Management Consulting....anyone a consultant? MBA's please chime in......

Originally Posted by impalaballa187

What was your experience prior to the MBA? Management Consulting is very, very broad. The hours will be ridiculous, but you'll get great benefits, and depending on the firm the exit opps are crazy. If you land a McKinsey, Bain, or BCG... ehh even Deloitte to an extent nowadays you can exit into the upper echelons of other companies.

Consulting is that "Jack of All Trade but Master of None" type of career. I'm sure you're aware of this already but you'll be traveling easily 80% of your time. I know quite a few people who have had their relationships strained due to the constant travel. If you have some particular questions I may be able to provide some more specific information.

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Originally Posted by impalaballa187

What was your experience prior to the MBA? Management Consulting is very, very broad. The hours will be ridiculous, but you'll get great benefits, and depending on the firm the exit opps are crazy. If you land a McKinsey, Bain, or BCG... ehh even Deloitte to an extent nowadays you can exit into the upper echelons of other companies.

Consulting is that "Jack of All Trade but Master of None" type of career. I'm sure you're aware of this already but you'll be traveling easily 80% of your time. I know quite a few people who have had their relationships strained due to the constant travel. If you have some particular questions I may be able to provide some more specific information.

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Originally Posted by ThrowedInDaGame

MBB or bust.

McKinsey, Bain, and Boston Consulting Group are what you want to shoot for post MBA. These firms like impalaballa mentioned have ridiculous exit opps. I made a similar post like 2 years ago when I was deciding between investment banking or consulting out of undergrad. Nobody responded

. Consulting is a pretty low-key industry and most people outside of ivy league schools/ivy league caliber schools don't find out about it...until it's too late and they lack the pedigree/resume to get into the industry.


My advice
1. Start working on your case studies. Consulting interviews, especially at McKinsey are brutal. I think McKinsey's interview process is more brutal than Goldman's.
I'd buy Case in Point  and start reading ASAP.

2. Brush up on your soft skills. MBB is grooming you to be a corporate leader. I'm not sure what your background is, but business school is wear you should be sharpening your soft skills. Be able to work a room, network, etc. Your personality should show in the interview. I got a friend who was dinged in an MBB interview because of his personality even though he nailed all the cases and had a stellar resume

3.Network!!!!!! You are competing with people who have already worked at MBB, Wall Street, Startups/Big Tech, GE/Top F100 companies, etc. If you don't fall into the aforementioned categories, then you need to have people inside the firms to go to bat for you. Because there are people in those industries who have inside connects as well. Its not what you know, or even who you know. It's who knows you.

4. If you can't work 50-70 hours a week, or don't like to fly.. Choose a different career path. Fly in Sunday evening/Monday morning. Fly home Friday will be your life for the foreseeable future. I don't think many people appreciate the magnitude of this commitment. I've got a friend who's client is not on a direct route from his home base. In other words, he has to to take 9 hours worth of connect flights to work........every week. As a consultant straight out of business school, you will probably fly 50/52 weeks of the year. Vacations?

. This is consulting. If you want a work life balance, go work in industry where people actually  "make stuff" and don't get paid to offer "solutions".

5. Be very comfortable with PowerPoint, and if you can use PowerPoint without the mouse (ibanker style), you will be head & shoulders above your colleagues.


In short, there is no such thing as free lunch. If you do well, you will probably end up being a CEO, Senior Vice President, pulling in big bucks at a Private Equity firm, or starting your own company.
That's the best part about consulting. Your counterparts in industry will spend 20 years trying to climb the corporate ladder like mindless lemmings while you will work 5 years at MBB, lateral and become their boss. Lateral hires from consulting firms into senior positions in F500 continues to increase in popularity. GE is notorious for this. It's even worse at GE because they have a leadership program as well which is essentially the in-house fast track. So GE's senior management after a while will be comprised of leadership track promotes and MBB laterals (if that's not the case already).

Fast track to senior leadership is great, but you need to pay your dues which involves..........throwing away some of the best years of your life.

Welcome to the upper echelons of White Collar Corporate America: Management Consulting/Big Law/High Finance. If you choose any of these 3 careers and do well, you will become rich.People drop off like flies in these jobs.


God Speed man.

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Originally Posted by ThrowedInDaGame

MBB or bust.

McKinsey, Bain, and Boston Consulting Group are what you want to shoot for post MBA. These firms like impalaballa mentioned have ridiculous exit opps. I made a similar post like 2 years ago when I was deciding between investment banking or consulting out of undergrad. Nobody responded

. Consulting is a pretty low-key industry and most people outside of ivy league schools/ivy league caliber schools don't find out about it...until it's too late and they lack the pedigree/resume to get into the industry.


My advice
1. Start working on your case studies. Consulting interviews, especially at McKinsey are brutal. I think McKinsey's interview process is more brutal than Goldman's.
I'd buy Case in Point  and start reading ASAP.

2. Brush up on your soft skills. MBB is grooming you to be a corporate leader. I'm not sure what your background is, but business school is wear you should be sharpening your soft skills. Be able to work a room, network, etc. Your personality should show in the interview. I got a friend who was dinged in an MBB interview because of his personality even though he nailed all the cases and had a stellar resume

3.Network!!!!!! You are competing with people who have already worked at MBB, Wall Street, Startups/Big Tech, GE/Top F100 companies, etc. If you don't fall into the aforementioned categories, then you need to have people inside the firms to go to bat for you. Because there are people in those industries who have inside connects as well. Its not what you know, or even who you know. It's who knows you.

4. If you can't work 50-70 hours a week, or don't like to fly.. Choose a different career path. Fly in Sunday evening/Monday morning. Fly home Friday will be your life for the foreseeable future. I don't think many people appreciate the magnitude of this commitment. I've got a friend who's client is not on a direct route from his home base. In other words, he has to to take 9 hours worth of connect flights to work........every week. As a consultant straight out of business school, you will probably fly 50/52 weeks of the year. Vacations?

. This is consulting. If you want a work life balance, go work in industry where people actually  "make stuff" and don't get paid to offer "solutions".

5. Be very comfortable with PowerPoint, and if you can use PowerPoint without the mouse (ibanker style), you will be head & shoulders above your colleagues.


In short, there is no such thing as free lunch. If you do well, you will probably end up being a CEO, Senior Vice President, pulling in big bucks at a Private Equity firm, or starting your own company.
That's the best part about consulting. Your counterparts in industry will spend 20 years trying to climb the corporate ladder like mindless lemmings while you will work 5 years at MBB, lateral and become their boss. Lateral hires from consulting firms into senior positions in F500 continues to increase in popularity. GE is notorious for this. It's even worse at GE because they have a leadership program as well which is essentially the in-house fast track. So GE's senior management after a while will be comprised of leadership track promotes and MBB laterals (if that's not the case already).

Fast track to senior leadership is great, but you need to pay your dues which involves..........throwing away some of the best years of your life.

Welcome to the upper echelons of White Collar Corporate America: Management Consulting/Big Law/High Finance. If you choose any of these 3 careers and do well, you will become rich.People drop off like flies in these jobs.


God Speed man.

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