Hey there,
Speed to make partner/director at Big4 strategy vs MBB
This will depend on following factors:
- Unwavering focus & commitment
- Your own clear expertise, brand & client network- deep industry/functional skills
- Sponsorship & support from leadership team & loyalty to the company
- Team followership i.e. junior people dying to work with and for you
- Solid pipeline of work (many millions as you can imagine) and this will depend on the geography, demand, economy etc
- Luck
If you get the above right, from analyst to partner at BIG4 roughly takes 12-15 years and about the same at MBB maybe 2-3 years shorter given they have fewer levels. If you are exceptional, you can shave off 2-3 years overall but that will require significant commitment and investment of time, effort and life :).
If you join the company as an experienced hire at a certain level, all the above factors still apply and timeline could be longer given you will need time to establish yourself.
Partners who slack off will get caught & managed out or their pay cut. This has happened across MBB and BIG4 in the past 6-9 months.
Those old glory days are over :).
Lifestyle/Work-life balance
This is such a talked about topic but my honest view is that not a single consulting firm is getting this right. They are succeeding in pockets driven by leadership and cultural nuances. But this is something you have to take control and make happen for yourself otherwise work will consume you specially at partner level. Have a look at this thread: https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/does-work-life-balance-improve-with-time-8445
Compensation
Unless you are in Banking/Tech/PE, you will almost always make more in Consulting vs industry roles or in-house consulting. There can be exceptions depending on country/geography and other factors but broadly this will be the case. There are tons of salary reports available, so Google them. MBB compensation will be higher at Partner level but if you sell work and lot of it at BIG4, bonuses can close the gap.