How's life like as a Partner vs an Engagement Manager vs an Associate?

Hello!

Here are my toughts: 

• Responsability: 
  • Associate: Only about your determined workstreams. There are many of this in an engagement, all coordinated by the EM. 
  • EM: Accountable for the success of the project itself, including all the different parts and members.
  • Partner: oversees the whole project, but also responsible for the long-term handling of the clients relationship
• Support: 
  • Associate: none further than visual graphics
  • EM: depends on the office
  • Partner: help of support staff such as EA, etc. 
• Travel: 
  • Associate & EM: depends on the engagements, but usually a traveling engagements would make you be out from monday morning to thursday nights. Occasionally more for workshops, etc. 
  • Partner: much more travel expected, not only to touch base with the different teams but also to attend meetings, clients events, etc. 
• Reporting/reportees: 
  • Associate: none, reports to the EM. 
  • EM: complicated role, since you: 
    • Manage the associates and the BAs under you
    • Respond to the APs and partners above you
  • Partner: all your different teams report to you. 
• Number of engagements you manage at once: 
  • Associate: 1
  • EM: 1
  • Partner: Depends, but up to 4-5. 

Hope it helps!

Cheers, 

Clara

Dear A,

The life isn't getting easier in terms of work-life balance, so while associates do a lot of analytical work, engagement managers are about to do a lot of leadership work, and they are basically one of the most stressed works between associate and partners, being they pressurised from both sides, including the clients. Partners are more focusing on client relationships and selling, but they're working 6 days per week for 12+ hours, and they also need to travel a lot,  usually visiting 2-3 destinations within one week to serve their clients. They have interesting and exiting life, while on the downturns family issues might arise. 

Hope, it helps. Fell free to reach out, if you need any help to secure your interviews and convert them into offers. 
Best,

André

Hi,

basically:

Associate: you are on 1 project full-time, reporting to 1 EM who is there with you full-time

EM: you are leading a team with 1-4 Associates (and BAs & Fellows - depending on the region) at 1 client full-time; doing some client and knowledge development on the side, 

AP (Associate Partner): you have more than 1 client (the more the better) visiting each EM every or every 2nd week, knowlede development on the side

Partner: you have multiple clients, multiple teams,

Hope that helps 

Hi,

As an Associate you are focus on making the analysis and creating the slides for your solution / recommendation. As a Manager, you are making less slides but responsible to whatever output your team generate so if there are quality issues it is always your responsbility first before anyone elese. At this level, you are expected to start understand what is the best way to solve the client's (often ambigious) problem and give direction to the team. You will mostly focus on success of project execution but you will want to start learning business development also.

Partner has more pressure on business development and sales as they basically need to make money for the firm. Their involvement in a single project will be very minimal (e.g. 8 hours a week or less) but they have full responsbilities to ensure the client are satisfied with the deliverable and build a long term relationship with the client.

Hi there, 

As others have explained, the roles from Associate to Manager to Parnter are quite different in nature, your work gets broader while it gets less deep in a particular task. The skills sets required evolved from analytics focused to project execution to eventually sales and account management. 

Life wise, as you progress upwards, you would still be working long hours, but you would have more flexibility in when and how you spend your time, e.g. the team try to fit the Parnters' schedule. 

Best,

Emily

Hi,

Categorizing along a range of topics, here is how things change moving up the ladder:

Travel - More travel to more places more frequently

Exposure - More of your time is spent with the most senior levels of the client

Powerpoint - Much less time (if any) spent in powerpoint. More time commenting on slides/decks

Time - Generally more time poor but more control over your time (i.e. setting expectations/boundaries)

Support - Assistants to maintain your calendar, book your flights, etc.

Compensation - As expected, a whole lot more money to play with

Hi,

For the Engagement Manager, it shifts from working on the deliverable to checking the deliverables and spending most of the time with the client / partners. Lifestyle probably better during the week since you can manage your time, but you should be ready to work on the weekends. It also depends on your personality and how well you can set the boundaries / pushback gently

For the partners it totally depends on the office and the clients:

• You can be doing Finance in New York with your clients in a walking distance, who really know how to work with consultants. However, the working hours can be pretty long
• You can be doing Tech in the Bay Area trying really hard to surprise the tech companies who are doing pretty well without you. The Lifestyle will be still great since its the local norm
• You can have clients all across the US, flying 5 times a week with a miserable lifestyle

Best

Hi there,

The easiest and probably most accurate manner of describing the difference between all the ranks is that the more senior you get, the fewer slides you will make, and the more you will focus on business development and stakeholder management (at the highest level). Second, a big difference is that from a manager or above onwards you would be involved in multiple projects at the same time and would, therefore, have more travel. Similarly, you won't be spending much time at one individual client.