You are now advised to begin your career at McKinsey & Co.
Morgan Stanley has got a former McKinsey Consultant at the helm. So has the FSA (Adair Turner), so has HSBC (Stephen Green), and so has Citi Private Bank (Jane Fraser).
So is McKinsey a better place to launch a financial services career than, say, Goldman Sachs?
Yes, says someone who's done it.
"Training at an investment bank doesn't even come close to the training you're offered at McKinsey," he tells us.
Why is that?
"It's much more attentive. Everything you do is scrutinized. You get feedback and are evaluated on a daily basis. A good example of the difference in the two environments is that a junior banker is expected to shut up during a client meeting. A junior McKinsey consultant will be expected to contribute and questioned if he doesn't," he elaborates.
Banking recruiters gush all over McKinsey CVs too. "It would be difficult for me to think of a better place to start a career," says James Heath, managing director of Greenwich Partners. "The training a consultant gets in terms of financial analysis, the ability to formulate strategy and to create solutions across a broad range of issues is second to none.
"Even in the downturn McKinsey people have been relentlessly sought after by blue chip banks and private equity firms," he adds.
What job can you do if you start out at McKinsey? Heath says M&A, equity research, internal strategy, marketing, or working for a fund of funds are all a possibility.
However, the ex-McKinsey consultant we spoke to says most of his former colleagues have ended up in non-revenue generating roles in the middle office. He also says that once you've left McKinsey it's very, very difficult to get back in again.
And Adrian Ezra, managing director of search firm Execuzen gives the impression that former McKinsey types aren't very suited to sales and trading roles - he's "never" placed one, he says. This doesn't bode well for James Gorman's ability to turn around Morgan Stanley's trading business.
