Admitted to an M7 next fall, how do I best prepare myself for MBB recruiting now?
Currently in the military, transitioning to an MBA program next fall and I'm already admitted to Kellogg Round 1. I have significant vacation saved up and will be ending my service around March so will have 5-6 months before starting school.
I know the typical advice is "don't need to do anything, just relax and enjoy yourself." And I'm already planning on doing that, going to be doing a LOT of traveling and awesome stuff I just didn't have the time or ability to do while in the military, but I will also have time to study and prep myself for MBA/recruiting.
I'm currently enrolled in the HBX CORE which I think is going to help as a primer for some of the basic business classes I'll take first quarter. Also looking at pre MBA internships but those seem few and far between and not a high likelihood of working out.
My goal is to crush school AND MBB recruiting once I'm on campus. Not that it's the end of the world if I don't get an MBB offer, but I want to 100% do everything I can to set myself up to get one of those jobs and not ask "what if". I know there's many other great firms that I'd be happy at but from what I understand MBB offers the best long term opportunity.
FWIW I have some weakness in quant as a humanities major, that I'll need to be working on the fundamentals. I got a 45Q on the GMAT so not a total doofus but I know consulting values quant skills. I'm just wondering if diving into case prep is maybe too soon or should I focus on other fundamentals?
Can anyone think of anything else? Anything you wished you'd done? Thanks!
I wouldnt network with more than 1-2 people (total. Not per firm). The consultants appreciate the process around recruiting, there’s no need to gun hard early and it doesn’t move the needle. You’ll also just end up having to talk to all the same people next year, which is going to be mind numbing.
Seriously - chill. Best you can do is poke around a bit, understand the consulting landscape, who the firms are and what they do at a very high level (you will get plenty of depth in recruiting) and start casually reading business journals. Anything else at this point is nonsense.
Case prep or anything else like that at this point is a bad idea.
3 big takeaways from MBA consulting recruiting that i wish i knew ahead of time:
1) Brand matters - i was surprised to see the number of ppl working seemingly "easy" functions at well-known companies getting closed-list invites everywhere. if you have spent any amount of time at a high-profile company (Goldman, JPM, Google) doing literally anything there, make sure you highlight that in your resume and in your elevator pitch. at the end of the day, we are all human and are inherently biased in favor of people when we hear they spent time at Goldman Sachs regardless of the fact that they were working in financial reporting there
2) Office choice matters - recruiting for NYC/SF? That will be tough especially if you are attending a school not within the vicinity of either city. Recruiters will tell you that office choice doesn't matter but that is complete BS. It is supply and demand - the demand for McKinsey NYC is way higher than McKinsey Dallas so this raises the "price" of the candidate quality needed to get a job at McKinsey NYC. Sure, NYC has more openings every year than Dallas, but the % of ppl going for the NYC office compared to Dallas is greater than the % of more roles in NYC vs Dallas. If you are really set on MBB and don't mind living in a less than ideal place for a year or two, apply for the Dallas/Atlanta/Detroit offices as your competition for those offices will be a lot less. Keep in mind, you will need a solid reason why you suddenly want to live in Dallas after spending your entire life in New York. I'm not advocating doing this, but for some ppl they want MBB really badly and are willing to take any advantage they can get in securing a spot so I thought it was worth sharing this piece of info.
3) Project Management is an important skill set - at the end of the day, a lot of work at the post-MBA level (in all fields, not just in consulting) really revolves around managing a project/program and carrying it successfully to the finish line. If you can highlight instances in your pre-MBA life where you have successfully managed a project, this will be very helpful in landing a job within consulting as it will show your ability to deliver results and just 'get shit done'
Some of this might not apply to you given your background seems to be entirely military, but I figured it was worth sharing my 2 cents in case other future MBA students stumble across this thread
Just to clarify one point here. Recruiting from t15 or below is very regional. Recruiting from an MBA business schools">M7 is much more national. That's more a function of firm resources and where they allocate dollars to make connection nationally rather than pick up a few slots in DC/Houston/etc. McK NYC is really hard from UT or UCLA - but no harder than any other office from Booth/Stanford.
Also, the big offices hire a lot of people every year. So while there is huge demand for those offices, there is also a high supply. Local offices might literally be hiring 1 person. If you don't have a compelling story for those offices, it is hard compete with someone with a similar profile who has a wife and kid living a mile from the office and went to the same UG as the managing director.
Basically, if you're at a school outside of the MBA business schools">M7, you should probably target your school's closest offers (i.e. the 1-3 offices where they have historically placed people). At an MBA business schools">M7 recruit wherever you want, but the really small offices you still need a compelling story.