Pros

The first 2 years are an irreplacable experience in getting responsibility beyond your years and learning that you could probably do anything if you tried hard enough, and thought hard enough. That kind of formative generalist confidence building is the gift I'd like to give my kids it's so great. Even when it feels awful or you've stayed up too many nights in a row, and you're beyond recognizing yourself, you know you kick ass. And you're not an arrogant tool about it. That, all in all, is pretty great.

Cons

Now feeling burned out... > 5 years in, and I realize the toll that being commercial and mercenary take on you (meaning, you figure out what the client's agenda is, and you sell them the most expensive thing you can - when you're the product as well as the salesperson, it can be pretty demeaning to say "oh yeah, I know last year I was a sales and marketing expert but now I'm a supply chain expert" or a post-merger integration expert or...). Also, work shifting rapidly to "transformation" or "implementation", or whatever it is, it means doing all the crap work for two massive merging entities, a lot of template filling, stressful, repetitive, high stakes crap work and getting paniced cell phone calls at 2am. Ever heard of people right out of college sleeping with their blackberries on loud next to their pillow? It does happen, even if we try our hardest to make the culture averse to that. Selling these cases makes great margins (can sell more junior folks at higher mark up) and lasts for a long time (it takes forever to stick two big companies together) and generates great relationships (we do get to know all the top people, which helps us sell the next bit of work) and delivers lots of value (cutting 3 months off the time it takes the new organization up and running effectively is worth a hell of a lot of money vs. everyone sitting around complaining) but... I won't do another case like that. My outside opportunities are far more exciting - and potentially more lucrative.

I'm not willing to put up with another year (or 2, or...) to become partner and then be the bottom guy on the totem pole again. My life, my family are worth too much to me. People who succeed here in the long term are those who prioritize work and success above all else. BCG is a very easy place to measure yourself if you like to be measured. If you worked like a hamster in high school to get into an ivy league college, and you worked like a hamster to get the right first job out of college, and you worked like a hamster to get into the right grad program, and you envision working like a hamster for the rest of your life to grab the next brass ring in front of you, then BCG will be happy to provide you with brass rings. As they say, "the learning curve just gets steeper". If you can handle the thought of being a hamster for the rest of your life (albeit a hamster who gets to talk to CEOs and other important leaders about what to do) then come here - you'll be one happy hamster.

And it is true, there is a concentration of very clever, very talented, very interesting people there. But the work is often mindless (eg, "let me do whatever I can to put some crap on paper because the partners will change it anyway, and then the senior partners will change it too, so it might as well be crap") at the same time as it is intellectually challenging (eg, "what an interesting question to be asked the tough open-ended questions like 'what's wrong with my marketing department' by a CEO who's known for having a great marketing department, or 'when and how should I enter China' by a CEO who's known for being good at international expansion"). Ultimately, I wouldn't advise anyone against taking this job if you can possibly get it - but decide early on what your exit point and strategy will be because if you just follow the "path of least resistance" and get promoted every couple of years, it'll sap the life out of you. And you won't know your family / wife / kids / dog / fish / friends as well as you used to any more. And that ain't worth any amount of salary or time spent with senior leaders.

All the above applies to post-graduate school. If you can possibly join BCG post college, do it. Kick, scream, steal, lie, do what you need to do to get that job.

Advice to Senior Management

Accept that there will be a surreal amount of attrition next year, especially among valued senior leadership who are tired out.