All questions tagged salary - Consulting Q&A - PrepLounge.com

Hi there,

Yes there is - however, I genuinely would focus more on which offices you individually fit the best in. That is, where do you have work/life experience and where have you networked. Playing the supply/demand game without considering your individual application as a candidate is risky!

That said, New York and LA tend to be the most competitive.

Hi there,

I highly doubt they asked to negotiate a lower salary later, given the base salary is fixed.

I believe instead they wanted to check if there is a match between what they can and what you may look for, given you have several years of experience.

I just helped a candidate who went through the same process (several years of experience for the Analytics role). In his case, they did not discuss the salary at the beginning. He got the offer and then was very disappointed with the salary which is almost a non-sense given his current one.

Asking for the salary upfront should ensure that they can offer a reasonable one if you manage to land an offer.

Best,

Francesco

Hello!

I have done 2/3 of those, so if you see yourself in the situation happy to chat about it.

My thoughts:

1. Sometimes you don´t even need to tell them, they will ask you! For instance, when asking for my availability in McK for the interview, they literally asked the question: are you interviewing or have an offer with a deadline with other consulting/similar?
2. Always do this in person or by phone in this case, indicating that you have received a better offer but you still want to to go to Company x, so wondering whether they could help by matching
3. Could be, but I say less common, leverage same approach as 2

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

Hi there,

This is a bit odd but not out of the question. Management consulted goes off of averages. A $5k difference is not massive and could be explained by your entry point, specific office, or other cirumstances.

That said, have you had a job before your Master's degree? If so, you should feel comfortable negotiating a bit. Reference the baseline $90k salary expectation based on market numbers AND flag that you will have to relocate and were hoping for relocation assitance.

^These are pretty standard negotiation points. Feel free to reach out and I can help you maximize your offer (Just for myself and advising a few close friends and I have now gotten around $200k in extra compensation across a range of negotiating scenarios)

Hey there,

Yeah, salaries should be equal for same-level position within the same country in McKinsey. Sometimes there are some minute differences and special contracts.

Cheers,

Florian

I don't have an exact number, but these sites should help. Google is your friend here! (Note, when I did a quick search, I seemed to get the range of 35-45k Euro)

https://in.indeed.com/cmp/[company name]/salaries

https://6figr.com/in/salary/[company name]

https://www.linkedin.com/salary/[company+role]

https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/milan-management-consulting-consultant-salary-SRCH_IL.0,5_IM1058_KO6,38.htm

https://www.payscale.com/research/IT/Job=Strategy_Consultant/Salary

Congratulations and well done!

Now, before you do anything, we really need to get you Person Finance/Wealth Management 101. This reddit page will be great for you: https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/

To answer your question, your annual salalary will be divided by either 12 or 24. You will then be paid monthly or every 2 weeks. You will receive less than your stated salary because of taxes, so please don't be surprised when it is lower.

Good luck and enjoy the newfound riches!

Hi there,

I am not sure why you would need that information if you are going to get the offers in a few days?

If the question is related to negotiation: you may be able to negotiate seniority, the signing bonus and the relocation bonus, but normally you cannot negotiate the fixed salary.

Independently on that, McK Dubai should provide far better exit opportunities than RB if that’s your primary goal.

I am not sure I would push hard on negotiating the terms, but in general a great book on the topic is Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss.

Best,

Francesco

Hi A,

I agree with Guarav and Adi. Besides this a simple advice: The more junior you are, the less you should now look on the salary - it's important to make the right choice for you and - this is a little bit the ugly truth - for your CV as well.

Let's say you are just starting your career, it will anyhow not pay off to choose ATK if you make a NPV calculation over the upcoming years!

And of course you have to have a gut feeling with the Bain offer too - even if the salary is now lower.

Last but not least: Why not telling Bain, that you got another offer with a higher salary. You've got nothing to lose!

Good look for your start! Jasper

Hi there,

My understanding is it is competitive (most of the firms offer around the same pay). That said, it certainly depends on role, office, your negotiations, etc.

All that said, think more about what salary you are happy with and less about comparisons...if you can! If you have multiple offers, play them off and compare. If you have just Roland Berger, be happy with what's given!

Hey there,

So here's my insights:

Compensation (DE)

I agree with what you found on glassdoor. Its a good ballpark. Compensation will be ~30-40% lower than MBB and at par or slightly above BIG4. Please remember there is a broad range at every level and this becomes broader the more senior you go (Manager & above). There is room to negotiate sign-on bonus and other perks. Overall, from my experience having worked at Accenture UK, its a good pay master with great benefits but NOT at MBB level.

Brand

Its not a tech consulting firm anymore. The breadth and scale of Accenture has made it one of the most sought after companies in the recent 5-10 years. It now plays in Strategy, Digital Transformation, Marketing etc. Just check out Gartner/Forrester rating and Accenture pretty much leads all qudrants even beating MBB in Digital Transformation expertise for example.

Check out these links:

• https://www.accenture.com/us-en/insights/consulting/forrester-digital-business-transformaion
• https://www.rankingthebrands.com/The-Brand-Rankings.aspx?rankingID=6
• https://www.crunchbase.com/search/acquisitions/field/organizations/num_acquisitions/accenture

Note that Accenture Strategy is not at the same level & reputation as MBB, so you need to play the wider Accenture brand in your story i.e Accenture offers exposure to all those areas where MBB dont play giving you more experience in e2e business problems. However, they are fighting hard and investing a lot to boost the Strategy practice. I am also aware of many ex-MBB partners who have joined the Strategy practice in DE in past few years.

Exit Opportunities

Overall, good in my view but not the same level of pull as MBB. Its a global and well known brand, but you have to work a bit harder on your story & exit. Get this right and you can make make big jumps. I did it and so have many others.

Good luck!

Hello!
Unfortunately I cannot help you, but try glassdoor or similar.

There is always the right info there!

Cheers,

Clara

Hello!

As long as the money is obtained by licit ways, you have totally no problem.

To save comissions, best is to talk to your bank directly for special treatment o leverage fintechs such as Transferwise or other that are in the market that minize comissions

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

Hi Anonymous,

At McKinsey salary for non-experienced hires is not negotiable, and even afterwards very limited (mostly it's around sign-up bonus, relocation assistance, ..) - and I believe it's the same for all MBB.

Hope this helps - if so, please give it a thumbs-up with the green upvote button below!

Robert

In a given region, salaries on a given level are typically not far apart. Both across the firms (e.g. a MCK Associate earns roughly the same as a BCG Consultant and a Bain Consultant) and between sub tenures (e.g. annual escalation without a promotion is typically ~10%). You'll see larger swings, once you move to Associate Partners or Partners of course where base payment is only a small fraction of overall comp.

One difference exists though: Compensation on all levels is massively dependent on location. For example post tax comp in Dubai can be nearly double to that in European countries.

Hi there,

Congrats on your offer. I agree such a large difference seems strange. Are all the other components the same (eg benefits, bonuses)?

Expectations will be higher since you have some seniority, however I don't think you have to worry about it - you already showed you have the potential to do the job.

Best,

Francesco

Hello!

I guess tha rational behind is to attrack talent, but tech indeed pais way above market.

Furthermore, work-life balance is much better.

I went from McKinsey to Amazon so let me know if you want some more insights about my personal experience.

Cheers,

Clara

Hey Levente,

As you may imagine, consultants are not supposed to share concrete information on salary levels, however you can get a good glimpse of them in websites such as glassdoor.

That said, I can share with you a couple of insights: salaries differ (significantly) from office to office (in part to compensate for differences in standard living costs, but not only); there is indeed an interesting jump from BA to Associate levels, but again for all roles there is a considerable difference in jumps across offices (btw, the biggest jump should be to Partner though!)

Hope this helped out

Hi Anonymous,

as mentioned by others, the main thing you can negotiate is your entry level in the firm (eg Senior Associate with 12 months to Consultant vs 6 months to Consultant). It would be very difficult to negotiate a different standard salary for a fixed seniority level, as this would create inequality in the firm. On the other hand, if you can negotiate a higher initial entry level, this should bring a higher salary or faster promotion track without creating imbalance in the company, thus would be feasible.

You can definitely try to negotiate your entry level in the firm. The degree of negotiation depends obviously on how valuable you can be for the company (usually the more senior, the more valuable). In any case, you should be aware that with a higher level, expectations on your performance will also be higher.

Best,

Francesco

Dear A,

No. It's reduced.

If you have further question on the Middle East recruiting, jobs and firms feel free to reach me out, since I have a lot of friends and former colleagues there, in the Middle East, so I'm happy to share insights wigh you.

Best,

André