– Welcome to another
episode off Firm Learning. Hope you're all doing great. And today I want to talk about something that has been on my mind
for quite some time, and it's based on many messages I get from you on Instagram, on LinkedIn, on all the socials. And I think that this is really something where many of you just
have a mindset problem, very frankly, right? I think many of you're getting this wrong. So it's going to be a little
bit like a real talk format, a little bit of a rant, maybe. So I hope you can apologize
me for doing that.
But I trust it's going to be fine, okay? And the issue that I have, what many of you're doing, is that you're writing
messages saying things like, "Oh I want to join consulting,
what do I need to do? "I'm still maybe even
a high school student. "And I just want to do everything
to get into consulting. "What do I need to study? "What extracurriculars do I need to do?" Also, another thing that
I get very regularly, is people who are already in their careers for a couple of years, maybe you work in big four, maybe in industry, maybe somewhere else. And then I get message saying, "I wanna get into McKinsey
into BCG, into Bain. "I want to do an MBA, "or should I do an MBA
to get into these firms? "Is this what will get me in?" Right? And then, "What program do I need to do? "Where do I need to study," and so on, "to fulfill this goal?" And I think there are many problems with this type of mindset
and type of attitude, because I think the reality is just, especially if you have the goal, to go into firms like McKinsey, BCG, Bain, I mean, just stay with that.
These are three firms, three firms. And I know that, of course
they're quite prestigious. I know that many people
want to get into them. And of course I think there
are good reasons for that. And of course on my channel, I talk about many of these reasons. But there can be so many reasons why, even if you make it into the interviews, that you do not get in. Surely there's, I would argue, quite a high rate of
false negatives, right? So people who probably
would've deserved to get in, but just didn't make
it through the process, maybe because they
didn't have the best day, maybe the chemistry, with with one or the other
interviewer didn't work out well. There are things that you
cannot always influence, right? And you need to live with that. That's life. So, but if this is what's happening, how can you think that it's a good idea, to just structure your whole
life, your whole adolescence, your whole twenties, around getting into these three firms? Frankly, I think that's
a little bit childish.
Frankly, I do not think
it makes a lot of sense. I do not think that this is a
smart decision to do, right? And let's further deep dive into that, because of course there
are lots of decisions that are are attached to that. And it starts already in your undergrad. You're asking yourself, "What degree should I study, "to get into MBB, get
into McKenzie, BCG, Bain?" I mean, come on.
This shouldn't be the only reason, right? So you pick a degree
subject only for that? But then what if you
happen, if you realize, that you don't get in? Then all these years were wasted? How does that make sense? And even if you do make
it, if you do get in in just the truth that on average, a consultant probably stays
for two, three, four years at any of these firms. So for such a short amount of time, you want to make these
important decisions? Again, I do not think this makes sense. Next step, for the MBA. People are considering, this at least the impression that I get from many of your messages, people are considering to do an MBA, to spend often a six digital
amount of money in tuition, in living costs, and foregone salary, just to get into MBB, or
to hope to get into MBB, because what happens if you
then don't get in, in the end? And frankly, while of course, I hope that everyone who does an MBA, also for fulfills these goats, and I do think that doing
MBA might be a great avenue into these career paths.
I also just know from
my personal experience having done the MBA at NSEAD, that there are many people who hoped to get into this
level of MBB consulting, and then for different
reasons, didn't make it. Was it then all for nothing? Did you just spend all
this money, all this time, for not meeting your goals? Is this really how you want
to think about your life? I really think this is not a healthy way to look at these types of things. It's not a mature way, I would say. It's a little bit childish, frankly. And I think it's absolutely
fair to say you have a goal, that you want to get into consulting, that you'd love to also
get into MBB consulting. And yes, I would argue
probably there is a difference between tier one, tier two,
tier three consulting firms. But surely you shouldn't obsess around this being your only goal.
You shouldn't plan your whole
life around that, right? And of course many things you do, that will help you to
potentially get into MBB, will also help you to get into other attractive career paths. So it's about your GPA, the grades, if you write good grades,
a strong GPA, of course, this will help you in
other things as well. If you work on the
extracurriculars, and so on. But don't do things only because you hope that this will help you to do it. You shouldn't do an MBA
if your own objective to get into MBB, because chances
are on the end of the day, quiet high that you won't make it. So let's talk about some other
things that you could do, that are very attractive. A couple of ideas, maybe also for you, if you really feel like the only way for you to have a great
career in management, and general management, is
to do McKinsey, BCG, Bain, What else could you do? What might be great alternatives? First idea: fund a startup.
I have actually many people
I personally studied with, in my time here at University of Munich, that instead of starting a
career in McKinsey, BCG, Bain, tier one consulting they founded a startup,
and now have unicorns. And probably it was a golden time, especially also in the last years. But again, several people I studied with, who were in my semester, in my cohort, who founded now today, unicorns.
And surely, these people do not regret to have not joined MBB in the end, right? And of course not everyone makes it. Survivorship bias, many people who started
startups, who didn't do it. But I think in the end of the
day, it's much more realistic, much more possible, than
maybe you think, first point. Second point, if you maybe you feel like it's
too much to risk to do that, to start your own startup,
join such a startup, join such a young company, right? So join a startup that
is already established.
I think the sweet spot probably is to join a company that just
raised a serious A, right? So that just raised a big
substantial financing round, because of what this means is that the company already does show some level of traction, does at least show initial
signs of product market fit. So you take out a lot of the initial risk of joining such a company. You are in a situation where the company now raised significant amounts of money. Good, serious A rounds
today are often 10, 20, 30, $40 million. If you look at the last
valuations, the current numbers. So these are often environments where lots of people get hired, where you might suddenly be in a position, even as a junior person
who is doing a good job, to only, after aa short amount of time, to become a team lead, to
become lots of responsibility. And I think people also
severely underestimate the salaries that you can
earn in these type of roles.
Frankly, I think in these environments, for these fast hyper
growth type of companies, you can often earn salaries
absolutely equivalent to people being consultants,
senior consultants, even project leads, in
consulting type of environments. And often of course, the
lifestyle is significantly better, than what you can expect
at McKinsey, BCG Bain. And frankly, if you would be interested in an opportunity like that, we have currently a role like
that at my current employer, at my current company
Building Radar, as well. We are looking for a role that
we call a revenue engineer.
So Building Radar is doing something that is called revenue engineering. We are helping industry
and construction companies, to digitalize, and fuel their sales, and commercial processes. And we are hiring at the moment
for this one specific role. It will be a role that
very closely works together with us as a C level, So me, including with the
board of Building Radar, with the managing directors
of Building Radar. It is a role where you
will work closely together with some of our largest customers, with senior leadership
of large industry players in Germany, and in Europe. And it is a position where you can have a significant influence on the strategic direction
of our young company. So if this would be something that you would be interested in, I will leave a link to this job posting in the video description. Check it out. Two requirements though: first you need to be based in Munich. So it's not a fully remote position.
And second, you need to be fluent both in English and in German. But if you meet these requirements, you can apply via the link
in the video description. Just also write in your cover letter, that you saw this video. And then I would also have the opportunity to look at your application this way. And frankly, I think another benefit of joining such a position
in the young company, is that I think there's
no better preparation, to eventually found your own startup. If you maybe don't wanna do it right away, out of university, with a couple of years of work experience. There's no better way than having worked for such
a young growth company, because all the things that you see, that you learn with
working together closely with the management
team, with the founders, these will be exactly the learnings, that will help you to then
start your own venture as well, raise capital, raise money,
and bring that to life.
And then the third overarching
opportunity that I see as an alternative to what
you can do in consulting, is B2B sales. This is also something that I
learned over the last years. I think it's absolutely crazy, the careers that people have
work as an account executive as a key account manager, for any of these B2B sales companies. Here behind us, actually, there's the office of
Salesforce here in Munich. If you are, are an account executive, at a company like Salesforce, and that's just one of many examples. So any of these SaaS companies, and again, including Building Radar, because we are SaaS company as well, the people there can earn
easily six digit salaries, just a great career sets,
lots of opportunities, also lots of growth
potential that you see.
So if working together with B2B customers, if working together with other
people, selling products, in the B2B environment, is something that you're interested in, think about pursuing
such a career in sales, because the truth is, salaries are probably rather comparable to what you can expect in the first three to
five years in consulting. Plus the work/life balance
is significantly better, to what you can expect in consulting.
And again, then from such
a safe leadership position that you will be eventually in. This, of course, is surely also great than
development step point to then also move into other areas, into other leadership positions
of the company overall. And then potentially, of course also starting your
own business in the end. So I hope this makes sense to you. Yes, I am still and I will continue to be a
big proponent of consulting. I think it is a great start your career. I think spending a few
years at McKinsey, BCG, any of these companies, rarely you did anything
back to anyone, right? So I think really it's of
course a great opportunity, but don't get stuck up on
joining of these firms.
Think of alternatives, think
of the options that you have. Don't develop your profile
too closely, too narrowly, towards such a thing which
maybe might work out, or might not work out for you in the end. And again, in any ways
for almost all people, there will be a career after consulting. Only very few people stay there until the partner role. It's very unlikely that
you would do that as well. And that alone should
be reason enough for you to then find your own position,
to find your own path. So thank you. This is just what I wanted
to talk about today. Appreciate your time. If you like this, as
always, hit the like button, turn on the subscribe button,
turn on the notification bell. Big thanks to the members of the channel. Very much appreciate your support. See you again next week. My name is Heinrich. I'm a former McKinsey consultant
releasing career advice, here on my channel Firm Learning. New videos every single Saturday. All the best to you, and bye bye.