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Up or Out in Times of COVID-19

MBB
New answer on Sep 09, 2020
8 Answers
899 Views
Anonymous A asked on Sep 06, 2020

Hi there

I heard that MBB hired about the same as in pre-COVID times this year. Will this lead to more people/ new joiners having to leave the firm (e.g. in 2021) as they hired too many people? And how many people are really forced to leave the firms involuntarily? :) Thx

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Vlad
Expert
replied on Sep 07, 2020
McKinsey / Accenture Alum / Got all BIG3 offers / Harvard Business School

Hi,

  1. They hired at similar levels mainly because they allowed all MBA interns not to work in summer and automatically gave the offers to everyone
  2. Out is already happening and will continue
  3. New intakes will be reduced

Best

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Anonymous replied on Sep 06, 2020
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Antonello
Expert
Content Creator
replied on Sep 09, 2020
McKinsey | NASA | top 10 FT MBA professor for consulting interviews | 6+ years of coaching

Hi, in case of necessity new hies will be reduced, while up-or-out policy will maintain the same standards

Best,
Antonello

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Robert
Expert
Content Creator
replied on Sep 07, 2020
McKinsey offers w/o final round interviews - 100% risk-free - 10+ years MBB coaching experience - Multiple book author

Hi Anonymous,

Your information about MBB is not accurate for current hiring levels - already during last 6 months intake was significantly reduced - partially also due to more difficult logistics and other priorities internally for a short period, but also due to uncertainty about future.

Always keep in mind that consulting firms are profit-oriented companies and thus need to accurately balance HR supply (from applicants) and HR demand (for projects). Right now it's still high uncertainty about next years consulting budget, so everyone is definitely cautious in recruiting at the moment, and sometimes even artificically prolonging application durations from start to end.

Based on future demand firms will also decide how many consultants need to leave the firm - not yet clear, but rather likely it will be more than in previous years.

Hope that helps - if so, please be so kind to give it a thumbs-up with the green upvote button below!

Robert

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Luca
Expert
Content Creator
replied on Sep 07, 2020
BCG |NASA | SDA Bocconi & Cattolica partner | GMAT expert 780/800 score | 200+ students coached

Hello,

I don't think that MBB hired as in pre-COVID times, actually. They have frozen the hiring for 2/3 months and they are now slowing restarting. The only exception that I am aware of is for experienced hire and people that had already started the process.

Best,
Luca

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Udayan
Expert
Content Creator
replied on Sep 08, 2020
Top rated Case & PEI coach/Multiple real offers/McKinsey EM in New York /12 years recruiting experience

As others have pointed out, hiring is not the same this year.

In terms of up and out, that is largely feedback/performance based. There are clear metrics for performance that you are measured against and I have not heard of up and out simply because of a slow market.

Udayan

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Ian
Expert
Content Creator
replied on Sep 08, 2020
#1 BCG coach | MBB | Tier 2 | Digital, Tech, Platinion | 100% personal success rate (8/8) | 95% candidate success rate

Hi there,

Honestly, most likely yes.

They are indeed adding some pressure to the up-or-out process. However, they did not hire too many people. They very purposefully paused and reduced hiring over the past half year. However, they are implementing stricter up-or-out in order to keep hiring.

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Clara
Expert
Content Creator
replied on Sep 09, 2020
McKinsey | Awarded professor at Master in Management @ IE | MBA at MIT |+180 students coached | Integrated FIT Guide aut

Hello!

I honestly thing COVID won´t impact up or out.

Policy will still be in place, and the bar will keep being high.

However, intake numbers will be reduced too.

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

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Vlad gave the best answer

Vlad

McKinsey / Accenture Alum / Got all BIG3 offers / Harvard Business School
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