In short, the &quot;up or out&quot; policy of banks and consultancies is notorious for having more &quot;out&quot; than &quot;up&quot;: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Up_or_out" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Up_or_out</a><p>To put hard numbers on it, McKinsey is one of top management consulting firms.  According to an employee, its average tenure among new consultants is 2.5 years.  <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.quora.com&#x2F;Why-are-employees-loyal-to-McKinsey" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.quora.com&#x2F;Why-are-employees-loyal-to-McKinsey</a><p>That&#x27;s consistent with the staffing ratios within the firm (Wikipedia suggests thare are ~400 directors compared to about 9000 total consultants).  Those are the ones who stuck around for more than a decade.