how to break into management consulting?
Hello everyone,
I am in first year university and I am looking to potentially find a job in consulting. However, my GPA is absolute crap (2.0). Plus, my school is mainly for accounting and rarely any consulting firms hire from my school.
What GPA should I aim for to break into consulting?
Any other advice? Thanks!
Obviously it depends but if you go to a non-target I'd shoot for a ~3.7. I went to a target (for my firm) and had a ~3.6 (with 2 majors) and I'm on the low end of offers from my school.
As for breaking in start networking now. Search for people who went to your university and that currently work at the firms you're interested in. Let me know if there's any other guidance I can provide.
In subsequent years try to maintain GPA on the higher end of the spectrum
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Another newbie here. I come for assistance as well. I currently work at a financial services firm in the online lending industry based in NYC. I have been with the same company for over a year and a half and have been very successful in my time here. With that being said it's not an industry I wish to be in long term and am very intrigued by the consulting industry. Solving complex and new problems offers a consistent learning curve and at times I'm sure can be difficult. With that being said I'm not very sure of the consulting landscape. Outside of the research I've been on the top tier firms I'm not sure how to get my foot in the door. I attended the University of Buffalo with a management degree and a focus in finance but completed with a sub-par GPA hovering around 3.0 (Class 13'). Is there any mid-tier firms you recommend or particular areas that I should look to specialize in? I know this post is pretty vague but I'm very much committed to this transition.
Thought you were gonna give me some advice...
Nope just another chimp. Nothing to see here
Breaking into Management Consulting (Originally Posted: 08/12/2007)
Hi everyone,
Thanks in advance for your advice. I just finished summer analyst at top BB, and previously worked in another in wealth management. I really would like to try and get a full-time job in consulting. I go to a small liberal arts school, and although the alumni network is good for finance, it is not for consulting. I have a solid gpa, and solid work experience, but worry that it just will not happen by applying through the m/b/b websites. Is there any way to meet people who do work for these firms, or to strengthen my chances of getting an interview?
All input is appreciated. Thanks.
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Getting into management consulting tips - soon-to-be-recent graduate in need of some help (Originally Posted: 01/22/2014)
Hi everybody, I am a soon-to-be-recent graduate, who is really interested into getting into consulting. Me and my team competed in the KPMG business case study competition and did really well. Although it started as a why-not challenge, it turned out to be quite the insight into the whole industry and after some research I decided to pursue it further. My background is in political economy, some finance foundation units throughout the years, but nothing really deep. I wanted to ask if you could be so kind as to share some tips and pointers into things I should look out for and get in order to secure a starting position in the sector. I can give more info on me on pm. Thank you in advance!!!
did you go to Dallas for your KPMG case study comp? I ask because I had a few friends go recently. As for the consulting thing, the answers to the following questions will help narrow your focus and get answers better tailored to you.
Where did you go to school? When are you graduating? What is your GPA like? What kind of consulting do you wish to pursue? Do you know anyone working in consulting currently?
trying to get into mgmt consulting (Originally Posted: 05/08/2013)
I am 25 and I have an engineering degree from an engineering college in california. I am finishing up a biomedical research fellowship at the National Institutes of Health and am interested in breaking into consulting. The end goal being an MBB job.
The problem is I have a very technical science and engineering background and I don't know that much about management consulting, more specifically, how to get into the industry (e.g. recruitment windows, networking, selection process, etc). I don't have any finance/consulting internships or other experiences in the area. How do I maximize my chances of getting into consulting?
People come into MBB from engineering all the time (from what I've read), so I wouldn't worry about that. If MBB recruits at NIH things will be a lot easier because you'd be more likely to have your resume looked at, and be offered an interview. If not, you should try to network with some of the alumni to see if you can get someone to give your resume to a recruiter. Here is a networking group that might be applicable to you that I discovered using a quick google search:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Fellow-Consulting-Club-NIH-3968627
I think this would be a good place to start in terms of finding people who could get you the information that you're looking for (that would be more specific to you), and hopefully net you some more high-yield methods than just going through the on-line application process. I'm not sure what your degree levels are, but you should probably figure exactly what position you're eligible for based on your background. This would be a good place to start.
McKinsey: http://www.mckinsey.com/careers/your_background BCG: http://www.bcg.com/careers/is_bcg_for_me/backgrounds/default.aspx Bain: http://www.joinbain.com/apply-to-bain/your-background/default.asp
One blog that I looked at a lot over the past couple of weeks http://consideringconsulting.blogspot.com/. He was a post doc who was gunning pretty hard for an APD hire in one of the MBB firms. I found it helpful because he also shares the perspective of trying to break into consulting from a technical but non-business field. He shares his experiences during the process with quite a bit of detail; there are lots of comments, anecdotes, etc. to go through. I found it informative. There's also a lot of info on this website if you search. It takes awhile though.
HTH.
Why the sudden interest in consulting/business?
You'll need to answer that somehow, preferably have it reflected in your resume. If possible, try to take some business-oriented courses at NIH.
Consulting firms love engineers, cause engineers are trained to solve difficult, abstract problems. Most consultants come from engineering. When McK came to recruit at my school, they held 2 infosessions - 1 for the engineering school and 1 for everyone else. So... the technical background isn't an issue... you just need weave a back story as to why you are now shifting interests.
Learning about the industry should be easy. There's info everywhere. For recruiting, you'll need to finagle your way into the Fall recruitment cycle... and begin studying/practicing for case interviews.
have you considered looking into the big 4 or boutique firms? life sciences consulting firms hire lots of science or engineers major.
^ He doesn't want the big 4 or boutiques. He wants MBB and he wants it now.
(This is a troll post lol. /sarcasm)
Honesty if you have a biomed degree and a desire for highly technical work, please don't go to a Big 4. Waste of talent.
MBB recruits directly out of NIH, almost like on campus recruiting. Just look/ask around, they have info sessions there all the time. Go to those events, have a good story on why you want to make the switch. Plug yourself in, and see what happens from there.
Make sure you start the prep process early. I highly suggest you read Case in Point by Marc Consentino.
You can get into consulting as a specialist, not necessarily as a consultant.
How do I get into Consulting? (Originally Posted: 11/22/2013)
Thanks in advance for all your advice!
BK? If so, very good firm and connections, ex-big 4's everywhere (former intern here)
ok good to hear. thanks!
MBA
Anything else? Lol, I wanna do consulting before I get my MBA because I'd like to settle down after then and not do too much traveling.
Looking to break into consulting (Originally Posted: 07/22/2014)
Very new into this industry and am interested in healthcare consulting as a recent college grad. Just doing my research and looking for advice! Thanks-Rubey419
PM me if you can't find what you're looking for on here, but there should be a litany of sources.
Im in healthcare consulting. You can PM me as we'll if you'd like.
What's the best career pathway to break into consulting? (Originally Posted: 02/01/2013)
What's the best career pathway for success at the moment? Say you're a senior in high school. What pathway would you choose for yourself?
Also, is this a good pathway for accounting?
I'm aware that who you know is is about a million times more valuable than what you know. Any advice?
stop what you are doing and get out and have fun....go to a college then realizing if you can even handle everything and getting good grades (most people crack and cant) then we will talk career
Business school is useless if you want to be an accountant. Focus on getting a masters in accounting and passing the CPA exam.
It's hard to say what the "best" path to success is, but as long as you work hard, do well in school, actively look for internships and other jobs, keep busy with clubs and are not completely socially inept you will be fine.
why would you want to major in accounting to break into consulting,,,, ?
Pathways to Management Consulting (Originally Posted: 11/12/2010)
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I'm not sure about that mate, but i would be sure to hear from our fellow mates on here.
nope, ibd or consulting
Your industry experience would be more valued in a management consultancy than a bank.
Either way, you'll likely need to rebrand with B-School before MBB.
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Sounds like a great job, congratulations. It probably won't lead to a lateral to an MC analyst job, but it can definitely get into a good b school and you'd be an extremely strong candidate for consulting coming out of b school.
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^agreed. Unless their dad own's the place.
It sounds like a solid opportunity. I'll echo everyone else. You could get that job, get an MBA at a good school, and then have a chance at a top consulting firm. You will not be able to lateral to MBB, but from my understanding there aren't many places from which one can lateral to MBB.
Thanks for everyones response. I appreciate everyones insight.
I am pretty excited about this position. Hopefully, I will be asked to take part in the last part of the interview and offered the position. The 2nd interview went really well in my opinion.
Wish me luck!
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Routes to MBB (Originally Posted: 12/24/2013)
I am a third year undergraduate at UT-Austin, which, I gather, is not much of a target school for consulting. My majors are Computer Engineering, Economics, and Plan II Honors (the last one is more or less for my own enjoyment). I've honestly reached the conclusion that I do not want to work as an engineer post-college, and consulting has really piqued my interest. I have a strong GPA at the moment (3.97), and a high SAT score (2360).
I am interested to see if there might be decent routes to MBB for me, in spite of the fact that I do not go to a target school and I am not an undergraduate business major. I realize that an MBA is necessary at some point here. Would the best path for me be to pursue some sort of employment after graduating (software?), get into the best business school that I can, and then attempt to jump into consulting? Is there even the faintest hope of getting an MBB offer after my undergraduate years, and then getting an MBA a few years later? I've heard that MBB all tend to hire on the order of one person from UT per year. Because of my three majors, I will be an undergraduate for five years. I had a software internship last summer (financial software, for what its worth), I will have another this coming summer (low-level embedded software), and I have space for any sort of internship the summer after (summer 2015). Would it be worthwhile to potentially pass up offers in prime software internship hiring season to push for an MBB internship? Or should I try for an internship at a Deloitte/Accenture type company? I know that Accenture hires heavily from UT, and engineering majors with decent GPAs tend to get offers from them relatively easily.
Thanks!
Your best shot here is to contact alumni of your school working in the field right away. Get a phone call or an in person meeting, explain your situation and ask them how you can best position your self for a career in consulting. Also, I believe consulting interviews are in mid January, so I'd get on top of the case interview format as a pre-emptive tactic if I were you.
You HAVE to get in front as many people as possible, because all it takes is one guy putting you through to the person doing the hiring, and I'm sure with your stats you'd be considered for an interview at least.
Good luck.
Definitely start with alumni - the last class we hired before I left had three UT-Austin undergrads I believe; never met any of them but for the southern region offices at MBB a lot of schools you would not think of as "target" (e.g., Rice, BYU, UT-Austin, Georgia Tech) are very much in the mix [before anyone yells at me for saying your school isn't a target normally, I'm just going by what I saw during recruiting ex-southern offices].
UT Austin is a target for MBB, Booz, OW, etc. You're looking at Houston/Dallas offices.
See http://www.McKinsey.com/careers/join_us/university_recruiting/schools/b…. http://www.BCG.com/join_bcg/oncampus/texas.aspx http://www.joinbain.com/apply-to-bain/bain-on-your-campus/school_welcom…
Get in contact with alumni and they should be able to help. Shoot me a PM with any further questions!
Also, it definitely won't hurt you that you're studying engineering and economics, especially not with your GPA. Keep up the GPA and perhaps try and get some EC leadership experience under your belt (especially McKinsey likes this). Is there a consulting club or something in that area you can join?
Also, if you really want to do consulting, you shouldn't be looking at just MBB. There are a ton of great companies out there and if you want to do consulting, you should look at them to. You should try and get face time with as many people you can from all the top 15 or so consulting companies and see which ones you like. Any case interview experience etc. you can get from Deloitte, LEK, Accenture, ATK, PA, OW etc. will also be enormously helpful in landing a position at MBB.
Oh and finally, start practicing case interviews today rather than tomorrow (not just because it's Christmas Day). The extra edge you will gain on candidates who don't start the case interview training until they get their interview cannot be overstated. I can recommend buying Victor Cheng's Look Over My Shoulder. In my opinion, that's really the only resource you need (along with his case interview framework videos).
wat
I've met a guy at MBB from UT-Austin, and as TechGuy pointed out, MBB does recruit at your school. With your GPA/SAT score, I would imagine that you would be a great candidate for an interview spot. Just go through the on-campus recruiting process and don't put too much pressure on yourself to "stand out" during the networking events. Just meet as many consultants as you can, communicate that you're very interested in MBB and let your strong academic achievement speak for itself.
If you can't land an MBB internship, I'd recommend going after the most prestigious engineering internship you can land. Having Apple/Google/Microsoft/Facebook or some other hot tech company on your resume will definitely make you stand out for full-time recruiting.
Pretty much agree with humblebot. I'm pretty sure MBB recruits at UT-Austin, and your background is exactly what they're looking for. Make sure to include your SAT score on your resume as it will definitely catch their attention. If you can't land an MBB internship (it's probably the most difficult internship to land), there are several other options that can set you up for full-time MBB recruiting. Good alternatives include F500 engineering/finance, banking, and Tier 2 consulting.
UT is a target for MBB office where I work. PM me if you want to hear more.
Career in management consulting (Originally Posted: 05/30/2015)
Hey guys - i have been working for 2 years with a Fortune 50 company in the U.S running one of their businesses with P&L responsibility. My responsibilities include: Strategy Planning, Financial Planning and Forecasting, Business Development and Sales. Here is my profile :
My interests are in strategy consulting and I want to work for MBB and I have 2 questions:
What country do you want to work? Based on your GRE, you're not going to have the conversational english skills necessary to work in the USA.
I should have clarified - I currently work in the U.S. GRE was a requirement for my graduate degree - typically graduate engineering schools in the U.S are far more forgiving for a poor verbal score. I have no problem conversing in English, or rather that's not a factor that I am worried about currently.
First, never mention that GRE Verbal score to anyone ever again.
Second, you won't get a call back from MBB if you include that grad school GPA on your application. To that point, you may be better off applying in a couple of years when your GPA is less relevant.
Based on your GRE score and major, you're falling into a bucket of "too quant" that MBB screeners look out for. You've got to figure out how to round out your resume with fantastic leadership skills that will balance it out.
Thanks for your response. The reason I mentioned GRE score is mainly because when I was filling out BCG application yesterday - they had a mandatory 'test score' section and GRE is the only standardized test I have ever taken.
I think I can justify leadership skills both at work and outside work.
You're not coming directly, out of school, so your academic credentials (while they still matter) are less important. Your undergrad and graduate GPA is fine (I also came out of my PhD with a 3.0 and I got hired). Your GRE verbal score will be an issue unless you can prove you're fluent in other ways (like having run a US P&L).
How large is the business you are running? You're an industry hire so that's going to be a huge factor in your competitiveness. Also, if you don't mind my asking, why do you want to move the direction you are moving? Many people leave MBB to take jobs like the one you have.
Thanks for your response. The business that I run is $60M+ currently. I have colleagues who run similar businesses in my company from a management consulting background too. The main reason I would like to work for a management consulting company is I really enjoyed building a 2-3 year plan for my business, I have enjoyed two specific things in my work: frameworks driven thinking or structured thinking, I now think of frameworks for most businesses I encounter or run & I enjoy problem solving. When i read cases for management consulting interviews - I really enjoy solving them. I would presume real life projects in these firms would be close to these cases?
If you have completed your qualification so you can make a better career in management consulting. Management consulting are provided the best career path for us. Many institutes and consulting firms are providing this course facility and shows the right directions in our career.
Will this get me closer into management consulting or no? (Originally Posted: 12/02/2016)
I need some guidance with decision making right now and I was wondering if you guys can share with me your thoughts on this.
A little bit about myself. I am a 4th year mechanical engineering student at a non-target who currently on his 1st co-op block. I have a 3.56 gpa and has completed internships for a reputable real estate company and f500 company so far. I have good extracurriculars as well. .
So right now, I have two immediate paths ahead of me:
1) Accept the industrial engineering co-op at the f500 medical company and gain great experience in my major (+ another brand name company on my resume). Network my way into a fulltime BA role. ** or**
2) Decline it, remain in current engineering co-op at a f500 defense company for another 5 months (till May 2017), BUT enroll in the INROADS program which helps to recruit into Accenture and Deloitte (not guaranteed for summer analyst role even if I get in) for summer internships. If INROADS don't pan out, Network my way into a fulltime BA role.
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