The Firm

"Management consulting” entered my vocabulary a few months into my senior year of college. Long before most of us began applying for jobs, the class go-getters were deep in preparation for multiple rounds of interviews with one—or all—of the Big Three consulting shops: McKinsey & Co., Bain & Co., and Boston Consulting Group. It sounded like applying for college all over again, but we could see the appeal. Consulting, we heard, was an intense but extremely well-paid gig. It allowed you to retain your idealism; McKinsey in particular talks a great deal about its company “values”—its ambition to “observe high ethical standards,” “be ­nonhierarchical and inclusive,” and “sustain a caring meritocracy.” And best of all, it let you delay the question of what you really wanted to do with your life. After giving the first two or three years of your career to “the firm,” as employees call it, you could do anything. Industry alumni went into every field and recruited each other for plum positions.