By case-prep.comPublished August 10, 2026Updated August 21, 202610 min read
OC&C publishes its London graduate number, which almost no strategy firm does: £51,000 base plus a £7,000 signing bonus for an Associate Consultant, on top of an annual performance bonus. That puts entry pay at London MBB parity. Where OC&C differs is the shape of the ladder above it, which has five levels rather than seven and reaches Partner faster.
Starting pay, London
£64K
Associate Consultant, year one, all in
Post-promotion
£82K
Consultant, around year three
Project leadership
£140K
Manager, total compensation
Partner
£550K
Base plus profit share, estimated
Pick a level, pick an office
OC&C was founded in London in 1987 and the UK is still its largest office, so this page is anchored in sterling rather than dollars. Around 500 consultants sit across 14 offices in 11 countries, which means each office pays close to its local market with no global band.
Office
Associate Consultant
Graduate entry, years 1 to 2
Published by OC&C
£64,000GBP total, year one
Typical range £58,000 to £70,000
If you stay: total compensation by year
Five levels, not seven. Assumes on-time promotion and a mid-band performance rating. Tap any point for the detail.
What actually moves your number
OC&C is a different proposition from MBB and the compensation shape reflects that. It is a roughly 500-person firm with 14 offices in 11 countries and revenue above £150M, heavily weighted toward retail, consumer and B2B services work. Four things drive what you take home.
Entry pay is at London MBB parity, and OC&C says so out loud
The £51,000 base plus £7,000 signing bonus sits within a few thousand pounds of what McKinsey, BCG and Bain pay London graduates. For a Tier 2 firm that is a deliberate positioning choice, and publishing it on public graduate listings is unusual: most strategy firms make you infer the number from Glassdoor. If you are comparing an OC&C London offer against an MBB London offer, entry compensation is not the differentiator.
The ladder is shorter, so Partner arrives sooner
Five levels rather than seven: Associate Consultant, Consultant, Manager, Associate Partner, Partner. OC&C states that Managers and sufficiently experienced external hires move into Associate Partner as the final step before Partner. In a firm of 500 people, that path is structurally quicker than at a firm of tens of thousands. The tradeoff is that the profit pool you eventually share is far smaller, so a fast Partner at OC&C and a slow Partner at MBB can land in similar places.
The plateau after year one is a real complaint
Employee reviews repeatedly raise the same point: the starting package is competitive, then total compensation flattens relative to competitors after the first year. Take that seriously when modelling a five-year view rather than a signing-day view. It is the mirror image of the MBB pattern, where entry pay is similar but the post-MBA jump is much steeper.
Office, not city
With no global salary band, each office pays its own market. The UK is the largest and best documented, and the US is the only other office where we have a verified base: $110,000 for an Associate Consultant, a substantial premium over London once converted. Milan and Warsaw sit well below northern Europe. Hong Kong and Shanghai are competitive locally but reported thinly, which is why most non-UK rows on this page carry an Indicative label rather than a confident figure.
OC&C pay across ten offices
Total compensation at graduate entry and at Manager, in local currency. Confidence reflects how directly each figure is evidenced, not how likely it is to be right.
Office
Associate Consultant
Manager
Evidence
United Kingdom
£64,000
£140,000
Published
United States
$132,000
$210,000
Base verified
Germany
€62,500
€137,000
Partly reported
Netherlands
€61,000
€133,000
Indexed
France
€61,000
€133,000
Indexed
Italy
€51,000
€112,000
Indexed
Hong Kong
HK$608,000
HK$1,330,000
Indexed
China
¥448,000
¥980,000
Indexed
Australia
A$118,000
A$259,000
Indexed
Poland
zł179,000
zł392,000
Indexed
The UK and US entry bases are the two figures we would defend directly. Everything else is triangulated, and the Indexed rows are modelled from the UK ladder rather than sourced office by office. OC&C runs international secondments, which employees cite as a genuine draw, so if you are moving between these offices the relevant comparison is take-home after local tax rather than the gross figure.
OC&C against MBB and Tier 2
London graduate base, which is where OC&C competes hardest and where the comparison is cleanest.
Firm
Graduate title
London base
Signing
Tier
OC&C
Associate Consultant
£51,000
£7,000
Tier 2 strategy
McKinsey
Business Analyst
£50,000 to £58,000
Varies
MBB
BCG
Associate
£50,000 to £58,000
Varies
MBB
Bain
Associate Consultant
£50,000 to £58,000
Varies
MBB
Entry pay is effectively a wash, and OC&C's published signing bonus makes its year-one number competitive with anyone. The divergence shows up later: MBB post-MBA levels step up far harder, while OC&C offers a shorter route to Partner in a smaller firm. Choose on sector exposure and the ladder you actually want to climb, not on the graduate base. For the MBB shape in detail, see the McKinsey, BCG and Bain salary pages.
Prep for the OC&C process
OC&C has no assessment game, so everything rests on four cases and a fit conversation. The work is retail, consumer and B2B services heavy, which shapes the cases you will get.
OC&C is unusual in publishing its graduate salary, so the entry figure here is firm-stated rather than estimated. Everything above Associate Consultant is triangulated, and we would rather label that plainly than present a confident number we cannot stand behind.
Sources, most to least direct
OC&C graduate listings. The firm states £51,000 base plus £7,000 signing bonus plus an annual performance bonus for the London Associate Consultant intake. This is a primary source and the strongest figure on the page.
OC&C careers site and job postings. Used for the level structure, including that Managers and experienced external hires enter at Associate Partner, and that US postings use Engagement Manager for the UK Manager rung. Boston roles are listed at 60 State Street.
Glassdoor UK. 871 submissions covering the UK, with a reported spread from £55,000 at Associate to £637,500 at Partner. Used to shape the senior end of the UK ladder.
Verified US base. The US Associate Consultant base of $110,000 is confirmed rather than modelled, which makes it the second firm figure on this page alongside the London graduate number. Bonus and signing at that level are less firmly evidenced, so the total carries more uncertainty than the base.
Glassdoor US and Indeed. 247 US submissions, including an Associate Partner figure of $299,612 in Boston that our US ladder reproduces closely, plus Indeed postings averaging around $115,000 for Associate Consultant.
Indexed estimates. France, Netherlands, Italy, Poland, Hong Kong, China and Australia are modelled from the UK ladder against local strategy market rates. These rows are labelled Indicative and should not be used to evaluate a live offer.
One number we flag against ourselves: Glassdoor reports an average Consultant base of £94,000 in London, far above our £70,000. We think that title attracts senior self-reporting, because an £51,000 to £94,000 rise in a single promotion is not credible. If you hold a Consultant offer, your letter beats our estimate. Send it and we will correct the page.
Common questions
OC&C states £51,000 base plus a £7,000 signing bonus plus an annual performance bonus for London Associate Consultants, putting total first-year compensation at roughly £64,000. Unusually for a strategy firm, this comes from OC&C's own graduate listings rather than crowdsourced estimates. Start dates are typically allocated after the offer, across September, January and March intakes.
At London graduate entry, effectively yes. OC&C's £51,000 base sits inside the MBB London range of roughly £50,000 to £58,000, and its published £7,000 signing bonus makes the year-one total genuinely competitive. The gap opens later. MBB post-MBA levels step up much more steeply, and employee reviews suggest OC&C compensation flattens relative to competitors after the first year.
Five: Associate Consultant, Consultant, Manager, Associate Partner, Partner. US job postings use Engagement Manager for the same rung the UK calls Manager. OC&C states that Managers and sufficiently experienced external hires enter the Associate Partner level as the step before Partner. That is two fewer rungs than McKinsey, which is part of why the route to Partner is structurally faster in a firm of around 500 people.
Our estimate is roughly £550,000 total in the UK, built on a base near £300,000 with the remainder from profit share, and a plausible range of £400,000 to £900,000. Glassdoor London tops out around £637,500 for Partner. OC&C does not disclose partnership income and the pool is much smaller than at MBB, so year-to-year variation is significant. Treat all of this as an informed estimate.
Two rounds. The first is two back-to-back interviews with different interviewers, each typically a 30-minute case plus fit questions. The second is usually conducted by Partners or Associate Partners with more complex strategy cases. Candidates are paired with an Associate Consultant buddy through the process. There is no assessment game, so the cases carry the whole decision. Work through interviewer-led cases to match the format.
Around 14 offices across 11 countries, with roughly 500 consultants. Major hubs include London, where the firm was founded in 1987, plus New York, Boston, Paris, Munich, Rotterdam, Milan, Warsaw, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Sydney. The UK remains the largest office. International secondments between offices are something employees consistently cite as a genuine perk rather than a brochure line.
Retail and consumer goods are the firm's heartland and its strongest reputation, but not the whole business. OC&C also runs B2B services, technology, media and telecoms, and private equity commercial due diligence practices, with typical engagement costs above $500,000. If you dislike consumer work you will probably find the case mix narrower than at a generalist MBB firm.
Not at Associate Consultant level, where the published figure applies to the whole intake. Experienced hires have more room, and OC&C recruits laterally at Consultant, Manager and Associate Partner, where the negotiation is mainly about which level you enter at. Because the firm is small, level placement for experienced hires is less rigidly banded than at MBB, which cuts both ways.
