Year on year, the placements data provided by the IIMs and other top b-schools indicates one strong and recurring trend - Consulting is one of
the most sought-after functions for MBA grads. in their final year. One of the biggest drivers for this trend is that roles like Management Consulting offer exposure across a diverse set of industries - Consulting firms work with corporates, state and central governments, international governments, and even other Consulting firms! But perhaps an even bigger driver is the paycheck that a Consultant takes home at the end of every month.
Management Consultants tend to be some of the highest paid professionals across functions. Take for instance
IIM Ahmedabad's salary statistics for the MBA class of 2019, where the Consulting function had the highest median salary and the most number of takers! You could also look at
ISB's latest placements and salary statistics to arrive at a very similar conclusion. By the way, this trend doesn't exist only in India as can be seen in the
employment reports of the world's top business schools.
So we know that MBA grads. opting for Consulting roles are some of the highest paid professionals in the corporate world, depending on their firm of employment as well as, to a certain extent, their respective alma maters. But what is the actual salary figure attached to a Consulting role? What does the average Indian Management Consultant earn in a year? How much do Consultants earn in the US and the UK? Which firms are the best pay masters when it comes to Management Consulting roles? The five tables below provide answers to these questions and answer the biggest question of them all -
what does a Consultant make in a year?
The following data has been gathered from LinkedIn's salaries portal, and has been filtered by the 'Management Consulting' function. Please note that every column of the tables below is sortable in ascending/descending order.
Before you get lost in the tables and numbers below and make it your life's goal to become a Management Consultant, we think you'd be very interested in 5 unmissable interactive sessions on careers in Consulting, conducted by a Partner and a Principal at one of the world's largest management consulting firms. In fact, you may know one of the session instructors from somewhere......
Anyone familiar with the world of Management Consulting or our
Recruitment Rankings will know that the 'MBB' firms, i.e.
McKinsey,
BCG and
Bain are almost always right at the very top of the most sought-after firms to work with. Now we know why! These firms, which hire only the cream of India's talent pool (including MBA grads) are the best pay masters in the world of Consulting, at least in India.
Accenture, one of the top recruiters at b-schools across various tiers, pays its Consultants an eye watering median base salary of nearly ₹19.00 lakhs a year!
Convinced that Management Consulting is a career worth exploring and dreaming about? Bolster your dreams by attending 5 mind blowing interactive sessions conducted by very senior executives at an MBB firm. They'll answer all your burning questions about Consulting as a career. Don't miss it!
Many of the world's top Management Consulting firms are headquartered in major US cities. Even in the US, Consultants are some of the highest paid professionals sitting in the high rises of Manhattan, Atlanta or Los Angeles. Consultants who are graduates of the world's top b-schools are especially well-paid, and can earn base salaries well beyond $150,000.
Once again, the MBB firms emerge as the best paymasters in the US, with the McKinsey office in the Greater Seattle area offering its Consultants a median base salary of a cool $161,000. That' ₹1.2 crores, and this doesn't even include bonuses and perks!
It's also no surprise that the top paying firms are all based out of the Big Apple - New York City! Did you know - the average Management Consultant in NYC earns a base salary of $105,000, and can earn up to $35,000 as annual bonus! You should definitely take a look at
region-wise salaries for Consultants in the US.
The UK (or London specifically) is an exception to the dominance of the MBB firms as pay masters. Here, The Berkeley Partnership - an independent management consultancy based out of New York and London tops the chart of the top paying Consulting firm in the UK, offering its Management Consultants a whopping 110,000 GBP just as a median base salary. That's upwards of ₹1 crore a year!
Two of the three MBB firms do, however, feature amongst the top-3 Consulting paymasters in the UK, followed by the Chicago-based global consulting firm, AT Kearney.
So It's Clear: The Salaries Are Great - But Is A Consulting Career Really Worth It?
Based on the massive salaries that you just saw, Consulting definitely seems like a career that can make you rich. But, as with any career, there are other components that also need to be factored in. For instance, Management Consulting jobs
are known to have very poor work life balance. Are you not comfortable with travelling a lot? Well, you may have to pass on Consulting as a career. There are many such components that are sometimes only known when you actually step into a career. But is it wise to get into a profession you don't know the reality about?
We think not, which is why we're bringing to you a set of sessions with someone who has been in your shoes before, someone who relates to your many questions about "what next", and someone who cannot wait to share her knowledge of the world of Consulting with all of you. We present to you the InsideIIM Consulting Festival - a 5 session festival where we put you in touch with Seema Bansal and Roshni Rathi who will blow your mind with their vast knowledge of this profession, and whom you can ask all your questions
live!
Interested? Take a look at the program outline here or sign-up directly in one easy step (special discount running)!
Here's a message from Seema Bansal for you!