Lateral to MBB
Hey all, I'm currently a senior in college and will be working next year at a top economic consulting firm (NERA, Brattle, etc.) Would I be able to work there for a year or two, then try to move to an MBB firm?
Do MBB firms even take folks like me who have 1-2 years of work experience but haven't gone to business school yet?
From what I hear, it is very difficult. Economic consulting and management consulting are different, definitely not mutually exclusive, but still difficult to move. If you were to lateral after 1-2 years, you would have to start as a first year for sure. But, at that point, that might as well hire a college undergrad.
However, this is not an end all be all. You can definitely utilize networks: talk to consultants, explain your situation, and land an interview. Assuming you crush it, that's that.
My advice would be to see how you like economic consulting and the people of the firm. At the end of the day, it's all about the people and that should weight much heavier than anything else. If you're still set on MBB, there's always the post MBA route!
Hope that helps and good luck!
Not likely. That's not a skill set that's unique enough to lateral you as an experienced hire after just 1-2 years. You'd be looking at coming in post MBA.
Lateral Hire (within Consulting) (Originally Posted: 12/29/2013)
I am looking for stories (1st person, or a close 3rd party account) of associates/consultants being able to be laterally hired into a bigger consulting shop. This could be from a lower tier to a higher tier, or within your existing tier.
If you have any experience on this manner, please share it with all of us. Don't spare the dirty details of how you hustled and networked into greener pastures.
To top that perfect sundae off, share with us if you are happy with making that leap of faith.
Lateral highers happen quite a bit in management consulting. I work for a boutique financial services consulting firm and quite a few people have left for opportunities at larger shops (e.g. PwC, Deloitte, Oliver Wyman, Capco).
Consulting Analyst Lateral (Originally Posted: 04/20/2011)
Would like to hear thoughts on making a lateral move to a different consulting firm. I'm a first year analyst at a boutique shop (held by F500 company), and graduated from a non-target school. Gaining good hands on experience as far as work goes, but want to work for a larger company because my current colleagues aren't very personable, and the clients are middle of the road (read: low budget, limited travel/client exposure). Should I just stay put and get more experience before making a move, or test the water and see what if I can work my way into a place with better opportunities?
Im interested in hearing peoples opinions on this as well....im a new associate looking to move to a big firm (ie Accenture, Deloitte)
Switching from MBB to MBB? (Originally Posted: 07/22/2014)
Hi All,
I've been at MBB for just over a year (Mck-BA, BCG/Bain-Assoc level) and am thinking of trying to lateral into another of MBB - does anyone know of this happening?
The gist is that I'm not happy with my office due to the project mix and think the organizational culture doesn't fit me very well. The MBB I would be applying to did not give me an offer before (but I did make it to the final round) and I have a friend there who would refer me.
Thoughts?
Thanks!
Are you an analyst (junior/associate consultant) or an associate/full consultant? I've never heard of this done at the junior level before, and would think it entails extra risk (e.g. more pressure to perform in next office).
If you're a junior consultant, I'd consider sticking it out and maybe lateraling when (if) you get to the next level. Employers/ recruiters expect people to be able to stick out the 2 year program.
However, if you're a associate/full consultant/post-MBA then it's just career - management and I'd go for it.
Haven't heard of this happening before at the associate / consultant level, but I would think that if you have some solid, tangible reasons why this MBB would be a better fit than the MBB you're currently at, I would think you would at least have a shot.
One concern the new MBB would likely have is that you aren't performing well where you are and that is why you are switching (or that you are a difficult person to work with and wouldn't fit in well). If by chance you have a manager you are close with and trust that would be willing to serve as a reference for you, that would be a huge help--however, puts them in a really awkward position obviously since it's a competitor
Thanks for the replies, I'm at the analyst level. If I stay another 9 months I could probably get promoted but frankly my office has a mix of cases I'm not at all interested in. I figure why waste any more of my time if I have an option to change this.
Oldhead, you raised an interesting point about performance. I wonder if they would suspect this given the time of the transition (around the 1 year mark) ? I'm not a top performer partly because I have no interest in the subject matter of the cases I am staffed on, but I'm not the worst either.
Hmmm. Will another firm guarantee that you'll be staffed on interesting cases? I doubt it. Maybe time to consider a broader universe of options.
I highly suggest you A. Tough it out B. change your way of thinking and put a smile on every day about the work you are doing. Work be a top performer, and always remember you have one of the most high profile jobs possible as an undergrad. Don't quit before you hit pay dirt. I feel this is why the last generation talks about how lazy and entitled us millennials are. You feel like you deserve a top tier awesome project, but you aren't willing to deal with the shitty ones first.
Based on what I heard from BCG, you can contact the partners in different offices for projects. In their words "you just have to ask for it". I don't know in reality how hard it would be though. The other option is to switch to a different office so that you can find the projects you are interested in.
At any firm, if you're not exceeding expectations, it's very difficult to transfer or find work outside of your office/region. Why would a partner or office take on someone with less than a sterling reputation?
I think it's going to be very difficult. What are your long-term goals? Are you planning in sticking around in consulting for a bit? If not, I don't see the sense in trying to lateral. ]
If you're gunning for b-school sponsorship, you can usually switch offices after business school.
Absent some inflection-point event in your career, there's basically zero chance that this will work. You need a narrative and currently you don't have one.
Shouldn't you have a staffing manager who should be helping you find projects that interest you? At the very least you should have built some good relationships with senior staff/partners who can help connect you with the type of work that might interest you more. You're a junior analyst, so it's not like they should have locked you into anything yet. This may have more to do with you than it does with your firm. What exactly do you want to do and what are you doing?
It's not impossible, but you might need to prove that you are at least tracking in terms of performance and/ or take less/ no tenure. As someone else said, if you are looking to stay in consulting for a while then this shouldn't matter. If you want to exit soon, try to do well enough to stay for a bit more and exit.
Now, on the matter of differences among MBB, they can be quite significant. Many argue otherwise, but team structure and roles of members can vary quite a bit. This has a large effect on your day to day. Also, the overall culture and feel of the companies can vary quite a bit as well if you control for region.
Guys. This post started in 2014.
lateraling to strategy consulting (Originally Posted: 07/21/2012)
I have been working at a major investment consultancy in Boston for the last month. I found the work didn't particularly suit my skills and was hoping to get into strategy consulting (preferable MBB...). I graduated from a top 5 ugrad , have a 730+ GMAT, 3.6 GPA in CS & Economics and have done a BB IB internship junior year.
How can I change industries?
"Lateraling" into MBB is difficult. Your best bet would be to attend a top business school, earn an MBA, and go through on-campus recruiting channels.
Hmmm...I was hoping no one would say that. The problem is I'm not sure I would get the work experience in my current job that would be top business school worthy
How much work experience have you got? Not sure about the U.S., but in my country it's pretty typical to get into MBB as a BA or SBA after 1-3 years of work experience after undergrad.
I've only been here a month and graduated in June. So I don't have much experience, but I do know that I wouldn't want to make a career in investment consulting.
Investment consulting shops like Mercer or Towers Watson are very respectable and MBA adcoms will recognize those brands.
I do want to attend H/W/S and no one I've seen has come from an investment consulting background
You've been there 1 month? Barring that this is the worst job on the planet, you need to stick it out for AT LEAST a year. It would be almost impossible to get a decent job after 1 month in your current job. People won't want to take the risk in hiring you because it will look like you have unrealistic expectations/can not be satisfied if you quit that soon.
So I guess I have to stick it out? I am just frustrated since they misrepresented what I would be doing during interviews and angry at my own lack of due diligence. IC is definitely not the worst job in the world, its just not a good fit for me.
I 'd say stick with your job for a year at least and network like crazy during that time and your chances will be better to lateral
I 'd say stick with your job for a year at least and network like crazy during that time and your chances will be better to lateral
Let me know when you leave, I'll gladly take the position, if it is Mercer
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Would someone with 1-2 years experience come in at entry level and salary or would they get a Senior AC/BA position and a second year salary?
PMed you
http://i.imgur.com/eSX5q.gif
Be very careful "sticking it out." The only reason to do so is if you can't get MBB now. If you have the opportunity to get it now, do it - you will never look back and say "man, i really should have spent more than a month in that shitty job that paid less." The fact that you've only been there a month is a good thing actually, as you could legitimately never include this job on your resume (both now while interviewing and later in your career) as nobody would question you for having a gap. Take MBB as quickly as possible, that's my advice.
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