I'm just finished my first year of my MBA and I am searching for some good summer reading. I am starting an internship at a boutique consulting firm specializing in website and mobile development.

Hello folks,

I'm trying to break into management consulting from my current experiences in defense contracting. If you have suggestions or tips on how to translate the defense perspective into something a major consulting firm would look at, I'm all ears.

I picked up Case in Point from another WSO member in the intro thread, so I'm currently working my way through that book as well.

Does anyone know how good Accenture's Analytics services are and how strong of a background in topics like business intelligence, statistics, and mathematics is required?

Given that I'll be starting as a Systems Integration analyst soon, is it difficult to get a role on an Analytics project?

Hopefully any current and/or former Accenture employees on this forum will be able to help me out.

I'm starting a summer MBA internship at a boutique consulting firm (think LEK, ZS, Parthenon) next month and was wondering what the typical drug testing policy is like for interns and full-time consultants?

I accepted the offer several months ago, and while I have had lots of communication with the firm since then, they haven't mentioned anything about a drug test.

That said, for those of you in the industry:

• Is drug testing typical in consulting?
• How does drug testing work? Is it client/industry specific (and does it apply only if you're working on-site? the firms above don't do much on-site work.)
• What types of tests are most common? urine, blood or hair?

Hey, guys i'm new to wso and i have a few questions that are very very basic to ask.

What is consulting?
What do consultants do?
What do you do on a daily basis?

Hey Monkeys,

I just wanted to thank WSO for all the great advice! I wouldn't be in my current position without it. That being said, this is my first post, so I apologize if I still sound like somewhat of a novice.

I recently graduated from a Southern Semi-Target School (think Vandy, Emory) with a double major in Biochemistry and Economics (GPA ~3.8/3.9). Originally, I wanted to become a doctor, but decided to try out the job market, and was fortunate enough to land an analyst position at a BB in PWM (Chicago); I have been at my firm for 2 years and have passed the CFA lvl 1 -- looking to try the CFA lvl 2 in June.

I'm currently a Public Fin IB analyst working at a boutique; its temp work and will end soon (end of June). I'm not interested in Public Finance work, and I'm looking more into management consulting. Are there any specific consulting companies, that recruit for entry level positions with only one year of experience ? What firms should I be targeting and where should I look? I've been using Indeed and typing "consulting or management consulting" is vague and doesn't yield a lot of results.

I'm assuming that MMB are out of reach? How about Booze Allen, LEK, Accenture, Monitor, AT Kearny?

Thanks.

Who are the best consulting firms for healthcare strategy? Which firms have the best brand and exit opps? How does Evolent stack up?

Bonus points for those who don't just say "MBB".

How does travel for consultants work in Europe, particularly London? Do most consultants in London end up traveling around London, Great Britain, and occasionally other English speaking countries (Such as Ireland) or is there a lot of foreign travel which requires strong knowledge of other languages?

Trying to decide between offers from Evolent and Advisory Board, any thoughts? I have a background in global health research and strategy, and am hoping to some day make my way in to either Healthcare PE or possibly Healthcare Litigation / Global Health Policy.

Advisory Board has the brand name and the structured career path, but Evolent is newer, more strategy focused, and would possibly provide for quicker career progression/greater learning experience.

Thoughts?

What is my chance at being able to get into a top 3 management consulting firm or any firm at all in Australia.
Uq bachelor of business management roughly 6 gpa (distinction)
I am currently in my second year, what are some steps I can take to improve my chances?

Does anyone know the exit opportunities from a top tier restructuring consulting firm? Can you use the financial and operational skills built to jump to a distressed company buy side firm?

What is the salary progression for consulting careers?
1st year, 2nd year, 3rd year, mba, etc? Do most people just leave and go into industry, etc?

Just saw this in the May 11th edition of the Economist ('Wall Street is Back'). For anyone that has a copy, check out "To the brainy, the spoils" [Pg 67]. Quote from the Economist:

"As the elite firms move down into implementation and operations, they are meeting big new rivals hoping to move up into the loftier realms of strategy. Over the weekend of May 4th - 5th partners at Roland Berger, a mid-tier consultancy, met to discuss a possible buyer for their firm. The most likely candidates are thought to be PwC, Deloitte, and E&Y"

Project management is not easy. Keeping track of deadlines, status, risks, issues, and competing priorities is not piece of cake. There are hundreds of articles and management gurus out there with tips and advice on effective project management. However, few (that I have seen) provide tools to put the ideas they provide into action.

I read on an outdated thread that consultants in areas such as New York and Boston travel less than usual in terms of flights, especially if they pick an industry relevant to the city (such as finance) compared to oil and gas (where you'd be flying to Houston and other oil hotspots a lot). Apparently this was true especially with Bain, but obviously it's ridicously hard to get an offer there.

Is this still the case? Do consultants in big east coast cities fly less places and stay more local?

Im going into my senior year at a Semi-Target undergrad school and want to break into consulting. I have a few decent work experiences with a boutique and a F50 company and I am the head of the Consulting club. The issue is that my cumulative GPA is horrible due to my complacency in my first year. My second year was ok but now good enough around a 3.3. My most recent year however was a 3.9. My cumulative GPA is still around 3.3 but my performance has seen consistent improvement. What are my chances of landing a job and whats the best way to overcome the GPA issue. Thanks for any help you have to offer.

Hello All,

This is a little off topic but they are a Consulting firm that has won numerous awards over the last 3 years for their size so...

I was just curious if anyone has ever heard of this Consulting Company. I know they focus on Hospitals and Health Systems and are located in Chadds Ford, PA. Any information or if someone has ever worked for/with them would be helpful.

Thanks!

A close friend was recently offered employments for a senior research analyst McKinsey, a research associate at BCG, and a Google associate position for Business Operations and Strategy. Salaries + compensations are pretty much the same across all three companies (except BCG pays around $5000 higher annually compared to the McKinsey and Google). As a result, she's having hard time deciding which one to go to. Anybody have any good recommendation?

Hello,

I'm a 23 year old business student who will be graduating July 2013. I am currently working my third internship over the past two years and graduating with honors (3.6 GPA) from a small school in Michigan where I played four years of college baseball.

I have every intention of going back to school to get my MBA, but still intend on getting my career started as soon as I graduate. Any suggestions? Advice? Graduating from such a small school, I feel, has put me at a bit of a disadvantage, so any advice would be great.

Which entry level positions are good launching pads for a consulting career? I've been applying for several business analytics and associate consultant positions, but haven't had any luck yet.

Hi guys--

I'm interning in BB S&T this summer (and I've interned in BB IBD at the same firm in the past, if that matters). For a variety of reasons, I'm targeting MBB for full-time recruiting.

I've never recruited for consulting in the past, so I don't have a roster of connections.

I'm wondering when I should start reaching out to recruiters/alums. I'm worried about looking capricious by reaching out to consulting alums before I even start my S&T internship...

Some stats:
GPA: 3.7, target, and the BB internships mentioned above

Thanks!

http://www.mckinsey.com/client_service/operations
specifically looking at product development and manufacturing positions

havent found too many threads about this practice except a pretty old one with outdated info i believe. how does this practice compare to strategy consulting/BA positions coming out from undergrad? does it carry the same weight to get into top10 bschools? prestige? exit opps? is mck big in this space because the office has really low headcount for this dept...

any info is appreciated

When to start case interview prep? I know the old saying is "now". But what if I don't have an interview in hand and am not sure if I would even get one? I don't want to spend hundreds of dollars and a ton of hours on case prep material (books, ManagementConsulted guides, videos, live case) and then realize I would not even get a chance to actually use it. On the other hand, I don't want to get a call from the recruiting asking me to go in next week for first round and have no clue how to work a case.

Thoughts?

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?

Is it a myth or is it true that MC is recession proof. People outside the industry think so but I wanted an inside view.

Anyone interested in practicing some case interviews over the next few days over skype?

Interviewed with PwC for a Sr. Associate position within their R&D Pharma group. My interview consisted of 3, 1:1 with 2 Directors and 1 sr. Associate and a case study (I composed 4 slides and presented to 2 Managers). Overall, the interview went pretty smoothly and i truly enjoyed meeting these seasonal/experienced folks.

I was wondering if anyone can share some lights on this R&D team at PwC: Is the R&D pharma group part of their Strategy group at PwC? What is the salary range for this particular role? Same pedigree as Deloitte's S&O?

I posted some of this already in a Q&A thread, but I felt it merited standing as its own topic. Here goes:

Heya Fellas,

I am an MBA student at Boston College. Since my school is not a consulting school, I could not prepare my case interviews for the summer internships and bombed (being modest here) my interviews at two firms. I do not want to make the same mistake again during search for full time.

I was wondering if over the summer some of us can get together once a week and practice some cases, or,

If there are groups already on WSO, where people meet in person and practice, please point me to those.

Thanks/Ash

What are some of the biggest changes in consulting norms over the past 5-10 years?

I recently watched a speech given by a former Deloitte partner outlining the cost benefits and knowledge that can be attained through outsourcing - not just call centers and manufacturing, but an actual consulting team on an international project. He also described the impact of current communication technology and how the huge expense of flying consultants to the client is being taken out because of new means of communication - cloud, etc.

What are other important shifts that have taken place?