Pros
Good reasons are 1) the people -- consulting attracts the best / brightest students, and Bain is an awesome firm in that regards. 2) The support that the junior Bainies give. Most people there Consultant and below (that's the level immediately post-MBA) are good people and support each other however possible. 3) Work-life balance -- obviously consulting stinks but at least Bain tried (weekly health checks, meetings on how to make life better).
Cons
1) Incredible sketchiness. The partners / managers are more interested in lining their own pockets with money than providing useful advice -- case in point is that the managers / partners are much more concerned with extending cases (calling 'rolling' in consulting lingo) than actually providing good advice 2) Cult-like intensity. The excellent reputation is proactively managed, such that I wouldn't be surprised if this point is followed by tons of comments that support Bain and try to paint me as a bad apple (for the record I wasn't). There's also a strong culture of following, simply because there's so much direct feedback. Bain did not appreciate diversity whatsoever -- any divergent thoughts / actions were quickly fixed, and the vast majority of leaders ended up leaving the organization as quickly as they could. 3) Incredibly political. Everything in Bain, including your feedback review, is group driven -- if even one senior partner takes a stand for or against you, it either jump start or completely destroy your career (I have seen it both ways). Most people join consulting because they're risk averse and that only gets worse as people get promoted -- as a result everyone in the higher ranks just tries to blend into the crowd and not rock the boat. 4) Limited skills learned. A lot was said to me about how the skills I learned would be helpful later, which is completely false. At Bain (and other consulting firms), we perfect our analysis / presentation skills -- but to be perfectly honest, unless you're already great at those, you're not getting hired in the first place (and you're certainly smart enough to do whatever you want to begin with). I'm not sure the extra 10-20% of refining your thought process will make any substantial difference. Bain does not teach leadership or implementation in any way, shape, or form -- and the risk aversion you learn at Bain will get in the way of whatever you will do later. At best, I believe it's a wash. In summary I would not spend a year or two here, and I would certainly advise against staying longer than that and trying to make partner. And by the time you make partner, the industry itself will be in decline and your margins (and take-home salary) will be far lower than what they are now. And besides, too many things can go wrong in the meantime -- and it's not like a manager is really qualified to do anything in the workforce other than stay in a strategy role in a large corporate. If you want to stay in strategy then by all means... but for the other 99% of us, just do what you want to as soon as you can.
