I answered a question about what it takes to make partner on quora. I figured I would expound on it a bit here. Take it with a grain of salt – I’m not a partner nor will I be one for more than a few years…
There are 2 big ways to to make partner at a major consulting firm: rise through the ranks, or be awesome somewhere else and join the firm later.
Rise through the ranks
Rising through the ranks requires performing well at each role, and the roles do change as you advance. At each role, you’ll often be evaluated at how well you’re likely to perform at the next role, so you can never get too cozy where you’re at.
Consultant role
You start as a consultant, associate, or business analyst of some sort. Here, you need to do a good job analyzing data, drawing non-obvious insights from it, and communicating it effectively. You’ll need to do a good job working with lower level clients, often to get data and verify your analysis.
Having solid computer skills is fairly helpful here. If you can be fast at Excel, Power Point, and any other heavy data analysis and presentation tools you use (such as Tableau or Alteryx), you’ll have more time to spend thinking about the larger meaning and deeper implications of the data for your client.
You should also try to learn what resources you have available as quickly as possible, and learn when to use them. This can include networks of industry experts (inside and outside your firm), slide-making or beautifying services, data analysis help, geo-analytics tools, access to business databases or publications, and more. Firms have mixed results when it comes to making these resources easy to find, understand, and access, but poke around persistently to find whatever could help.
Manager role
Next, you’ll be a manager or project leader. Here, you’ll need to be effective at leading a small team working on different modules. You’ll be expected to define the narrative more completely. You might need to manage a case budget. You’ll need to be effective at training and coaching your team members, as well as up-managing the partner. You’ll work with more senior clients, doing more persuading that your answer is right, and helping them to get ready to implement your recommendation. Partners will likely ask you to become more involved in selling work, primarily by helping write proposals.
Try to avoid getting sucked in to executing a regular module as much as possible. Everyone is typically happiest if your time is spent leading the project rather than doing the project. If your team is large enough, you’ll have your hands full with management; if you’re also trying to do a module, everyone will have a bad time.
Upper Management/Principal role
Most firms will then also have some sort of role between manager and partner. Duties will start to blend between the two, usually looking more like a manager at first, slowly becoming more like a partner.
You’ll often be managing multiple teams, sometimes with managers below, sometimes you’ll act as the manager. You’ll be more involved in selling, and your credibility and skills in the field may be showcased as part of the pitch. You may publish insights or analysis in your firm’s “journal” to help build outward credibility. You’ll need to be good not only at finding insights and persuading others to follow them, but also have a solid baseline understanding of your industry and practice area.
You’ll have started finding your place working with a few partners in your later years as a manager, but you’ll really start to solidify yourself in a “partner pyramid” at this stage. This will be important because firms will often require a more senior partner to “sponsor” you becoming a partner. This means (among other things) that they’ll share a portion of the business they sell with you. This helps get you started building your practice so that you can make it rain on your own and sponsor ever more partners.
Most firms then have the other partners in the firm vote to approve your partnership. I would assume that by the time it reaches this point that few people get voted out. The large consulting firms have hundreds of partners, all of whom are busy, meaning that I would guess that few look too hard at each partner candidate when they come up for a vote. If you’ve done a good enough job to have a partner want to sponsor you and it looks like you’ll be able to create business, you’re probably in.
Depending on the firm, there may also be time requirements at each phase. For example, BCG has a strict timeline of promoting people from Consultant to Project Leader after 2 years (with a little leeway for extra time in special cases). You can then move from Project Leader to Principal in 1.5-2 years. We don’t promote people faster than that (though sometimes people get a bit of the next role’s responsibility handed to them anyway).
Be awesome then transfer
If you want to do the “be awesome somewhere else and transfer in” route, get into the c suite of another firm. Do well in the interviews. You’ll probably start at the role between manager and partner, so do a good job there for a few years and get voted in. Some firms even have you spend some time at all of the lower roles so that you have a good foundational understanding of the work from top to bottom.
Many awesome people come in as advisors to the consulting staff instead of joining the consultant career track. This allows them contributing their deeper expertise on something and get paid well for it without the pressure or opportunity to become a partner. However, some of them do so kick butt awesome that they end up becoming partners anyway.
Do you have what it takes?
Most people who go into consulting don’t make it to partner. Most people who don’t make it to partner didn’t really want it anyway. Consulting is a great place to build skills and move to something else, but if you enjoy it enough, you can always take it to partner.
Keep seeking truth.
