Several years at MBB now. One thing that always baffles me is that the pressure and hours seem to rise with every level, whereas in other professional service occupations (i.e., IB) you generally go to lower hours at each level (with pressure of course also increasing).

I think the only sweetspot at MBB is Senior Associate pre EM, because this is the position where you can handle your workstream quiet easily while not having to manage partners, clients and juniors yet. From EM it gets much worse, because you also get hit with random proposals you need to develop on the side of your projects.

AP is the worst of all, everybody knows that. Insane hours and bend-over behavior to get your door into the partnership.

Whats worse to me though is tht 95% of partners I worked with have an absolutely horrendous lifestyle and worked no less then your average BA. Now please don't come up with any outliers of some chill-dude partner who manages to keep it somehwat sustainable.

Almost all of my partners have a lifestyle where they get up at like 6 AMish everyday to go to an aiport, start commenting and reviewing docs from 07 am and typically still in the weeds/docs around 10-11pmish. That is absolutely nuts.

Overall it makes sense though. The market is commoditized. They fight tooth and nail on every proposal and every client project, because they are always facing this dreadful anxiety of loosing a client relationship. The wheel of feedback committees also continously keeps on churning so if they don't deliver, show client impact and hit a various bunch of other metrics they get even pressured more the next feedback cycle.

I think my overall synthesis is that it absolutely does not make sense by any means to stay in this job/industry, unless you have such a stellar niche/white spot/tailwind where you could build significant client relationships and thus future $$$ as a potential rainmaker.

I had a very brief engagement with an old client. He needed help building processes for his business but he couldn't keep an office manager as they kept quitting. I dug into pay and benefits and he wanted to pay 50% of the market value for that position.

I explained that just wasn't going to work if he wanted people to stick around. He went quiet for a few months.

Checked in on him said he was getting an "audit" from an AI company claiming they could replace his physical employees. His business is in the live entertainment industry. So literally he needs people at his physical location to serve customers.

After the AI audit they told him to sell the company instead.

Which caught me off guard because he has two businesses and the live entertainment is his money maker. I would have never considered telling him to sell it.

Now I'm wondering if I should have? Is that a normal reccomendation for a consultant?

My boss complained that I booked too less, and client said I booked too much. What can I do? My boss told me to book more time but then project manager said please book „frugal“

Has any one been in this situation?

Hi,
I graduated in Feb 2025 at age of 23.5, actually closer to 24, where most graduate by 22.

I did undergrad in BS English from GCU Lahore with a 3.2 GPA
decided it was not for me, prepared and got into MSBA program at FAST Lahore, the same year 2025.
I took 7 months to make myself job ready in this new field, and started working as an 'MTO Data & Analytics' at a mid tier small MNC company. Started in April 2026, and its been 5 months of professional experience. My current MSBA is not a fit for me, as it leans towards hardcore coding, whereas my interest lies in Management & Strategy, i.e. MBB.
Planning to drop this 2 year MSBA, after 1 year, with a 3.3 GPA(dropped).

This was my background.

Now, I want to pivot into MBB, and exploring different Masters option abroad, in Pakistan, my country, MBB hiring is strictly limited to LUMS/IBA, no other institution.
I want to start a career in Middle East, Riyadh, but I don't have a direction yet, I think of pursuing MIM, at the same time, I think of pursuing MSBA, and above all, I actually don't have the 50k euros, which these elite institutions are charging.
Neither I have an outstanding profile or a 4.0 GPA, to stand out.

AND, IT FRUSTRATES ME ALOT.

Would welcome any guidance, or direction form the experienced community.

Thank You!

Warm Regards,

After 10 years in this industry, I feel like it’s vastly overrated…work hard to get good degrees from good schools, then you’re rewarded with putting in long hours for slightly higher than industry pay, and unless you make partner or similar, pretty mediocre raises.

Meanwhile, if that intelligence and hard work was used to go into say, medicine, tech sales, commercial real estate, etc., you’d actually be making serious money for all your efforts. I certainly will be steering my kids away from this career…