Project Staffing at McKinsey, BCG & Bain

How do consulting firms assign individual consultants to projects? Can you choose your project or are you assigned? We explain what staffing means throughout your consulting career at McKinsey, BCG & Bain - from your first project all the way to partner level.
*********************************************
🚀 CASE SIMULATION
Our interactive case interview simulation was developed by MBB (McKinsey, BCG, Bain) consultants. We offer a case interview experience as close to the real interview as it gets.
✅ Authentic cases
✅ Realistic pacing and rhythm
✅ Detailed solutions
Check out our website and try it for free (no strings attached):
www.caseinterviewhub.com/case...
*********************************************
🔓 CONSULTING INSIGHTS
As experienced consultants at McKinsey, BCG, and Bain, we give you an inside look into the industry.
✅ Industry insights
✅ Career tips
✅ Latest trends
Check our website and our blog:
www.caseinterviewhub.com/
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
00:22 Staffing definition
00:49 Staffing models
01:39 Factors influencing staffing
03:51 Black market
04:52 Staffing progression
09:06 Final thoughts
#consulting, #mckinsey, #caseinterview, #consultant, #consultingfirm, #consultinglife, #case, #casestudy, #interviewquestions, #interviewprep, #bcg, #bain

[@fedezarba7753]

Great video! Original content you don't find in other channels as per usual! Congrats.
One comment tough. I work at Bain. Regarding their staffing model, I would say they are leaning more to the middle next to BCG. They do have a staffing survey where they ask you for your preferences (industry, capacity, lenght of project, team size, travel vs no travel, etc.) and they ask you to put a weight to each of this variables for them to consider even more. For example, you can put 100% points to not traveling because you have a new baby, or 70 points to avoid mining because you are very "ESG" consious.
They usualy do a good job in keeping your preferences! Of course there are other variables in play and they are not always able to acomodate everybody due to pipeline restrictions, but it mostly works fine!

[@mikehawk8338]

Great video again.

[@matthewlivingstone8270]

How does a PM know if a consultant “fits the profile” for a project? Is there some sort of internal system whereby they can see your qualifications?

[@CaseInterviewHub]

Great question! A couple of factors play a role.
First, it’s about prior experience. You want someone on your team who did the type of project before. If you staff an automotive project, ideally the junior did something in this industry before. Either from a project in consulting, or from the time before consulting (imagine that someone worked for 3 years at General Motors before the MBA). It’s less ideal if the junior only did insurance projects. The same applies to the project type. If you do a marketing and sales project then you prefer someone with that experience.
At McKinsey, for example, there is an internal database where you can check out what types of projects any person at the firm did (client names are anonymized but you know the industry and project type).
Second, it’s about skills. For example, some projects require a more quantitative approach, others more conceptual thinking. If you staff someone for a due diligence you probably want someone who’s extremely good at Excel modeling. Maybe they have an investment banking background. Or if its more about writing a report, you take an English major. Language skills can play a role as well (in rare cases).
Third, it’s about budget and cost. A project manager has limited budget. If you staff a junior, or someone who just started, it’s much cheaper. If you staff a senior associate it’s more expensive for the project. If you need someone who’s super experienced and can run a big workstream on his own without much supervision, you staff a senior guy. If it’s a simpler workstream and there’s less pressure to be expected, you staff a junior guy who’s less expensive (that way, sometimes even a more experienced guy doesn’t get the project because someone cheaper can do it adequately). This needs to be balanced by the partners and PM.
And fourth, it’s about personality. You want someone with whom you ‚click‘ and there’s good interpersonal connections. Some people even exchange their MBTI, so that you can see if they would be a good fit (e.g., introvert versus extrovert, big picture guy versus detail oriented.) You could look for the same type as you, or for someone who’s opposite, to complement your strengths. Whatever the team needs.
All of this, and particularly the last point, can be discussed in advance between the PM and the consultant. They often have a staffing call (or staffing due diligence), especially in a preference based staffing model. The PM asks about prior experiences and checks how motivated and excited that guy would be for the project. But the consultant also checks if the project fits his/her interests or development needs, and if there is sympathy for the PM. The PM conducts several calls with several consultants who are potentially available, and picks one in the end. But the consultant also talks with multiple PMs to see which projects would be the best. Also, PM and consultant often exchange „internal references“. A PM asks the consultant if they can provide some names of the prior PMs or partners they worked with, to make sure the guy is good and a good fit. And the consultant asks the PM for some names of consultants the PM had on the team (to make sure he’s a good PM).
So, staffing can be quite a lot of work, especially in a preference based model. As a PM you may conduct 5 calls with different consultants, and 10 additional calls to check the consultants’ references. Then you pick one, but then the guy might choose another project. And you have to staff your second-best option or maybe schedule additional calls with other people, and gather more references. And the whole process also applies to the consultant: reach out to PMs, check their references, maybe get rejected, look for alternatives, do some more calls, and eventually you hopefully get staffed.
That’s it in a nutshell