Hi experts,
What's the ‘survival' rate at MBB during the first year of joining, based on your experience and observations? And what are the frequent reasons for not managing to meet expectations
Specifically, interested in post MBA joiners as Consultant/Associate
Thanks
This varies by country/office, level/seniority and type of practice you enter.
Broadly speaking, very large % of (>50%) experienced hires and/or those with MBA tend to leave within the 1st yr or get counselled out in 1-3 years. Some also fail probation (10-20%). Those who start from ground up (Analyst) tend to stick out and survive the 1st year better. This is based on my experience with friends & wider network.
US, UK, Germany are hyper competitive markets and very brutal.
Some of the top reasons for failing probation or exiting within 1 year:
Hey there,
The survival rate is much higher than what you would expect. MBB interviews (fit and case) - in theory - test for all elements that are needed up until the project manager level. It works out well.
‘’Up our out'' comes at play at higher levels in the hierarchy, e.g., when switching from EM to AP at McKinsey for instance.
Purely based on my observation, out of 100 people that join Mck, maybe 5 leave within the first year. 50% leave because they don't like it and 50% are CTL'ed, counseled to leave = fired.
One year in consulting goes by super quickly and even if your performance is not up to the expected standards, you are cut some slack, get some coaching, special conditions before finally being asked to leave; even then, usually, people don't leave right away but are staying 2-3 more months doing internal work, while looking for a new job.
As we say in German, the soup is not eaten as hot as it is cooked (if that makes sense ;D).
Cheers,
Florian
It depends at which level people enter i.e. BA, Associate, or EM (or higher, which is rare). Out of those groups, BAs seem to have the highest drop out rate because they rarely have prior work experience and often can't really tell what they're getting themselves into (despite best efforts from the firm's side to make sure there's a good fit). However, drop out isn't “high” and I would say only 10/100 BA leaves within year 1. For Associates, the rate might be something like 5/100.
However, in year 2 and 3 the drop out rate increases dramatically and only 20/100 (across these groups) make it to the next stage. This can have various reasons e.g. burn out, CTL, they learnt what they wanted to learn, got a better offer, etc.
Hello!
Totally depends on the year and on the office.
However, the most important thing here, particularly with MBAs, is that people leave not only coz they are kicked out of beacuse they burn out, but because the market outside is very hot and interesting offers arrive all the time.
For this I was mentioning that it depends very much on the year, since in recessions turnover is dramatically lower than in times of economic boom.
Hope it helps!
Cheers,
Clara
It depends on your geography and office - I can comment for the US and UK and say that those who leave before 1 year are usually the ones who want to leave as the fit isn't quite right.
For those who are “struggling”, there is a lot of support given as we understand you are new and can't be an expert after 6 months. The “survival rate” is a better metric after 2 years because at this point you are up for promotion and have had enough time to prove yourself.
Long-winded way of saying that “survival rate” from my experience post MBA is very high for 1 year but comes down a bit after 18 months/2 years
Hi there,
Hard to put a number on it as it obviously varies by region, company, and role. Additionally, I'd say churn rate has almost doubled since covid hit (consulting WFH isn't fun).
I'd put it at 75% survival rate 1st year and 50% 2nd.
Around 15%, but most part of that is people who realize that consulting is not what they are looking for.
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