What Bain & Company Looks for in MBA Hires
Bain & Company—widely considered one of the most elite consulting firms in the world—is a coveted post-MBA destination for students at top business schools in every part of the globe. Headquartered in Boston with 53 offices in 34 countries around the world, Bain employs more than 7,000 people and counts as its clients leading Fortune 500 companies, as well as nonprofit and government organizations. And business is booming.
According to Keith Bevans, Global Head of Consultant Recruiting, the company has grown at a rate of 15 percent a year for the past 20 years, with no slowdown in sight. “We hire a little over 400 consultants a year—and that growth comes from the top business schools in the world,” he says. While the company primarily targets top-20 schools for MBA recruiting, it hires from more than 60 schools around the world and is committed to finding the best talent wherever it can.
Bevans is a Bain-lifer. He started as an associate consultant out of MIT, where he earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in engineering. He left Bain to get his MBA at Harvard Business School but returned upon graduation and has been there ever since. For much of his career, he was a client-facing partner in the firm’s Performance Improvement practice, with a focus on processes to improve effectiveness and efficiencies. Now he’s putting that expertise to work for his own company, and he couldn’t be happier.
His allegiance to the firm is clear, and it’s based in great part on his intimate understanding of its culture, which he describes as steadfastly collaborative and supportive. And he’s not alone. Bain frequently tops the “Best Places to Work” lists for Glassdoor, Vault and Consulting magazine, with employees praising its “great people and culture” and calling it “an incredible place to learn” and “the best place to start your career.”
It’s people, too, set Bain apart, Bevans agrees. “They are very smart, very passionate, maniacally focused on making a difference in whatever they are doing—and they wrap all of that in a layer of humility, which I think is very rare to find.”
Bain Partner Keith Bevans, Global Head of Consultant Recruiting
But interns alone are not enough to keep up with Bain’s growth. “It varies from year to year in terms of how many of our full-time hires are former summer interns, new full-time hires or former consultants. But the internship program never fills up the whole group.”MBA graduates are a big and important part of the company’s hiring, and many start out as interns in the 10-week summer associate program between their first and second years of business school. “It’s definitely an important on-ramp,” he says of the internship program, adding that it’s also a valuable opportunity for both Bain and its interns to determine fit. Notably, 90 percent of interns return to work for Bain full-time, Bevans adds. And there’s not a maximum cap on intern hires. “Our summer program is limited only by how many great students we can find,” he says. “We don’t have a target—rather I like to think of it as a minimum. If we find more great people, we will always go over whatever we set out for.” Which means there are opportunities for second-year students who may not have targeted Bain or consulting in their first year.
But interns alone are not enough to keep up with Bain’s growth. “It varies from year to year in terms of how many of our full-time hires are former summer interns, new full-time hires or former consultants. But the internship program never fills up the whole group.”
Don’t miss Clear Admit’s exclusive interview with Bevans, in which he talks about the firm’s commitment to employee training and support, goes into detail about Bain’s MBA recruiting process, shares where he looks and what he looks for in MBA hires and more. Our thanks to Bevans for making the time to share more about Bain with the Clear Admit audience.
Corporate Recruiter Q&A: Bain & Company’s Keith Bevans
Clear Admit: What sets Bain apart—not only among other consulting firms but also as an employer or company overall?
Keith Bevans: There are a couple of things about Bain people that set us apart. In my role, I have had the opportunity to travel to offices around the world hiring people, and what I have found is that Bain people are passionate about both the work they are doing and the things they are doing outside of work. They really jump right in with both feet. When you align that around our goal of having our clients be successful, you can really see the passion Bainies have for their clients—it just oozes out of them. We are having a big impact on our clients, and we are hiring people who are really energized by that.
With that as our starting point, we put them in an environment where we really do act like one team and do everything we can to support them in their professional life. From our global training programs to our onboarding program to the career counseling we provide—it’s all aligned around helping them be successful and be the best they can be. Bain people are people who want to have an impact.
Relative to other firms I think we are different in the sense that we have a very collaborative culture. We also have tremendously deep expertise in every major sector of the economy, and we bring that to our clients. “We’ve studied this and analyzed this, but why don’t we marry that with your expertise?” we’ll say to clients. We are not trying to prove that we are smarter than our clients but to work collaboratively with them to position them to succeed.
CA: How important are MBAs in your overall hiring? How many MBAs do you hire each year, both interns and full-time? Are you continuing to grow at the 15 percent rate you’ve enjoyed for so many years?
KB: MBA talent is a big and really important source of talent for us. For the last 20 years, we have been growing on average at a rate of 15 percent per year. That makes for a phenomenal slide when I put it in front of recruits. We hire a little over 400 consultants a year, and that growth comes from the top business schools in the world. The bulk of our targeted efforts focus on top 20 programs, but we have hired from almost 60 different MBA programs around the world.
With our growth, our primary focus is to make sure we are finding the most talented people out there. The breadth of schools from which we’ve hired shows that we are continuing to do innovative things through the Bain Passport and Webinar series to connect with students wherever they are. Our intern program this summer is once again—for the third or fourth year in a row—the largest we have run as a firm. It is definitely an important on-ramp, if you will. And 90 percent of the MBA interns who come for the summer return to Bain afterwards. We find the best, bring them in for the summer and very often they start their careers with us.
As for the 10 percent who don’t return—most of the time it’s actually more of a mutual thing. Maybe they tried consulting and decided it’s not a fit for them. And here’s another example of the supportive part about Bain: Even the interns who don’t come back often get support from the people who worked with them at Bain. They help them identify what parts of the internship were the right fit, and what roles might be a better match and then they help connect them with people who can help. After all, they are still Bain alums and still part of the Bain family.
LBS Employment Report Finds Grads Falling Out Of Love With Finance
London Business School MBA graduates may be seeing higher salaries and increased hiring rates, but its love of the finance industry may be waning.
According to the 2016 London Business School employment report, MBA grads are joining the financial sector at the lowest rate in five years. LBS grads are still joining the industry at 25 percent overall, which trails the 35 percent of graduates that enter consulting. Technology, which hired the third-most LBS 2016 graduates, came in third at 21 percent—the same percentage from the previous year.
via London Business School Employment Report 2016
Goldman Sachs, which typically hires the most LBS MBAs that move into the financial sector, only hired six employees from the 2016 class, down from nine the previous year. Credit Suisse and Citi Bank also hired less grads than the previous year. This all comes despite the fact that the aforementioned companies hired several more total summer interns, but did not retain them. For instance, Goldman Sachs took in 13 interns but only hired six employees—creating a retainment rate of only 46 percent.
Another marked difference is the slightly noticeable decline in finance hires joining private equity firms rather than traditional investment banks. 2016 marked the first year—ever—that more joined private firms, with nine percent of graduates compared to seven percent joining investment banking. These figures fall in line with trends that have persisted since the financial collapse of 2008. eFinancialCareers debuted a report in September of 2016 that found a steadily declining love between MBAs and traditional big banking.
If you’re in London in particular, therefore, the MBA-into-banking route has pretty much disappeared in 2016. Banks’ recruiters say it’s the culmination of a long term trend. ‘This has been going on since 2008,’ says one, speaking off the record. ‘Once things got tough, MBAs just weren’t seen as value for money any more.’
Despite the dampening of the overall numbers, salary rates saw a noticeable bump for finance industry hires. The average annual salary of 2016 grads jumped from £78,358 to £81,905, with the highest max salary leaping from £125,468 to £151,469.
Consulting Hires Jump
The total percentage of LBS graduates joining the consulting industry jumped moderately from 33 percent in 2015 to 35 percent last year, with the majority of hires joining Boston Consulting Group (BCG), McKinsey & Co. and Bain & Company. BCG specifically saw hires nearly double over the course of a year, improving from 19 to 34 total.
Like the financial sector LBS hires, salaries increased across the board for consulting industry MBAs. The average annual salary of those in the industry leaped from £79,773 to £83,268, although the highest salary tracked was £117,389—down from £121,824 in 2015.
The Incoming LBS MBA Class
A total of 411 new students will join LBS in 2017, ranging from 24 to 39 years of age. They enter the MBA program with an average of five years of professional work experience and a 701 GMAT score (up from 699 last year). As well, there is a moderate increase in female students and diversified nationalities. Accepted female applicants jumped to 37 percent from 36 percent, and 68 total nationalities are represented, up from 65 in 2015.
You can read the entire LBS 2016 employment report here.
Hot MBA Jobs: International Business Consultant
International business consulting is one of the world’s fastest growing industries. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the hiring rate of management consulting (the overarching job category) is increasing much faster than average, with an expected rate improving around 14 percent until 2024.
And there’s no doubt that the international side is growing even more quickly due to the globalization of the world economy, the emergence of new markets and explosive economic growth in countries such as India and China. Not to mention the fact that the world is smaller than ever and that almost every business across the world conducts business internationally—even many small and medium-sized companies. So, as more and more companies embrace the global mindset, international business consultants will be more valuable than ever.
As for MBAs, consulting is still one of the most sought-after career fields. According to the 2015 Prospective Student Survey conducted by the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC), consulting topped the list of intended industries for both millennial and Gen X respondents (41 percent and 27 percent respectively).
But before you make the decision to become an international business consultant, let’s take a look at what your career would look like. Continue reading…
The Top Consulting And Strategic Management Chicago MBA Programs
While industries such as investment banking may be attracting fewer MBAs, that’s not the case for consulting. Year-after-year it continues to be the top draw for MBA graduates. The 2015 Prospective Student Survey conducted by the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC) revealed that a job in consulting services or management consulting upon graduation topped the list for both millennial (41 percent) and Gen X (27 percent) respondents. Continue reading…
A Deeper Look at the 2016 Michigan Ross Employment Report
The University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business earlier this month released its 2016 MBA Employment Report, and the results are nothing short of stellar.
Top Management/Consulting Jobs for MBAs in Washington DC
Students who have already gone through the process of applying for and earning their MBA seem ready to take on anything, and sometimes that can be a problem.
The immense skills gained from an MBA can leave students overwhelmed with decisions to make after graduation. Thankfully, MetroMBA has provided several helpful guides to help students and graduates to make these important career decisions once their degree is in hand.
