Hi, I heard that many top consulting firms review and rate juniors on a half-year basis. How do the scores/review used in the firms? Are Partners going to read your reviews before being staffed on his project? What is the role of this review?
Thanks!
At McKinsey, until Partner, all consultants are evaluated on a semi-annual basis. The 'rating' is based on your trajectory towards partner election and is used mainly for the purposes of promotion and year-end bonus. The review is intended to evaluate a consultant's progress towards partnership at that tenure, identify strengths and development areas including apprenticeship recomendations, and if relevant, consider for promotion.
Some partners (it depends on the situation and office but staffing is often done more by the project manager/junior partner) will be interested to know how you have been performing but the rating alone doesn't tell you much and so they will typically ask around to the consultant's previous teams. This is why partners will always choose to work with strong performers that they have worked with in the past. At the same time, a super strong performer may not always be the best fit for projects which require certain skills, etc. and so the rating is often more of a filter. The official review memo is never distributed beyond the consultant and evaluator, however the partner may coincidentally sit in your review committee and happen to have more insight.
Hi Anonymous,
The reviews are used for:
Partners don't read reviews and I am not even sure if they have direct access to it. What's more important than written reviews is your real-life performance and your reputation.
Hope that helps - if so, please be so kind to give it a thumbs-up with the green upvote button below!
Robert
Hi there,
Thats correct. Speaking about Accenture and Big 4 there is a mid-year and then a full-year performance review. Final performance rating is given at year end. Junior consultants (and in fact everyone) are enrouraged to have meaningful performance discussions at least monthly with their line managers/mentors/partners to avoid surprised during the official rounds.
But here's where it gets tricky.... the best and most interesting roles are more often than not filled through networking. Partners/Directors/Senior Managers will often bring in people they absolutely trust to get the job done. When they can't find anyone available at a particular time they will ask around their network to "recommend someone their network trusts". So, while people might not read your performance reviews, your reputation and performance feedback will travel far and wide verbally. Unfortunately if you are a low performer, pretty much all key people will know. There are support systems in place to help people improve performance etc etc but its hard work- I hope you get the point.
Summary: Perform well, keep talking to key people to avoid surprises & be visible.
The half-yearly review process consolidates reviews you get from the people you work with on your cases are inputs for a number of decisions:
Partners are not necessarily going to read your reviews, but Partners and Managers will receive the key insights from the reviews to make a final decision on staffing for new cases.
Hello!
Indeed that info is correct, each "class" has bi-yearly comitees in which a group of partners get together and review the performance (against the group), rank employees and give them a rating.
Cheers,
Clara
Hi there,
So these tops firms have reviews not just on a half-year basis but also on an end-of-project basis too!
In general, this is used to calculate promotion readiness and bonuses.
In terms of staffing, your reputation and relationships are really what matters here.
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