Some thoughts on "Up or Out"

I worked for McKinsey for 4 years and I actually really liked the up or out process. Yes, it puts you under pressure but not much more than the pressure young competitive people tend to put themselves under anyway. Nearly everyone there wanted to be challenged and get fast promotion. At the same time the process was very open, feedback was fair and when people didn't make it there wasn't much stigma attached (it just didn't work for them).

The flip side of up or out is that if you are any good you get promoted very quickly. I couldn't think of anything worse than waiting around for your boss to retire or move on.