MBB roles salaries in long run/ worth taking risk

24/7 work setup but you start at 45 CTC at an MBB. The fixed pay could be upwards of 30. If you want wlb, you are better off in your current setup. Also consultants are business folks so they get more exposure and a great network to tap into

As for MBB salaries, sharing some rough numbers - other posts on gvine also have some more details

(terminologies and pay differ marginally differ across the firms - Bain and Mck are pretty similar, BCG would be 5-10% higher - this is atleast till a consultant / manager level)

Junior Associate / Junior Consultant / Senior Associate (Level 1) roughly around 25+5L

Junior Associate / Junior Consultant / Senior Associate (Level 2) roughly around 30+10L

Consultant - roughly around 45+10L Extremely rare - offered only to candidates with a lot of years of work ex (4-5 yoe+)

Time period between each of these roles is roughly 1 - 2 years

Increments in total ctc slow down post that a little bit (goes up to ~1 Cr over 4 years thats when you're a senior manager / engagement lead)

Once you're Associate partner / Principal, your variable increases quite significantly - so then a good chunk of your earnings are largely basis performance and the kind of cases you do

On work life balance, yeah it can get pretty bad. But its generally very case dependent (and firm dependent - bcg really has the worst wlb out of the 3 but they also pay the highest)

There are days on my cases I've worked till 2-3 am, there are days I've closed work at 4 pm as well. I would say on average, you would work a 65-70 hour work week.

Weekends are protected at Bain (not sure about Mck and BCG) - over the last 3 odd years at Bain roughly, I would've maybe worked 4 weekends. But essentially i have no time for a life outside of work on weekdays typically.

As for exit opportunities, I think its very market dependent - but exit is especially great if you want to move to either a VC/ PE role or a strategy / chief of staff kind of role.

Developers are in great demand. Just skill up to get a role in product company if you want challenge work. Consulting is niche and will remain niche

Loads of senseless comments here makes me realize people don't know shit about how consulting has evolved in the recent past. I am a Principal at top 3 consulting firm (not in India coz pay is very less, culture is shit) My last 3 projects have been

1. Building /Optimizing app for one of the largest e-commerce retailers in Middle East
2. Working with top 5 hedge fund in the area on their clean energy investment strategy
3. Working with a global energy giant on their tech and digitization tools....and it goes on You will get the wrong impression if you ask folks struggling in unprofitable startups managing hardly 20-30 LPA. Reach out to folks on LinkedIn and 1:1 setup to truly understand. From my experience, Bain has been doing extremely good work in the tech and digital space (I am sticking to this space given your background and inclination)