Certified Managment Consultant Designation

The CFA is proposed to be the be all and end all in finance, every finance professional i've spoken with has said more or less the same thing, "i want to get my CFA, or my CFA helped me so much" ...

Today I was poking around the internet and stumbled on the CMC-Canada designation

http://www.cmc-canada.ca/CMC_Designation/Aboutthe…

But the few consultants that I've spoken with and the many forums and postings i've read have never mentioned anything about this designation. It seems right now that it is nothing more than just an extra 3 letters behind your name

I found the american version and thier website is...

http://www.imcusa.org/

the wikipedia article isn't even all that great and that made me snicker... (lol and you know that is the ultimate barometer to determine if something is really an "official big deal" in this world lol)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Certified_Management…

what are your opinions on the designation? how many practising consultants on here have it? how many of you have even heard of it before this? how many of you are actually vying for it? how does it look on the resume when appolying to MBB's?

 

Conan,

I know next to nothing about the CMC certification nor do I work in Management Consulting, so please take what I have to say with a grain of salt....

I once heard Management Consulting described as "a business of lending out brains". While certain analytical skillsets are used, these are usually picked up on the job and are NOT prerequisites to a job in MC. What MC firms, especially MBB tend to emphasize, is raw intelligence and pedigree. If these firms bill some ungoldly hourly rate for some kid straight out of college with no full-time work experience, then there damn well better be something special about him. Usually that "special" thing is graduating at the top of his class at an elite university (think 3.7 from Stanford).

Now, while I will not argue that the CMC designation is irrelevant to the field (I'm sure there's some relevance), you have to realize that these designations and certifications are as useful as their reputation. Nobody has heard of the CMC certification, and it wil NOT give you an edge when applying to MBBs. If MBB is your goal, I would NOT recommend pursuing this thing.

Money Never Sleeps? More like Money Never SUCKS amirite?!?!?!?
 
Best Response

I worked at MBB for 3 years and have never heard of this. I doubt a single person at MBB has this certification (or if they do, they never discuss it).

My hunch is that this certification is more useful for individuals trying to operate their own one-man consulting shops. Basically semi-retired ex-executives who are now consulting on the side. This certification may lend some credibility to people like that. Even so, if I were a small- or mid-size company considering whether to engage such a consultant, I would care MUCH more about his/her operating experience, executive experience, previous engagments, etc. In fact, I would probably ignore this certification entirely when evaluating consultants.

Take-away: networking like crazy and practicing your case interviews will be much more beneficial than pursuing this certification.

 

It's not on my radar (I have my B.Comm and industry designation), but I know the local partner has his CMC (and likes it). And, he is certainly one of the partners I respect most, so it might have something there. It is also on the list of designations the firm supports us getting if we want.

As for it being required, I certainly don't think so. For me an MBA is the next step because they like putting that on a resume when they propose us on projects.

I also know of a couple independents who use it, and there is definately value in it for someone who isn't being trained by a large firm on how the consulting industry works.

 
2x2Matrix:
LeveragedFiend:
If you want to make it official that you do bullshit common sense work for an outrageous fee, then certainly go for it!

Congrats on your HS graduation, leveragedfiend. Also, consulting firms aren't a cartel designed to keep the prices of their services high - any idea what would happen if one bank undercut the others on an IPO fee?

He has challenged you to an e-dual!

Get it!
 

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