The selection process for McKinsey and the big four consulting firms (Deloitte, PwC, EY, and KPMG) differs in several ways, including time of hiring, eligibility requirements, interview structure, and areas of focus. The top 3 consulting firms versus the big 4 are an interesting comparison. The top 3 management consulting firms are McKinsey, Bain and BCG, known as MBB firms. They are not necessarily the biggest firms, but the most prestigious firms that can charge high fees to their customers.
The Big 4 refer to the top 4 accounting firms. These firms may have strategy branches that compete with MBB firms, but most of their business is related to accounting. So let's make a small comparison between the top 3 and the big 4 consulting firms and see what some of the differences are. If you're looking at which companies to apply to, this should give you some great facts to consider.
Here's the announcement of a special offer. Learn more here Today we're going to explain the differences between the Big 4 firms and MBB, and how you can go from the Big 4 to MBB as a consultant. We have helped candidates obtain job offers at both Big 4 firms and MBB. Like Katrina, who landed at Deloitte, and Andrew, who landed at BCG.
And one of the first things you'll want to know about these companies is that Big 4 and MBB firms usually do different types of work, but we'll talk about that later. The two simplest size measures for these companies are their total revenues and the number of employees. With these metrics, it's very easy to see that the big 4 companies (that is,. Deloitte, PWC, EY, and KPMG) are substantially larger than the MBB (i.e.
We can adjust it by determining the average income of Big 4 vs. MBB companies, but the big 4 firms still have a significant advantage. And if we look at the average number of employees in one of the big 4 companies versus. An MBB firm, then the larger size of the 4 big firms is even more evident.
However, this isn't a perfect comparison because the big 4 firms actually have three main businesses, while MBB firms are only really involved in one of those three businesses. We'll delve into that in the next section. The Big 4 firms provide tax and auditing services, as well as consulting. In fact, the Big 4 firms are probably better known as accounting firms, which further illustrates the importance of their auditing and tax businesses for these companies.
But it's also important to understand that “consulting” is a very broad category of services, and both the big four firms and the MBB offer several types of consulting services. However, all of these diverse services can be divided into two main categories. It's very important to understand this distinction, because MBB firms tend to dominate one, while the big four firms work harder on the other. McKinsey, BCG and Bain are the undisputed market leaders in strategic consulting.
Usually, this type of consulting is carried out by small teams that would help the executives of a large company (often included in the Fortune 500 list) make important decisions about the direction of the company, new opportunities, etc. If you want to see more examples of strategic consulting cases, check out these MBB example cases. The other type of consulting is implementation consulting. This is a more recent service that has gained ground in recent decades, and the Big 4 firms have historically been leaders in the implementation services market.
However, MBB firms have become increasingly involved in the field of implementation and, given their reputation and talent pools, have managed to gain market share for implementation projects that would have previously fallen to the 4 big firms. An implementation project is often carried out by much larger teams, and the members of the consulting team are often specialists. These teams would work with middle management and other customer stakeholders to establish a new system, process, technological solution, etc. Compared to strategy projects, implementation projects also tend to take longer, since implementing a strategy usually takes longer than the initial formation of that strategy.
If you're considering MBB or the Big Four as a future employer, you'll also want to know where they stand when it comes to salaries. As we have mentioned before, the firms MBB and Big 4 offer a WIDE variety of services. As a result, the different roles they hire for vary significantly. For example, they hire tax accountants, software engineers, and data analysts, in addition to several types of consultants.
And all of these roles have different salaries. Compensation is also different depending on the level of seniority. And each of these firms has different levels of promotion, and they often use different terms for functions that are essentially the same in every company. According to data from Levels, for your information, all MBBs have better compensation than the big 4 firms.
As we mentioned earlier, the specific details of a person's compensation will vary depending on position and seniority, and it's also worth mentioning that compensation generally varies depending on your location. But, generally speaking, if you work at an MBB firm, you'll probably make more money than if you work at one of the big four firms. The firms MBB and Big 4 are all very prestigious. That said, if you have aspirations of getting a senior management position or other fiercely competitive positions, then it will almost always be better to have McKinsey, BCG or Bain on your resume.
And if you ask any consultant which firms are the most prestigious, the vast majority will rank MBB firms above the 4 big firms. But at the end of the day, there is a story of success stories from former students from the Big Four firms, MBB firms, and other major consulting firms. A recent report showed that MBB companies tend to work longer hours than the big 4 firms. For example, there might be a Deloitte project with a demanding client and tight deadlines, where you work more than 70 hours a week.
And there could be a BCG project where the workload is lighter and you only work 60 hours a week. Given the greater prestige and compensation of MBB firms, you might wonder if you can go from the Big 4 to the MBB. In general terms, it is possible to move from a Big 4 company to an MBB. However, MBB firms tend to be more selective than the Big 4 firms, and it's hard to get an offer despite having experience in the Big 4.However, there are ways you can increase your chances, such as specializing in an area where an MBB company is growing.
But before you decide to apply for an MBB position, you should pause for a moment to consider whether or not it's worth it for you. Everyone will have a different set of professional goals and personal values, and depending on yours, a Big Four position might be a better fit for you than a new MBB position. So, give it some thought and consider whether that MBB role will really bring you closer to your long-term goals. Before applying, you should also consider the preparation time needed to succeed in case interviews that MBB firms are famous for.
Unfortunately, your experience with the Big Four won't allow you to skip the rigorous interview process. And if you have the opportunity to talk to current MBB consultants about their experience, that can also be a great way to weigh the pros and cons. It could also provide you with an opportunity to obtain an internal reference, which can help your request to be publicized. Once you've made a decision, there are a few more tactical steps you can take to walk into the door of an MBB firm.
There are also some things you can do outside of normal interview preparation to increase your chances of going from the big 4 to an MBB. If you currently work at a Big 4 and haven't yet done an MBA, getting an MBA at an MBB target school can go a long way to getting your application out there. MBBs usually hire people from a number of their favorite “target” schools, and if you're enrolled in one of them, that will significantly increase your chances of getting an interview and, ultimately, an offer. For example, Stanford is a target school and you can learn more about what it takes to gain admission in our Stanford GMAT guide.
Another reason this strategy works is that it can be difficult to get your application recognized as an experienced person, especially if you submit applications outside of the company's normal hiring cycles. As an MBA applicant, you would fit more naturally into the hiring processes usually used by MBB firms, which would remove some obstacles and probably also give you more opportunities to meet and speak directly with representatives of MBB firms. Doing an MBA is a big commitment, but if you really want to land an MBB position, you may need to take a long-term approach. MBB firms expand their offer of consulting services.
They are no longer only dedicated to strategic consulting, but they also provide a variety of other services, including some types of consulting where they seek to catch up with the big 4 firms. For example, according to Vault's prestige rating, Deloitte and EY surpassed MBB in Financial Consulting. As another example, Accenture and IBM are ranked above MBB in IT strategy consulting. Accenture and IBM aren't technically the big four firms, but this only illustrates how you can increase your chances of joining MBB by specializing in a type of consulting where MBB firms are weaker or are trying to increase their presence.
At the end of the day, MBB firms need people who are experts in the industries and skills their customers need. If you can align your own skills with an area where an MBB firm is weaker, you'll gain an advantage over other candidates. When you apply to an MBB firm, that DOES NOT guarantee that you will be seen by the people at the firm who would most value your experience and qualifications. MBB firms receive an avalanche of applications every year, and only a small percentage of applicants get an interview.
So, to get noticed, it's useful to establish connections within the company. This is valuable for several reasons. In addition, MBB firms have internal referral processes that allow current employees to recommend new candidates for consideration. References can help your application stand out, even if the person referring you isn't in the same industry as you.
Roughly 1% of all McKinsey, BCG, and Bain applicants finally receive an offer. To put that figure into perspective, that's about 3 times lower than Harvard's lowest annual acceptance rate in the past 20 years, which was 3.19%. So, even if you're an exceptional consultant or student, your chances of getting an offer at an MBB company are very small. That said, applying to the best consulting firms is a numbers game.
So it's probably a good idea to open up a wide network and apply to some consulting firms outside of MBB. This will increase your chances of getting an offer, and when you do your research, you may find other firms that better suit your goals and lifestyle. Most MBB applicants are eliminated even before obtaining an interview, during the evaluation of the resume and the cover letter. Therefore, it's vitally important that your application stands out.
And you'll need to understand what experiences to highlight, what to eliminate from your resume, and how to write a cover letter that MBB recruiters find attractive. To help with this, you can use our free consulting resume guide and our consulting cover letter guide. But if you really want to maximize your chances of getting an invitation to an interview, it's very useful to have an experienced former interviewer from the target company give you their opinion on your documents. Shipping: 26% tax is calculated at checkout.
These firms are collectively known as “MBB” and “the top three” management consulting firms (not as “the big three consulting firms”, a common misconception). The 100% product-focused consultancy firm is the only pure technology consultancy on the list, and its services include the new Azure blockchain council, aligned exclusively with the new Microsoft product suite. Business skills, the best talent, a wide geographical reach, together with technological capabilities, are attractive qualities of large consulting firms, and the biggest names are known to host both, which means that companies often treat them as the first regular point of reference for new projects. MBB projects also require its consultants to be more creative and flexible in solving problems than Big Four projects; in addition, MBB consultants also tend to work in more industries and functions than their Big Four fellows, who specialize from the start.
And this was also the only type of work that consulting firms did when the first consulting firms were founded. All this learning and prestige, together with the large and influential network of alumni of MBB firms (especially McKinsey, the “CEO factory”), provide their consultants with incredible exit opportunities, since they offer salaries that are at least 30 to 40% higher than their consulting revenues. To avoid becoming spectators in the race for digitalization, companies of all sizes hire consulting firms to help them with technological and business transformations. Due to the high-level nature of their projects, MBB consultants often come into contact with high-level executives on the client side, while the big four consultants, especially the younger ones, work mainly with middle managers.
Because they perform similar work and have a similar set of skills, consultants from both groups of companies can take advantage of a variety of consulting exit opportunities. MBB consultants work with their clients on shorter timelines, usually 2 to 4 months, while Big 4 consultants can work with a client company for 6 to 8 months or even for a year, providing supervision and helping the client implement their solutions. And since all consulting firms look for the same qualities in their candidates, you can prepare consulting for both groups at the same time. There are several similarities between the work that consultants do on the strategy teams of the Big Four and the work that management consultants do at McKinsey, BCG, and Bain.
Deloitte and KPMG retained most of their consulting divisions (although part of KPMG's consulting branch split to become BearingPoint). However, the market share of the Big Four in the consulting market is not close to their dominant position in the auditing market, where in some countries they own more than 80% of the business in the upper segment. .
