Consulting is an incredibly diverse field, and that means that consulting salaries vary wildly across various niches, industries, specialties, and locations. If you are considering pursuing a consulting career and want a more detailed analysis of consulting salaries based on consulting category, niche, career progression, and even across specific firms, keep reading. To better understand consulting pay, we will need to break it down by the different elements that affect how much any individual consultant earns. The definition of consulting is fairly broad. It is simply the business of providing expert advice to a specific group of people. Accordingly, the world of consulting is broad and diverse. Pretty much any type of consulting gig can fit into one of these three categories. This field is dominated by large firms like McKinsey, Bain, and Boston Consulting Group, which charge massive consulting fees to help enterprise businesses improve in a number of key areas:.
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For a job that even elite business school graduates can have difficulty explaining, top-tier management consultants can make ridiculously high salaries — even when just starting out. It’s actually pretty simple. A lot of it is about prestige and convincing corporate executives to trust their business strategy and private data with people decades their junior. So consulting firms, especially, want to hire the best and brightest, since the pedigree of their employees is a top selling point. Companies such as McKinsey, Bain, and BCG are pretty explicit about only hiring top performers from highly prestigious and competitive schools. In a way, the consulting firms created this cycle. Now, sparked by the consulting industry’s demand, the MBA is among the most popular and lucrative degrees out there. The other part of this is that firms need people who can actually get the work done. Top schools and MBA programs teach a great deal, but the real benefit is an education in confidence and presentation , essential for a job that basically sells knowledge and advice. Additionally, these firms have a very specific way of approaching problems that’s been developed over decades. They want people they can mold to that way of thinking, who are not going to challenge a framework that’s worked exceptionally well. At the end of the day, junior consultants with somewhere between zero and five years of experience do much of the work that companies pay big bucks for. This entails hundred hours weeks, constant flights and client embeds, and a generous expense account to make up for the routine-lacking lifestyle. High salaries have become the norm for consultants because they function as a signaling mechanism for companies: These may be young people, but they’re the most intelligent ones out there. In the first year as a management consultant, you’d be dealing with rapid deadlines and quick turnarounds, said Lisa Bright in an interview with Management Consulted.
The Average Salary of a Consultant
A lucky few even break into six figures. But considering the grueling hours that most entry-level consultants work, is that money really all it’s cracked up to be? We ran the numbers on what first-year consultants actually make based on how many hours they can expect to work. The results might surprise you. Let’s start with salaries. This figure includes base salary, signing bonus, and relocation expenses. Now let’s consider hours. A first-year consultant at these firms would be working 11 to 14 hours a day, for a rough schedule of 55 to 70 hours per week. That doesn’t account for the fact that most consultants travel several times a week for work, taking up more time in their already busy schedules. If you multiply that by 52 weeks a year, that converts to 2, annual hours. Business Insider. We’ll assume those at the high end of the bracket are likely working at top-tier firms that require the longest hours, averaging around 70 hours a week. Following the same formula, those 70 weekly hours convert into 3, yearly ones. So our elite consultants are making:. Again, not a bad hourly wage, but also nothing to write home about. The bottom line: First-year consultants can certainly earn a tremendous amount of money with nothing more than a Bachelor’s degree in hand. But the staggering sums that big firms advertise aren’t really what they seem. On an hourly basis, consulting salaries aren’t all that different from those of other middle-class jobs — they’re just adjusted to account for the tremendous number of hours these employees will put in. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person’s head and shoulders. It often indicates a user profile. Login Subscribe. My Account. World globe An icon of the world globe, indicating different international options. Alison Griswold.
How to Set Your Rates as a Consultant
Management consultants make good money. They should not complain. It is no wonder that it is one of the chosen careers of MBA graduates. You get a chance to do interesting work, and pay off some of that school debt. Not incidentally, consulting firms are also more likely to sponsor H1B candidates. Top strategy consultants do well. In a compensation study here by the executive search firm called Charles Aris , it shows a sample of the exceptional salaries offered by the most prestigious strategy consulting firms McKinsey, Bain, BCG. This same information can easily be confirmed at www. Up or Out. Most people stay in consulting between years. Part of it is by choice, and part of it is be design. Lots of reasons for this, but one of the net effects is that the people who stay and are promoted continue to make good money. In the same compensation survey, you can see the expected career progression and timeline.
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Eo toand our annual management consulting salaries report! The consulting industry has been evolving rapidly over the last few years. Big players in the consulting industry have expanded their capabilities through strategic acquisitions. Boutique players continue to enter the market, threatening the bigger players with their lower fee offerings. Additionally, large corporations have increased their reliance on in-house strategy houses. Amidst structural changes in the consulting industry, the industry has continued to grow. Overall, the impact of these changes on consulting salaries has put upward pressure on U. The type of hiring consulting firms are conducting is also changing. This year, many consulting firms have increased their recruitment of specialists especially those with technological expertise lf, experienced hires, and loot from non-target schools. Below are salary figures for those joining management consulting positions in
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