If you want to join a family and and propel your career, come to Bain. - Associate Consultant Bain & Company Employee Review

5.0
26 Dec 2008
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Bain has a great culture and feels like a family, making it a great place to come in every single day. As a younger member of the stuff, I felt immediately included. People from a year older than me to fifteen years older than me invited me out to lunch, to happy hours and, mostly importantly, always offered to help me in my professional development. Case teams are structured in such a way that you get to know everyone through social events, that your work is constantly recognized and you have the opportunity to get feedback and give feedback.

Cons

As a management consultant, hours can be tough and expectations high. However, I think every one knows this when they sign up, and you are properly compensated. A perk of Bain is that the staffing model minimizes travel (at least in SF, BOS, NYC) because clients are generally local, but that limits the variety of cases, exposure to certain industries, and international opportunities. An associate consultant has to essentially wait until the 3rd year to go work abroad at one of Bain's ~40 offices. The internship program is extremely well structured, but the work load seems a little easy at times, at least compared to Banker friends.

Explore other reviews about Bain & Company

5.0
23 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great culture, amazing people, and a place to learn and grow

Cons

Long hours and high stress environment

5.0
5 Oct 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Welcome to Bain. I'm going to give you a problem that neither the CEO nor his entire management team could solve. And I'm probably going to give you lots of different opinions and imperfect data sources. And then I'll ask you to focus in on where the most value is and convince all those people with different opinions that you're right. But don't worry, I'm also going to give you a Bain team. Those associates and consultants are going to be tenacious in coming up with creative approaches. Those managers and partners are going to knock down barriers for you, connect you where you need to be connected, guide, support, direct and re-direct you. The office support staff is going to fix your computer after you spilled coffee on it for the third time, find you the unfindable data source, and smile and hand you a baked good after you ask for help re-doing dozens of slides. You are empowered and accountable but you are not alone. And the best part is you can't fail. Because after all, what all those people are reinforcing is that a Bainie never lets another Bainie fail.

Cons

Here's how you know you've made it at Bain. The reward for doing a good job is getting a bigger, tougher problem next time. Meaning, you are always solving the easiest problem you will ever solve again. This takes a lot of resilience and active managing of self-expectations to remember that you are not actually getting worse, the problems are just getting harder. So my advice is to remember that. And then take a second to realize that it would be a lot less fun if the reverse were true. And isn't that precisely why you wanted this job in the first place anyway? It sure was for me.

790
avatar
Bain & Company Response
9y
You have captured the essence of what it means to work here! Thanks for sharing your experience.
See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All