MSF to Consulting?
Hi everyone,
I will be graduating in June and I've been looking into an MSF out of my undergrad (non-target UC in California). I really want to get into consulting. Obviously MBB is out of the question but what about a Tier 2 consulting firm? My stats are decent enough to get me into MSF programs like Vandy, Villanova, WUSTL which seem to be among the best from the consensus on this forum.
What is the likelyhood that I could get consulting interviews with an MSF form these schools? OCR would obviously be great but I figured networking would be my best option.
Thanks for your help!
Consulting isn't the norm, but I see it happen. Probably something financial services because of the degree, but you can spin it however you want. A guy I know from the Villanova MSF program a couple years back and he is final rounds with Accenture. Couple FTI people from Villanova also. All the Big 4 are on campus and take people for Econ advisory / TAS, I am sure you could try and get into their consulting areas also.
Not sure about Vandy/WUSTL, but I would imagine the same thing. What is nice is that the vast majority of people want banking or F500 so those looking at consulting won't see too much competition.
Thanks TNA. Its nice to know that there are people that do go to consulting from the MSF programs. I was wondering if you provide some insight on a point/feeling I have. I enjoy studying finance. I feel like I have the soft skills that are necessary to succeed in consulting and I think that developing more of the hard finance skills in a program like the Nova/Vandy MSF will provide a unique value proposition for a consulting firm. Is this accurate or do they just prefer someone with say an MMS?
McMann, when I visited Vanderbilt two months ago, they told me several students placed into consulting. A current student confirmed this. They were not MBB, but second-tier.
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Know someone who is graduating from GWU's MSF and will be working at 2nd tier firm come this summer. Just to offer another data point for the thread.
Right MSc school for consulting? (Originally Posted: 11/25/2016)
Hey everyone!
I'm currently studying BSc in best business school in Finland. My gpa is 4,6/5,0 and I will try to get it around 4,8/5,0 before I'm done with BSc. Right now my major is accounting but I'm planning to change it for MSc.
I would like to study somewhere else during my MSc and now I'm asking you which school would be right fit for me as I'm planning career in M/B/B consulting. Preferably I would work in London or somewhere in USA in the future. Other places in Europe are also okay but I think they prefer people with good native language skills and as I only now English and Finnish they are out of question. Is that right?
Thanks very much already!
If you want to work in London, go for an UK uni, that's pretty much your only shot. Your only picks are here Oxbridge or LSE/UCL/Imperial. Given you do a sicence degree you might want to go for either Oxbridge, UCL or Imperial. Cambridge is probably stronger than Oxford on sciences, but you can't go wrong. In terms of networking it doesn't matter, given they all visit campus anyway. Imperial isn't as strongly represented for some reason, although their engineering is world class. If you want to rank them, as people love to do here, for your sciences degree, it'll probably go; Oxbridge > UCL > Imperial > LSE (given they barely do science)
If you don't manage to get in one of the 5 above it's not worth to go to the UK.
Sorry I but it wrongly. I'm currently studying Bachelor of Science in business. But you think that for example SIM in St. Gallen or MiM in HEC Paris are not good option if I want to work in London? And what would be the best program? Master in management and strategy or master in finance?
St Gallen and HEC are obviously good schools. I'm not sure how they place in London. The sample size of (successful) applicants is too limited.
I asked friends who attend both programmes and here's the takeaway I got:
The SIM at St. Gallen is well regarded and very consulting-oriented but does not place that well in London. It will put you in a great position for German-speaking Europe and the Nordics, and in a very good one for the rest of western Europe excluding France and the UK. France has its "Grande Ecole" system and tends to stick with it (except for maybe LSE/Imperial/UCL, Oxbridge, and top US schools if candidates speak French). UK offices get competition from all over, so coming from a great but maybe not as well-known school could hurt your chances.
HEC, on the other hand, has a strong presence in London but less in consulting than in finance. Since it has run for decades with a much larger class size they have people everywhere. Apparently, there is some divide between French students doing the 3-year programme coming out of "prepas" and other students doing the MiM, but I do not think that would be reflected when leveraging the alumni network.
So if you're dead set on London I would probably consider HEC over the SIM. Regarding strategy/management over finance, all European MBBs I have been in contact with had a fairly decent representation of people with finance degrees, and having strong quant skills and financial knowledge is never going to hurt you. What could disappoint you is that certain finance masters are buy-side oriented, namely having a strong market focus and offering maybe less corporate finance material, especially if the school has another accounting and finance or corporate finance master.
Out of curiosity, where would you place LBS in this? I know they don't have a Msc but they do have a MiM and MFA (financial analysis)
This is horrendous advice. I worked in consulting in London, we had people from the unis above, but also Warwick, Bristol, Bath, Edinburgh, and St. Andrews. Please do not post things like this when you clearly have no idea what you're talking about.
Also work with one of MBB at the moment, we have two people from their current team from the above unis I mentioned.
If you're coming to the USA to work in MBB consulting, it's fairly necessary to get an MBA (not an MSc) from a Top 30(ish) school. This is to say, if you're still planning an MSc in a business field. If you get an MSc in Econ, Biology, Chemistry, etc. you might be able to do MBB in the USA, but you'd probably still need a terminal degree like a PhD and again from a top school.
Top MBA programs in the USA tend to be well-oiled machines when helping students get jobs at MBB firms. Many of my friends who've attended top schools for an MBA and have targeted MBB are now with one of the three firms. I don't have any experience with friends who've attended MSc programs and gone on to MBB.
Full disclosure, I have an MSc and am pursuing an MBA from a top school. I'm not planning on MBB or consulting at all. I have had my fill of consulting. The closest experience I've had with seeing someone get an MSc and work in MBB was a friend of mine who works at Oliver Wyman, so not MBB, and he has an MS Finance. His firm was acquired by OW, so he didn't even go through OW's recruiting process.
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I'm currently at UVA MS in Comm. I wasn't targeting consulting, but the kids that did so have been placing pretty well. Mostly "second-tier" (i.e. non-MBB) but one of my classmates got MBB. Both students from the Marketing and Management and Finance tracks have gotten offers on the lines of Accenture, Kurt Salmon, etc. Don't write yourself off of MBB if that's your ideal job, just recognize that the absolute key at any of these programs is going to be networking. In some ways I think it is even more crucial for consulting than banking- banking is mainly going to attract finance/econ/accounting/math kids, but everyone and their mother with a high GPA in anything will be applying to consulting jobs. Good luck!
The thing is, top tier (MBB) consulting is gonna care more about your undergrad than almost every other place you apply to apart from maybe some PE places. The first thing they ask you is "what is your GPA?"
So I would find out which schools have the most on-campus visits by MBB and also some of the other firms like Accenture, Deloitte, Booz, etc.
I would go where the undergrad B school is strongest, thats where most of the consulting companies are going to be.
UTA has some bigger consulting firm interviews. I'd imagine Duke might help. The MSF is going to lend itself mainly to finance (obviously) so consulting within an accounting firm or advisory shop might be the best bet.
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