McKinsey, BCG and Bain, collectively referred to as ‘MBB’, are widely recognized as the top management consultancy firms in the world. Each has well-established operations in several cities across the US.
This article will focus only on the Chicago offices of McKinsey, BCG and Bain, and will answer some of the top-of-mind questions for potential candidates. Questions like:
- What kind of candidates are recruited by McKinsey, BCG and Bain’s Chicago offices?
- Which undergraduate universities give you the highest chances of getting into the Chicago offices of McKinsey, BCG or Bain?
- Is an MBA a good route to management consulting in Chicago?
- Is there an entry path to the Chicago offices of McKinsey, BCG or Bain from other industries?
The insights in this article come from a detailed analysis of over 450 individuals hired by McKinsey, BCG and Bain for client-facing consulting roles in their Chicago offices from 2020 to mid-2022.
Key takeaways:
- In MBB’s Chicago offices, 42% of hires are MBA candidates and pre-experience students constitute 39% of the total. Experienced professionals make up 16% of hires and advanced degree candidates only make up 3% of hires.
- McKinsey’s Chicago offices hired over 40% more consultants than BCG, and over 30% more consultants than Bain, between Q1 2020 and Q2 2022.
- 63% of hires by McKinsey, BCG and Bain’s Chicago offices were male, signaling significant room for improvement in gender parity in hiring.
- Regional universities contributed the most hires into MBB’s Chicago offices. This reflects the high quality of the local talent pool and the attractiveness of management consulting careers for these candidates.
- Four universities supply about half of the pre-experience student hires into the Chicago offices of McKinsey, BCG and Bain: Northwestern University (19%), the University of Chicago (11%), the University of Michigan (10%) and the University of Notre Dame (9%).
- Three schools supply 73% of MBA hires into the Chicago offices of McKinsey, BCG and Bain: the Chicago Booth School of Business (32%), Kellogg School of Management (30%) and Ross School of Business (10%).
- If you did not study (at bachelor’s or master’s level) at a target US undergraduate or master’s program, an MBA at a top US program (preferably Booth, Kellogg or Ross) is your best route to breaking into MBB’s Chicago offices.
The main sources of candidates for top consulting firms’ Chicago offices
McKinsey, BCG and Bain’s Chicago offices hire more MBAs than from any other channel
MBB’s offices in Chicago hire more MBAs (42% of hires) than from any other channel. This is the primary difference between MBB hiring in Chicago and in the US in general, where MBAs account for 35% of total hires. This also means that pre-experience student hires make up a smaller proportion of the total in Chicago (39%) than in the US (45%). Hiring from other channels mirrors that of the US in general. Experienced professionals, both for Chicago and the US, make up 16% of hires. In Chicago, advanced degree candidates only make up 3% of hires, which is similar to the US total of 4%.
To understand these categories better, here are quick definitions:
- Pre-experience students (bachelor’s degree or a non-MBA master’s degree) are hired out of university or shortly after. They typically have no more than two years of experience and are hired into entry-level roles (i.e. Business Analysts at McKinsey, Associates at BCG and Associate Consultants at Bain).
- MBA hires are graduates of a one or two-year MBA program. They typically have work experience gained before their MBAs, and are hired into post-MBA roles (i.e. Associates at McKinsey and Consultants at BCG and Bain).
- Experienced hires are from other employers and typically have two to eight years of experience. Those with less are hired into pre-MBA roles (i.e. Senior Business Analysts at McKinsey, 2nd year Associate Consultants at Bain and Senior Associates at BCG). Those with significant experience are hired into post-MBA roles (i.e. Associates at McKinsey and Consultants at BCG and Bain).
- Advanced degree hires are hired during or soon (not more than two years) after completing their Ph.D. or medical school programs. They’re typically hired into post-MBA roles in the US (i.e. Associates at McKinsey or Consultants at BCG and Bain).
McKinsey hires more candidates than BCG and Bain
McKinsey’s Chicago offices hired over 40% more consultants than BCG, and over 30% more consultants than Bain, between Q1 2020 and Q2 2022. There are volume mix disparities across the three firms, which will be investigated in the sections dedicated to each hiring channel.
MBB’s Chicago offices hire more men
Sixty-three percent of hires by McKinsey, BCG and Bain’s Chicago offices were male, signaling significant room for improvement in gender parity in hiring.
While this holds true at similar levels across all three firms, the gender gap isn’t the same across channels. There is significantly higher male hiring for experienced hires (66% male), MBAs (70% male) and advanced degree candidates (71% male). However, only 54% of pre-experience student hires were male, making it the most gender-equitable channel.
Pre-experience student hiring in McKinsey, BCG and Bain’s Chicago offices
Pre-experience students made up 39% of total hires by McKinsey, BCG and Bain in Chicago from Q1 2020 to Q2 2022. This means that hires from a bachelor’s degree or a master’s degree program (excluding MBAs) made up their second-largest recruitment channel for entry-level roles.
The next section will look closely at which universities the pre-experience student hires of MBB’s Chicago offices attended.
Where did Chicago MBB’s pre-experience student hires go to university?
All 40+ universities that supplied pre-experience student hires to MBB’s Chicago offices are based in the US. Four universities supplied about half of these hires. One common theme among these top contributor universities is that they’re highly ranked nationally and located either in Illinois or neighboring states (Michigan, Indiana, and Missouri). They are:
- Northwestern University (19%)
- University of Chicago (11%)
- University of Michigan (10%)
- University of Notre Dame (9%)
Conversely, top East Coast universities supplied less than 10% of MBB’s pre-experience student hires in Chicago. This reflects the quality of the local talent pool and the attractiveness of consulting careers for these candidates.
The chart below lists the 14 universities that contributed more than 1% of hires to the total. Together, they account for 81% of pre-experience student hires into MBB’s Chicago offices.
Of the top three firms, BCG appears to be the most open to various universities. Twenty-six percent of its pre-experience student hires in Chicago originated from the long tail of universities, versus 18% for Bain and 16% for McKinsey.
What did they study?
Fifty-eight percent of pre-experience student hires into MBB’s Chicago offices graduated with either an economics degree (30% of the total), an engineering degree (16%), or a business administration degree (13%). The remaining studied a variety of other disciplines.
Unlike in European offices (e.g. France and Germany), a master’s degree doesn’t seem to give candidates a distinct edge. Pre-experience students with a master’s degree made up only 9% of pre-experience students, compared with 91% without. This is similar to the US total and Canada.
MBA hiring in McKinsey, BCG and Bain’s Chicago offices
Forty-two percent of all hires into the Chicago offices of McKinsey, BCG and Bain came from an MBA program, making it the firms’ largest recruitment channel. San Francisco is the only other MBB office in the US where we’ve seen MBAs make up this much of the total hiring. MBA hires made up 46% of McKinsey’s total, 41% for BCG and 37% for Bain.
As a reminder, MBA hires are graduates of a one or two-year MBA program. They typically have some work experience gained before their MBAs, and are hired into post-MBA roles, (i.e. Associates at McKinsey and Consultants at BCG and Bain).
For MBA hires, we will explore two questions:
- Which business schools did they attend?
- Which undergraduate universities did they attend?
Which business schools did Chicago MBB’s MBA hires attend?
Two schools supplied 62% of MBA hires into the Chicago offices of McKinsey, BCG and Bain. They are:
- Chicago Booth School of Business (32%)
- Kellogg School of Management (30%)
Both are top-ranked business schools based in Chicago. MBB firms therefore have an excellent local pool of MBA candidates to tap into, and careers in management consulting appear to be an attractive option for these candidates.
The remaining 10% of hires were supplied by 13 US business schools. MBB’s Chicago offices did not hire any candidate with an international MBA degree.
Which undergraduate universities did Chicago MBB’s MBA hires attend?
MBA hires into MBB’s Chicago offices came from about 140 undergraduate programs. This is a broader range of universities (more than 3x) than were considered in pre-experience student hiring, where 43 universities were represented. This indicates more educational background openness for the MBA hiring channel.
The largest four undergraduate contributors for the pre-experience student channel (Northwestern University, University of Chicago, University of Michigan and the University of Notre Dame) account for only 10% of MBA hires. This provides further indication that MBB’s Chicago offices are more open to a wider range of undergraduates in their MBA hiring.
Twenty-three percent of MBA hires into MBB’s Chicago offices came from an international undergraduate program, making this the largest channel of entry into MBB firms in Chicago for international candidates.
If you didn’t study (at bachelor’s or master’s level) at a target US undergraduate or master’s program, an MBA at a top US program (preferably Booth, Kellogg or Ross) is your best route to breaking into MBB’s Chicago offices.
Experienced professional hiring in McKinsey, BCG and Bain’s Chicago offices
The ‘experienced hires’ channel, in which candidates typically have two to eight years of professional experience, was the third-largest recruitment channel for MBB’s Chicago offices from Q1 2020 to Q2 2022. It made up ~16% of all their hires. Experienced professionals made up 22% of BCG’s total hires, 15% of McKinsey’s total hires and 10% of Bain’s total hires.
Experienced hires joined top firms at different levels:
- 54% of experienced hires were recruited into pre-MBA roles (i.e. Business Analysts at McKinsey, Associate, Senior Associate Consultants at Bain and Senior Associates at BCG).
- 46% of experienced hires were recruited into post-MBA roles (i.e. Associates at McKinsey and Consultants at BCG and Bain). Candidates with team leadership experience at other consulting firms sometimes join at a more senior level, but will typically experience a small step back in seniority compared to their previous firm.
Which industries did Chicago MBB’s experienced hires come from?
Thirty-nine percent of experienced hires into MBB’s Chicago offices came from other consulting firms. These include other strategy consulting firms (e.g. Roland Berger, Kearney), Big-4’s strategy teams (e.g. Monitor Deloitte, EY-Parthenon) and Accenture.
The finance industry contributed about 6% of experienced hires and tech contributed 10%. The remaining 46% came from a wide range of unrelated industries.
Where did MBB’s experienced hires go to school?
The largest four undergraduate contributors for the pre-experience student channel (Northwestern University, University of Chicago, University of Michigan and the University of Notre Dame) contributed only 17% of experienced professionals to MBB’s Chicago’s offices. This signals that, like the MBA hire channel, experienced professionals from a wider range of undergraduate programs are considered.
Only 8% of hires from the experienced hire channel had an international undergraduate degree, compared with 32% for MBAs. This is likely driven by the lower proportion of international candidates among experienced hires compared to top US business schools, where international citizens routinely comprise half the class.
Advanced degree hiring in McKinsey, BCG and Bain’s Chicago offices
Advanced degrees were the smallest proportion of hires for McKinsey, BCG and Bain’s Chicago offices, making up just 3% of total hiring. They came from 13 US universities and studied a wide range of disciplines. Each university contributed a single advanced degree hire, except Harvard University and the University of Chicago, with two hires each.
What’s next if you’d like to get into McKinsey, BCG, and Bain’s Chicago offices
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