spin it. If you get exited, it is messier but still not the end of the world.

My take: if your heart is not in consulting and you are only there for the resume stamp, it might be smarter to start looking now while you still control the narrative. Find a startup or early-stage role where your academic depth is valued and the environment fits you better.

But if some part of you wants to prove you can do this, then fight. Get a coach or mentor, fix the skill gap, and claw your way off that PIP.