Before being considered as potential Officers of the Firm, the Mars professionals follow a clearly defined career path. The Associate Consultant is the entry-level position for undergraduates and Masters degree holders without significant work experience. The Senior Associate Consultant is the entry level position for PhDs and Masters degree holders with significant work experience. Consultant is the entry-level position for MBAs. Since we only promote from within, the successful Associate Consultant, Senior Associate Consultant and Consultant can progress rapidly:
Associate and Senior Associate Consultants must have information gathering, data management and strong analytical skills. Over time through on-the-job training (the apprenticeship) Associate and Senior Associate Consultants will be able to deploy Mars & Co's analytical skills, business savvy and increase their analytical autonomy.
At Mars & Co, both the Associate and Senior Associate Consultants are integrated members of a project team in roles that vary in accordance with the project's objectives and their demonstrated level of performance and are thus not treated simply as junior analysts.
A Mars & Co Consultant is responsible for the rigorous, timely and imaginative execution of analytical tasks leading to practical solutions of complex business problems.
Moving up the ladder, a Senior Consultant must be able to design and manage a module of a project so that it is intellectually coherent and useful to the client. This requires analytical excellence and a capacity to work with both junior and senior colleagues which should lead to a promotion as Project Manager in due time.
A Mars & Co Project Manager must be able to train other professionals, provide intellectual leadership in the application of analysis to value-creating solutions for a client and manage an entire project in a way that meets Mars & Co's quality standards. A seasoned and successful Project Manager may be promoted to Vice President, the ultimate level below the Officer ranks.
A Mars & Co Vice President must have demonstrated his/her worth as a Project Manager. A Vice President assists Mars & Co's Chairman, Senior Vice Presidents and Executive Vice Presidents in marketing, client acquisition and retention.
There's no pre-determined promotion schedule at any level within the Firm. We strive to promote our professionals as soon as they can successfully handle a more demanding role; this is what meritocracy is about. This is particularly true as we consider promotions of Vice President to the ranks of Senior Professionals. All Vice Presidents are eligible to such a promotion, but all are not promoted.
