Are 90% Management Consulting roles related to IT and computers?
Does breaking into Management Consulting require IT/computer related knowledge? I am a civil engineer and an incoming MBA student at UT Dallas and am trying to get an idea of what this industry is about? I have a list of around 1,000 companies out of which about 900 of those are having consultants mainly from computer/IT background. Would I need to learn how to code to have an edge over others to break in? Am I at a disadvantage here? Need some solid advice.
The thing with "management consulting" is that firms will call themselves management consulting firms despite their niche focus. When most people refer to management consulting, they reference strategy consulting, but there are a lot of niches in that.
Most times, when people refer refer to "management consulting", they imply strategy consulting, but many, many firms call themselves management consulting firms regardless of their area of focus.
Some management consulting firms:
As you could imagine, IT infrastructure & management firms would also call themselves Management Consulting firms. Firms like Tata Consulting, Capco, CGI and the IT enterprise arms of the Big 4 firms (Deloitte Financial Transformation or Enterprise - IT, EY Technology, KPMG Financial Transformation, PwC Financial Transformation) all brand themselves as management consulting firms that provide IT-specific services for enterprises.
With all that said, no, you don't need an IT background for most firms. I'd encourage you to do some research into the type of consulting you'd like to get into and form connections with employees at those firms for a different perspective/secondhand experience.
I am getting an MBA and it is going to be a significant investment from my end. I agree with what you said but are consulting roles that do not deal with IT/software at all even worth considering? Do they even pay you well? I can see the world changing around me with all the ML/AI and moving forward, do you think not knowing about computers in the consulting world would put me at a disadvantage? In that sense, should I opt for something(a course or degree) related to computers first to get a pulse of it which would then make it easier for me to exist and make some money? Don't feel like throwing a fortune for nothing/minimal returns.
First and foremost, there are three things here to speak on:
(1) Digital Consulting and use of CS domain knowledge
(2) Consulting Firm Hiring and Recruitment Practices
I'd like to caution not conflating IT work with digital consulting, IT is usually and in-house team to deal with software/hardware configuration and maintenance, and many digital consulting practices have a scope far wider than that specific function.
With regard to Digital Consulting Work, we can split this into Digital Strategy, Technology Strategy and Technology Implementation. Big firms like McKinsey, Bain and BCG have in-house digital strategy teams (BCG Digital Ventures, OMNIA,, GAMMA , McKinsey Digital Consulting and Bain Digital Strategy). These firms have a suite of digital consulting services across machine learning, automation, IT architecture, etc.
Finally, many firms have a generalist model where they have the opportunity to develop skillsets and opt for assignments (within reason and competence). If you show interest in wanting to learn a digital consulting skillset, the firms have the resources and training to help you upskill as well as the work.
With regard to compensation, I'd argue that this depends wildly on several things. The first, what kind of consulting, both function of work and industry exposure do you enjoy? Odds are, you'll perform better if you enjoy the work/industry. The second, where do you see yourself going after consulting? If you saw yourself going into Tech, then working on technology clients and developing a skill set similar to a product manager would help you place there. The third, how long do you plan to stay in consulting? In a recent report, it stated that Bain PE Partners earned $500k to $3m (or something close to this figure) in a given year with ~$10-20m in accumulated wealth. One could argue that the earning potential of partners in consulting rivals or exceeds that equivalent in technology. The trade off being the hours dedicated to the firm and intensity of work at that level.
As I've laid out above, consulting firms nor the work is black and white where you're either working on digital consulting or not for the two years at a firm. The benefit of working in a strategy consulting firm is the ability to try different functions (within reason) and explore the type of work you find yourself enjoying most.
Largely agree with @FinesseGod with a few caveats on the strategy consulting description:
In the US, the only Big 4 firms with truly fleshed out strategy arms are PwC Strategy&, and EY-Parthenon. In other countries Monitor Deloitte still exists, but barely so in the US. They've tried to revive of the brand but so far it hasn't really stuck in the industry and recruiting, and the majority of their consulting work still lies in implementation. KPMG has a homegrown strategy arm that's rapidly growing, but it's still pretty new and doesn't have the market reputation that PwC and EY developed inorganically.
Also, Accenture is not a pure consulting shop by any means. It is primarily a tech/IT company with a strategy arm, similar to how the Big 4 is structured. Have heard from peers that it's been de-emphasizing strategy work in favor of implementation since the latter brings much more revenue to the firm (albeit at lower margins), and many new hires have been placed on non-strategy projects because of it.
Worth adding Kearney as another pure strategy house that's worth looking into. Emphasis on supply chain/ops but a solid amount of strategy work done there as well.
I've seen a lot of campus recruits taking offers after recruiters disingenuously promised strategy work only to end up in unexpected non-strategy roles/positions, so just want to set the record straight here.
Thanks for the perspective - my information is limited to my country and exposure. I wasn't aware of Monitor Deloitte's reputation in the US nor Accenture's shift away from strategy. I really appreciate the insight and addition.
In some ways echoing what was said above, if you mean MBB/Big 4/Boutique strategy shops, the answer is an unequivocal no. There are plenty of people at those firms who didn't even have a true business background before joining (politics, military, non-profit, etc).
Technically "management" consulting just means you are consulting the "management" of the company, i.e. working with the firms executives. It tends to be used as a proxy for "traditional" consulting, if you will.
Not IT per se, but most significant strategic changes these days involve a digital/IT component. So, you don’t have to know how to build it, but you should know what it can do. For example, how IT facilitates different pricing models or how a network effect helps you build a “moat” or how to price digital goods vs physical goods.
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