MBAs love consulting. After all, it is an extension of business school. New people. New problems. New ideas. No day is ever the same…and you get to rub elbows with top executives too.
Sometimes, those relationships extend beyond an eight-week engagement. Ultimately, senior executives are scouts, always looking out for fresh talent. And engagements make for perfect auditions. They show how consultants tackle issues and build consensus. They reflect how much they relish an industry and fit a culture. Most important, engagements provide a space for potential hires to show cool under pressure, to defend ideas with data and convey urgency with storytelling.
NEVER STOP GROWING…AND ALWAYS BE LOOKING
When it comes to consulting jobs – particularly with the MBB – MBAs often want to know which classes to take, who to network with, and how to ace case interviews. Once they land a job, they face an entirely different set of questions. Two of them: How long should I stay…and where should my next move be?
Management Consulted pegs the average consulting tenure at 2-4 years. That means once a toolkit is built and reputation is established, it may be time for MBAs to start polishing their resume…particularly if the partner track means even more 70-hour weeks and 12-hour flights. Which industries are McKinsey, Bain, and BCG consultants taking the off-ramp to join? And what types of companies are attracting this blue-chip consulting talent?
Those questions were addressed in a report issued yesterday (December 9) by Management Consulted. The answer: MBB consultants are finding their way into a wide range of industries, organizations, and roles. One thing is clear: they prefer joining private companies after leaving consulting.
A SNAPSHOT OF MBB MOVEMENT
The report – MBB Exit Opportunity Analysis 2025 – is part of a monthly consulting research series produced by Management Consulted. Best known for its January Consulting Salaries Report, Management Consulted provides services ranging from resume reviews to case prep to aspiring consultants. The ‘Exit’ report is designed to give readers a snapshot of MBB turnover over a three-month period (August 18 – November 18). Tapping into LinkedIn data, Management Consulted created a dataset of 1,644 individuals who’d left MBB firms over this time period, covering roles ranging from partner to analyst. To qualify, these individuals must have started a full-time role outside a MBB during this August-November period.
When MBB consultants leave their firms, where do they head? The largest number stay in Business Consulting and Services. This segment represents 16.6% of the sample – or 273 individuals. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean they are joining another consulting firm, says Namaan Mian, the chief operating officer at Management Consulted. Instead, the number includes MBB alumni who become independent consultants.
Financial Services and Software Development firms attracted 13.7% and 13.1% respectively of departing MBB consultants during the August-November period. At the same time, Hardware, Electronics and Devices and Retail companies netted over 200 MBB alumni for 7.2% and 5.3% shares respectively. Venture Capital and Private Equity trailed closely behind at 5.1%.
GO BIG…OR STAY PUT
Generally, MBB departees chose larger firms. Nearly 40% joined organizations with 1,000 or more employees. Another 37.2% accepted jobs in firms with $1-billion or more in annual revenue, including 18.8% who chose firms above the $10-billion mark.
“These organizations typically offer clearer internal structures, executive development programs, and defined career ladders – factors highly valued by consultants transitioning out of the project-based model,” according to the report.
That said, 30.6% of departing MBB consultants landed jobs in companies with $25-million or less in annual revenue, which Management Consulted attributed to factors like “visibility, ownership, and speed-to-execution.”
PRIVATE OVER PUBLIC
Namaan Mian
Maybe the number that stands out most is the type of company that MBB alumni choose. 62.8% accepted roles in private companies, more than three times the number in public companies (18.7%). In some respects, this is a numbers game says Namaan Mian, who observes that private companies outnumber public firms by roughly a 25-million to 4,000 margin. Still, private companies offer several advantages that would entice MBB-level talent.
“Private companies – whether founder-led, VC-backed, or PE-backed – often hire ex-MBB talent to professionalize the operation: build processes, drive growth, and bring structure,” explains Mian in an interview with P&Q. “There’s one other aspect at play here: Private companies are staying private longer in part because they can now gain meaningful liquidity without an IPO. Instead of going public just to let employees and early investors cash out, late-stage startups increasingly use the private secondary market. These tools give companies a way to reward employees, reduce pressure from early investors, and manage their cap table – all while keeping control, avoiding quarterly earnings scrutiny, and choosing their timing for a later IPO or strategic sale.”
While many MBAs picture the consulting off-ramp to merge directly with the c-suite, that isn’t necessarily the finding of Management Consulted MBB research. Nearly a third of these LinkedIn profiles showed that consultants – 31.1% – became Consultants or Individual Contributors after leaving McKinsey, Bain, or BCG. Another 12.3% were hired as Directors, followed by Managers at 10%. In fact, just 3.8% were elevated to CEO, with another 1.3% becoming a President.
That’s not to stay an MBB stint still isn’t a ticket to the c-suite. Notably, 7.7% of these MBB LinkedIn profiles specified “C-Suite” as their new role. Another 8.8% held Vice President titles. Beyond that, you’ll find roles that include Partner (6.1%) and Advisor (3.6%). Together, 7.8% of MBB alumni held positions that included Managing Director, Chief of Staff, Principal, and Board Member.
BECOME A FOUNDER? THAT DEPENDS…
What about entrepreneurship? That’s dicey, notes Management Consulted. Technically, 6.3% of MBB consultants leave to become founders. However, the report continues that consulting skills don’t always translate well to launching a new venture.
“Despite the visibility of consultant-turned-founders, most consultants are not naturally wired for zero-to-one entrepreneurship. Their training emphasizes structure, risk mitigation, data-driven decision-making, and stakeholder alignment. This creates outstanding operators and strategic leaders, but it often works against the ambiguity tolerance required for early-stage entrepreneurship.”
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