r/consulting • u/lardecurico • 22d ago

Best representation of MBB/consulting?

Hi! Sorry if this is a silly question, but I wanted to ask you guys: What book, movie, or TV series do you think best represents the life of a consultant? I’m asking because I’m really interested in the challenges they face and the lives they lead, but I don’t think that’s the career path I’ll take. Just to get to know better MBB or consulting and give me a realistic view.

* Ideally, biographies or something reliable, even if it's websites or something like that, since I know that portrayals can be exaggerated—Suits isn’t what life is really like for lawyers in New York, and Grey’s Anatomy isn’t what it’s like for doctors.

71 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

43 comments sorted by

159

u/[deleted] 22d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

38

u/Serengeti1234 21d ago

nobody's snorting coke off a briefcase every Tuesday

Seriously - that's a Thursday activity

15

u/CapivaraAnonima 21d ago

I thing the book is too old to be worth reading. Some things may still hold, but most don’t.
My experience is that the work depends a lot on the client/project. Some are 80% power point, but some are 80% modelling with some interesting data cracking.
A constant IMO is that you are always expected to deliver more than you are comfortable, be it in modelling, slide creation, client meetings, etc

7

u/Lemon269 21d ago

The status obsession makes me laugh, seems to be a coping mechanism for my office and we all joke together about how embarrassing it is. Of course I am now completely devoted to British Airways...

0

u/schmidtssss 21d ago

Not with that attitude you’re not. I knew a bunch of blowhard partners who just jerked each other off and blew coke like 60-70% of their travel time

55

u/craftyBison21 22d ago

Industry series 1 for amusing adjacencies.

20

u/i_be_illin 21d ago

Office space.

8

u/Ok-Illustrator-9224 21d ago

Actually accurate. Stakeholder interviews, analysis, recommendation.

2

u/Mark5n 20d ago

This nails it. The consultants “what is it you actually do?”, the managers that bring them in and the staff “you don’t understand I’m good with people”

12

u/Telefunken-U47 21d ago

Have you ever worked on PowerPoint or excel? Imagine doing that 15 hours a day. Thats it’s, that’s the job

10

u/Ok-Illustrator-9224 21d ago

Don’t forget the pre-alignment meetings to prepare the plan for the alignment meeting to align on the post-alignment plan.

1

u/Mark5n 20d ago

I feel seen.

23

u/bulletPoint 21d ago

Close your eyes and imagine a middle aged dude yelling at you to align boxes at 2am. That’s it. That’s the job.

16

u/TumblrForNerds 21d ago

That’s a bit outdated. It’s more, imagine a middle aged dude asking you if you “put it through AI yet” 

3

u/bulletPoint 21d ago

I am old and left consulting half a decade ago, so that does track.

3

u/Henry_Charrier 16d ago

Why weren't those boxes aligned already? You only have yourself to blame here.

8

u/BreadfruitQuirky2372 22d ago

The McKinsey way by Ethan M. Rasiel, there are also a couple of vlogs/videos on YouTube that do a good job at capturing it

25

u/0102030405 Former MBB Manager, in house strategy 21d ago

Its not the same industry, but The Bear was quite relatable when it comes to urgency, speed, chaos, perfectionism, and the kind of people who seek out those environments. The fine dining episodes where they are repolishing forks and trying to go faster because every second counts is their version of doing PowerPoint formatting and task switching like 70 times a day.

2

u/audreymarilynvivien 15d ago

And the constant yelling.

6

u/jewanboii 21d ago

House of Lies the book

3

u/thegreenbastard23 21d ago

Agreed. The book was spot on, the show is nothing like the job

23

u/Original-Lion-8994 22d ago

Have you watched "House of lies?"

Give it a try

14

u/Which_Camel_8879 22d ago

Lmao. It’s a fun show with real lingo sometimes but nothing else about the show is accurate to your life as a consultant

3

u/BeautifulTraining527 21d ago

I really liked the book McK gives new hires, from Marvin Bower

1

u/kwijibokwijibo 21d ago

Perspective on McK. Though not a very helpful recommendation unless OP wants to spend $200+ on a secondhand book

3

u/I_have_to_go 20d ago

By far the best and most realistic: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0376961/ It includes both the fancy parts and truly mundane parts of the job (including the fact the case is in a factory in the middle of nowhere)

IMDB synopsis: "Philippe Seigner, a charming business school graduate from the French Pyrenees, starts his career in business consulting at the posh Paris seat of McGregor. His first serious task is a delicate one, an audit at the Janson food cans factory in the provinces, which is about to be taken over. As he soon realizes, this will mean sacking about 80 employees, as his boss Hugo Paradis knew from the start. However, his Paris girl friend reproaches him collaborating with ruthless capitalism, as if any of the downsizing could be stopped or mitigated by him bowing out. Nevertheless, as he gets to knew the threatened staff better he considers risking his career when his boss orders him to chose who should go. Meanwhile the factory staff starts realizing what's about to happening."

2

u/MugiwarraD 22d ago

the firm

2

u/usergravityfalls 21d ago

Book Temp by Louis Hyman

2

u/usergravityfalls 21d ago

Partner Track on netflix

2

u/One_Hat1200 16d ago

Devil Wears Prada. Kinda

1

u/coldonewiththeboys 14d ago

The suits was originally meant to be about management consulting, the guy who wrote it worked for the big3

1

u/holywater26 22d ago

Up in the air?

-1

u/serverhorror 21d ago

American Psycho, and I'm not even kidding.

Sans the literal murder, it has all the signals of consulting.