MBB Consulting Q&A
2/25/13 update: Ampharos has now been working in consulting for 5+ months and said he can continue answering questions regarding MBB, recruiting, breaking in, day to day life, etc, ask away!
Hi Guys,
5+ months ago I started working at my top-choice MBB firm full time after receiving my offer through the company's accelerated interviewing process. I've gotten a lot of help (and entertainment) from this forum so I'd love to give back and answer any questions or give some advice/insight on interviewing, networking, etc.
I was a career counselor at my school focusing on consulting primarily helping MBAs and undergrads with case prep, so I'm familiar with a lot of the issues people have and will try to give professional, no-BS answers.
I'd prefer not to disclose the firm, my school, or my internship firm for obvious reasons so let's try to avoid those.
For my stats:
School: Target, public undergrad b-school
GPA: 3.5-3.8
Internship: Summer analyst at tier 2 consulting firm
Practice: Several dozen live cases, Victor Cheng, LOMS, etc. etc.
tldr: ask me questions about recruiting things if you want. I'll do my best to respond. Post or PM.






first of all
first of all congrats...
second.... I'm working full time at provincial government health agency, operations anaylst role, I have a diploma from a college and i just started at university geting my degree (they are putting me into 3rd year) so considering I am a few years away from actually applying which of the many "consulting training programs" would you recommend I use to practise and gear up to be a strong applicant?
third... what is your take on Pro-Bono Volunteer Consulting firms?
fourth... what is an accelerated FT offer?
"Know what to do, know how to do it, and do it hard." - Juan Castillo
If you are in the Toronto Area join my group "Toronto Prospective Monkeys"
http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/group/toronto-prosp...
1. Thank you, haha. 2. The
1. Thank you, haha.
2. The free resources (videos and articles) from Victor Cheng were very helpful to me. I personally got his Look Over My Shoulder system which I thought was really useful as well, but it's optional.
3. Do you mean pro-bono volunteer as in student organizations or as in a large nonprofit strategy firm? For both the former and latter I think they're great, but for the latter, I'll admit I'm unfamiliar with the exit opportunities for them.
4. I had my interview process accelerated due to an exploding offer from my internship firm. I had my final round interviews and received my offer before regular students had their first round interviews.
Ampharos wrote: GPA:
GPA: Mediocre, 3.5-3.8~ish
This is slightly confusing.
seedy underbelly
GPA: Mediocre, 3.5-3.8~ish
This is slightly confusing.
confusingish
Wait, I have to wrap my mind
Wait, I have to wrap my mind around something. If I'm reading this right, you're an undergrad at a top public b-school (Haas, Ross or Darden), and you're advising the MBAs on case-prep?
Really?
You - a 21 year-old undergrad - are advising 29 year-old MBAs on how to do their case interviews?
Anybody here go to a b-school where the undergrads are the ones coaching you on case interviews?
redninja wrote: Wait, I have
Wait, I have to wrap my mind around something. If I'm reading this right, you're an undergrad at a top public b-school (Haas, Ross or Darden), and you're advising the MBAs on case-prep?
Really?
You - a 21 year-old undergrad - are advising 29 year-old MBAs on how to do their case interviews?
Anybody here go to a b-school where the undergrads are the ones coaching you on case interviews?
The way it works is this: There are MBA and BBA peer counselors, with about 3x as many MBA peer counselors. BBAs and MBAs can both go to either age group counselor to get help. For me, I just happen to have a lot more MBAs coming to ask me questions/run cases than undergrads. This is probably just because MBAs tend to seek out help more than the BBAs, and just a lot of people want consulting help so the MBA counselors run out of slots.
za3212 wrote: seedy
GPA: Mediocre, 3.5-3.8~ish
This is slightly confusing.
confusingish
Well, the only reason I say that is getting a consulting offer with below a 3.8 at our school is considered a little unusual.
*EDIT* also no more -ish.
Hey Thanks for posting. I
Hey Thanks for posting. I would love to connect and pick your brain about a few things. I have my final round at an MBB in a week and a half. This is my dream situation and I networked pretty hard to get the initial interview.
I would love to get your thoughts on really standing out especially at the final round point. I am from a non-target with a mediocore GPA (similar to the above) and am currently doing Teach For America.
Hi Guys,
Long time reader, relatively new poster, plus I lost credentials to my older account.
Anyways, I just accepted an offer from my top-choice MBB firm a week ago after receiving it through the company's accelerated interviewing process. I've gotten a lot of help (and entertainment) from this forum so I'd love to give back and answer any questions or give some advice and insight on interviewing, networking, etc.
I'm a designated career counselor at my school focusing on consulting primarily helping MBAs with case prep for some reason, so I'm familiar with a lot of the issues people have and will try to give professional, no-BS answers.
I'd prefer not to disclose the firm, my school, or my internship firm for obvious reasons so let's try to avoid those.
For my stats:
School: Target, top public undergrad b-school (Senior)
GPA: Mediocre, between 3.5-3.8
Internship: Summer analyst at tier 2 consulting firm
Practice: Several dozen live cases, Victor Cheng, LOMS.
tldr: ask me questions if you want. I'll do my best to respond. Post or PM.
Let me take a guess UVA
Let me take a guess
UVA McIntire --> Bain
hahaha
Congrats to that offer! I'm
Congrats to that offer! I'm currently a junior seeking to work at MBB post-grad. So I have a few questions in regards to your situation.
1. I thought MBBs don't do accelerated interview process? Or is this because you knew someone and had an offer on hand? And how is this process different than standard?
2. For MBB, do you think it's best to go for tier 2 consulting firms, or to recruit for BB SA positions as well? If Management Consulting is what I want to do immediate after graduation?
3. Who did you practice with? Friends, older students with experience, then professionals at MBB or consulting firms? And what do you think is the best way of approaching professionals to practice cases?
Thanks again, and congrats! Have fun with rest of the year!
kwaconline wrote: Congrats to
Congrats to that offer! I'm currently a junior seeking to work at MBB post-grad. So I have a few questions in regards to your situation.
1. I thought MBBs don't do accelerated interview process? Or is this because you knew someone and had an offer on hand? And how is this process different than standard?
2. For MBB, do you think it's best to go for tier 2 consulting firms, or to recruit for BB SA positions as well? If Management Consulting is what I want to do immediate after graduation?
3. Who did you practice with? Friends, older students with experience, then professionals at MBB or consulting firms? And what do you think is the best way of approaching professionals to practice cases?
Thanks again, and congrats! Have fun with rest of the year!
1. I've heard mixed things, but I've known people who've done accelerated with all three, and saw a healthy group of people at my accelerated final rounds (half a week before regular first rounds) at the office when I went. Part of it was definitely having good conversations with the people I reached out to, but I think the bigger player here was the exploding offer at a competitor. They also still looked at my resume of course. The process was the same, the interview rounds the same, etc. Only difference was my first rounds were over the phone, and with slightly higher level people than they normally use for first rounds.
2. It really goes either way. Every year my school has a tradition of BB or elite boutique IBD interns => MBB FT because they realize they hate banking, and most of the rest are from Tier 2s with the occasional marketing/corp fin kid. That being said, I still recommend you recruit for Banking if you think you have the time to do the preparation because despite Tier 2 being a step below, they still don't necessarily take that many people. Do both if you can; regardless hustle hard for consulting and try to get yourself a backup.
3. I cased a lot with other friends in consulting, as well as older students who had successfully gone through the process. I did have a few practice cases with professionals at MBB, but those were usually people I had networked with asking me, and less the other way around. I think the best way to get a no BS view is still to ask older students, seniors with accepted offers for example, to help because they tended to give me cold facts without the company line.
Smith: Replied to your PM
Solidarity: Wrong.
Congrats! I definitely echo
Congrats! I definitely echo your preparation, as I too used those exact methods and secured an MBB SA offer last week. Victor Cheng is so good.
Principles are the only thing that matter in the end. Not competition, not emotions. Principles.
Having a great GPA is not a
Having a great GPA is not a must in all offices...in MBB
Thanks for doing this! A few
Thanks for doing this! A few questions:
1) At my school, all the consulting firms ask for my transcript when applying through OCR. My GPA's decent enough, but if somebody (especially an alum) looked at it, they'd notice that it's a bit screwed up (i.e. change of major multiple times, lots of pass/fails and withdraws, a few gut classes) - am I screwed for MBB? How about boutiques like Parthenon, LEK?
2) How easy is it to get interviews with MBB for FT if you're coming off an SA internship with a top Asset Management firm? How about if you did your internship with a Tier 2 investment bank (i.e. not BB or Elite Boutique)? Which would you recommend - the former has more brand name, but the latter would be tougher work?
3) The same as above, but how easy would it be to go from those internships to Tier 2 consulting firms?
4) How important is networking in terms of getting interviews?
Thanks again for your time.
How do you recommend
How do you recommend non-target applicants to approach recruiting and networking if the alumni base at the target office location is pretty much nonexistent? Also, can you touch on what kind of attributes typically stick out to recruiters in peoples' past experiences? Thank you.
Who did you reach out to when
jnaz: Who did you reach out
I'm a junior Econ major at a
hey all, thanks for posting
How hard is it to transfer
Midatlantica: How hard is it
Ampharos: That said, that's
No, if you do well on the
Coda: Ampharos: That said,
@stackerquad: 1) Whenever
Thanks a ton for doing this.
Thanks for opening this
How about going from
kwaconline: 1. I thought MBBs
xmasboy: How about going from
@Silicon Economist 1) What's
SlikRick: Thanks a ton for
Ampharos: @stackerquad: 1)
Should I wear a hermes tie?
AuditStL: Should I wear a
Do you see people breaking in
hey ampharos, thanks for
above_and_beyond: Thanks for
Thanks for the information
leigh: Do you see people
WSOH: hey ampharos, thanks
above_and_beyond: above_and
jnaz: Thanks for the
the conversion rate for
Ampharos, A question came up
AuditStL: the conversion rate
How many hours do you work
tangyorangutan: How many
Ampharos: above_and_beyond:
One of those lights, slightly brighter than the rest, will be my wingtip passing over.
Ampharos: Also, despite some
The business of business is business.