When researching potential consultancies you’re considering applying to, it’s important to understand and compare the different cultures each firm offers, so you can choose the company that feels like the right fit for you.
In most cases, consulting firms will have a similar culture across the world with a few local nuances, so it’s worth getting to know the consultants in the office you’re considering applying to, to assess whether you feel you’d fit in.
To help you understand more about how Bain & Company differs from other top firms, we’ve rounded up insights from current and former ‘Bainies’.
‘A Bainie never lets another Bainie fail’
Although this may sound a little cringey, this statement impacts the way Bainies interact, and therefore the culture that’s created among colleagues.
Bain’s philosophy of ‘a Bainie never lets another Bainie fail’, essentially means colleagues help each other out, especially when someone is facing challenges.
As Yuri, a consultant at Bain, describes, when she was working on a new project and struggling with data analysis she’d never experienced before, her team members and other colleagues were all willing and ready to invest their time and effort to coach her.
This collaborative culture is an important part of consultants’ professional development and is often considered unique to Bain.
A more hierarchical and meritocratic firm
When compared to the other top-3 consulting firms, the team structure is slightly more hierarchical in the early years. A Consultant will have an oversight role over Senior Associate Consultants, who in turn have an oversight role over Associate Consultants. This is unlike at McKinsey and BCG, where team members each have their own workstream and report to the same team leader.
Therefore, consultants at Bain gain managerial responsibility faster than at other firms. The flip side is that it makes transitions from other industries more challenging, since new joiners have to quickly get their act together and be ready to manage junior team members who may have more consulting experience.
That being said, careers at Bain are more fluid. Bain consultants are expected to climb a new notch in the hierarchy every six months and the firm is very flexible with letting consultants climb several notches in one go if their performance shows that they’re ready. Therefore, Bain rewards its top performers with faster career progressions.
This is different to BCG or McKinsey where some offices impose staying a minimum time at each level, regardless of performance.
Feedback is a focus
As with many top consulting firms, Bain’s culture is very feedback focused. This means that feedback is often given downwards (from your manager to you), upwards (from you to your manager and sometimes higher), and across (from you to your peers).
Bain’s focus on feedback is to ensure consultants are constantly growing and developing both their hard and soft skills. Although the feedback culture can feel intense at times, you’re always very aware of what you need to focus on to be better at your job. This means that your learn and develop at a rapid pace.
Compared to the typical 6 or 12-month review cycles inside non-consulting firms, it’s easy to see why a few years in top consultancies like Bain is a huge accelerator to your professional growth and performance.
Results are priority
When delivering projects at Bain, the actions and results are the most important part of the conversation, even in the more ’fluffy’ strategy cases. This means that there is always a preference for supporting and driving clients to make decisions, take actions and create results, as opposed to a more theoretical exercise.
Consequently, the work of a Bain consultant focuses on the key points and insights required, as opposed to considering all the factors and ’boiling the ocean’.
Bain is full of flexibility and fun!
The Bain culture is also known for its high energy and focus on working hard, whilst also enjoying the ride.
Team events, social occasions, office parties and getaways are part of the Bain experience and allow colleagues to connect, build relationships, and have fun. Bain is also known for its World Cup event which brings together thousands of employees from across the world to compete in sports and celebrate.
The nature of consulting project work also allows for a lot of career flexibility. For example, you can take extended leaves of absence for a long vacation or to explore a personal interest without jeopardizing your career.
This is because staffing is essentially a marketplace inside a consulting firm like Bain, where consultants are matched to projects based on their availability and if they’re on vacation for a while, another consultant can be placed on the project instead. This means you will always have a job to come back to and it creates the ultimate type of career flexibility.
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