[alephnerd]

Sundar Pichai was a Materials Scientist at Applied Materials before he did his MBA.

He did his MS in Materials Science at Stanford.

Also, plenty of STEM background people join McK later in their careers (especially in the electronics space) because there is plenty of demand for Strategy and Management Consulting in the industrial world, as LDPs aren't as popular anymore

[rchaud]

A surprising number of people think that MBAs have never had a job before or that STEM people don't do MBAs. They think it's like regular grad school where you can enroll straight out of college.

[alephnerd]

Yep. I also find it funny how people attribute Accounting, Corporate Finance, and RevOps to "MBAs".

[rchaud]

That's the reflexive "blame corporate!" response. Layoffs? Blame MBAs! But spare a thought for the CEO who must have been strong-armed into this by you know who!

[sjwhevvvvvsj]

Sundar lets the SVPs report directly to Ruth while he looks in the mirror at repeats “AI is the new fire” until he’s ready for the next soft focus interview.

[lotsofpulp]

I am sure McKinsey has lots of technically inclined people too, but if we consider back when Bezos was working at DE Shaw (early 1990s), almost all of the (few) employees must have been highly technical (it is considered the first quant fund), while McKinsey's headcount was already 2,900 when Bezos left DE Shaw.

Today it is 2,500 people versus 45,000 people, and I would guess it is still probably true that a greater proportion of DE Shaw is technical than McKinsey.

[alephnerd]

First, how do you define "technical"?

An Petroleum Engineer, Materials Engineer, Industrial Engineer, Chemical Engineer, Biopharmaceuticals Researcher, etc will always have the option to work at an MBB, as those industries heavily use McK to help with their own businesses.

On top of that, McK hiring even at the undergrad level skews STEM. If you attend a feeder school like MIT, Stanford, or Berkeley, it's EECS/Applied Math/Physics majors that land Associate interviews, because management is much more technical now. McKinsey literally has recruiters devoted only to candidates from Berkeley and UMich Engineering for strategy roles.

It isn't the 1980s anymore when some random schmoe with an Econ or Business degree can land an MBB role anymore.

[lotsofpulp]

Yes, all of those would be technical. I did not know McK hiring skewed STEM.

[alephnerd]

Now take a look at MBA admissions for a top 20 program - 35-45% of undergraduate degrees tend to be STEM (primarily Engineering, with a bit of Math/Sciences)

[sjwhevvvvvsj]

Maybe he should have stuck with that rather than running a sprawling corporate behemoth into the ground with purely short-term, market-based, decision making and the world wouldn’t be laughing hysterically at the abomination that is Bard.

[alephnerd]

Google's stock valuation has returned to it's COVID high. By most standards he's managed the stock well, which is all that matters as the CEO of a F10. I know my 401k is happy.

[lotsofpulp]

People compare against peers, not the broad market. When AAPL/MSFT/AMZN have 10 year 25% to 28% annual returns, GOOG/META does not impress with 17% returns, especially for people who decided or are deciding which RSUs to work for (unless otherwise made up for with extra pay or quality of life at work). The 5 year numbers are probably more relevant and look way worse.

[sjwhevvvvvsj]

Exactly, and the culture premium of Google has evaporated so they can only compete on comp alone.

I quit and don’t regret it at all, everybody I talk to there basically just says they have zero inspiration and shuttle between pointless meetings and are only there for a big paycheck. In my view, that’s a pretty miserable existence - one needs passion to thrive.

[sjwhevvvvvsj]

Exactly my point, he and Ruth optimize for short term market gains and have literally no vision for the future of the company short of killing adblockers.

Kodak was also doing great, until suddenly they weren’t. My own personal experience of the last year is my search engine use has about halved in favor of GPT, with most of my friends reporting the same.

If Google is ever forced to admit in an earnings call that search volume is down the stock will crater on the spot.

[nunez]

That and it is a very cushy job that is very compatible with their experience