Pros
Compensation (~150k base for North American consultants, target 15% bonus up to max 30%) Benefits, health insurance is top notch, $5 copy for EVERYTHING Great brand name, especially if you go into a big corporate afterward Strong training programs, both group and 1:1 Ability to switch around case work Very lax travel / reimbursement policies when you are on a travel case - effectively no limit on how much you can charge for dinner, etc. You keep all your points and miles = free vacations! Many great people who are smart and genuinely nice. This is not a Pro nor Con, but there are some real differences between the regions and offices on staffing model, type of cases, and partnership. For example, South System is very profitable but had a reputation for being a high-burn place, staffing is more directive (lower ability to say no to cases). Chicago has a reputation for having a gentler work-life balance, and if you are good you have more say over the type of cases you are staffed on. West Coast is supposed to have less travel to a certain extent, etc.
Cons
The spectrum of experiences at BCG is extremely wide. You can have an amazing time or be completely miserable. Your experience depend on your managers, the client, the type of cases, the system / office you sit in, your relationship with the staffer, etc. Workload: I'd say the intensity and the quantity of workload is a big con. It's hard to maintain a personal life when you are staffed, esp when you are traveling. BCG tries to make it better by implementing a program called predictable time off, but when a team has to explicitly establish that it's NOT okay to work until midnight on Fridays, something's wrong. Type of cases: BCG does just as much strategy work as McK and Bain, but the trend in cases is going towards big implementation or transformation cases, which many times include org redesign or "delayering" (ie mass layoffs), and that kind of work can be unfulfilling, repetitive, but incredibly high-burn - you work 80-90 hours a week making sure that the people who are on the fire list is actually fired and so you can count them as "synergies". These are also the cases that don't get publicized during recruiting. Danger of being pigeon-holed. What this means is that you do a 6-month case on XYZ, you hate it but it goes OK. Then another XYZ-like case comes along, your chances of being pulled on it is higher especially as you are now an "expert". Travel: ultimately consulting is a travel-intense profession, and that does wear on you after a while.