Chances at MBB/top consulting firms with Masters & Msc

Hey fellow monkeys, I wanted to know what you all thought of my chances of getting into a top consulting firm considering my profile:

Undergrad in Management at a good school in canada: 3.1 Gpa
Admission to a top business school in Canada for their 2 year Double degree program which will allow me to get Masters in international business and an Msc from a top school in Europe(ESADE/CBS/HEC/Vienna)
As well an exchange to FGV an business school in Sao Paulo, Brazil
Was able to get into the program due to my stellar extracurriculars as my grades are evidently weak

My goal is to smoke the masters program academically 3.7gpa~ & get some good brand name

My career goal is to become a international expansion strategist: emerging markets, cross cultural management, international m&a

Based on my undergraduate resume I do not believe I stand a chance but am hoping with the added masters and a brand name internship or two I could make it.

I am interested in the firms in Europe & U.S.

Thoughts?

 
Best Response
fours:

I can speak for German speaking region (DACH), you have no shot unless you have stellar GPA in BOTH your high school and undergrad.

BTW, all the schools you listed are Tier 2 targets except HEC

Sorry for being slightly OT, but this is total BS. I know several guys from this region who are working for MBB and I would not call their GPA stellar by far. Excellent GPA helps, of course, but it is very misleading to say that it is a requirement. You just have to bust your ass of during networking.

And for those schools, that is BS as well. Esade is top 10 (well, not in my opinion, but I do not have a great opinion about HEC either :) and CBS/Vienna are both targets, where MBBs do recruit, so please, stop spreading this kind of inaccurate info.

 

MBB have a GPA cut off. As you said excellent GPA is not a prerequisite, it should be below the cut off and his 3.1 doesn't help the case.

I never said CBS/Vienna weren't targets but they are more of regional targets. While I'm sure some exceptional students make it to other offices as well but LBS/HEC are more EU-wide targets. Anyways I think OP is doing Queens program in which case he is better off trying his luck in Canada and just having fun in Spain while he's at ESADE

 

It is difficult to put down a square list of top schools since there are many well regarded schools in Europe, but I would definitely think of LSE/LBS/Oxbridge/Bocconi/WHU/St. Gallen/SSE, etc. And generally I was not saying that GPA is not an issue, on the other hand it could very well overcome by networking (and as I said I also have several friends and former classmates in MBBs there). But it is true that especially Germans go a bit over the board in this case. In my opinion however it is extremely difficult to land a job in consulting in Europe, if you are not fluent in the language, and that applies not only to MBBs but to second tier/Big4 as well.

 

Its interesting ESADE is not well regarded when its literally ranked top 5 across the board, why do you think this is? I am not surprised to hear about the barriers to consulting due to lack of language, I did however think attending school there and gaining business proficiency could circumvent the situation. Any suggestions for jobs that would consider a english speaker from Canada?

 

To be perfectly honest I am not sure. I do know that Spanish schools are not generally well regarded and from my experience even guys from ESADE are not really the top-notch, but I might be skewed due to an insufficient set size... on the other hand I know quite a bit of schools throughout the Europe (especially in CEE), whose graduates would blow many prestigious pedigree candidates out of the water...

And to your second question, well, I would look for diffferent graduate programmes with F500 companies, many of them offer rotational programmes for 18/24 months, where you should be competitive with English only (but it is necessary to point out that you would be still at a disadvantage, because the pool is highly competitive with even more applications per opening than in case of MBB and virtually all applicants can speak 2 or 3 languages). But I would quickly drop the idea that you can develop business proficiency which can put you ahead of other applicants. Europe is no less competitive than US and it is very unlikely that you would be able to crush it significantly better than your peers.

The minority thing: well, I am not going to say that it cant help, I personally have very limited experience with that, but as a rule of thumb I would say that, if any, the benefit would be very marginal.

 

What industries do you think business proficiency would cut it? Would being a minority(black) change anything, I thought I read in another thread this being a plus.

 

That might fly in the uk, but continental Europe is as racist as it has ever been. Germany especially, they only recruit German kids,or those from German universities, which are just absent from the world top 30 rankings in anything. Classes at those places are frequently in German, and require fluency to get by. They protect their own over there.

 

Doloremque dicta voluptas dolorum libero ad odit officiis. Officiis placeat eos nemo aspernatur fugit sunt. Nostrum sapiente similique perferendis rem ullam enim. Veniam quidem quasi in cupiditate vel. Et deleniti qui modi assumenda minus sit a. Suscipit praesentium fuga delectus iure fugit sit magni similique. Eius ratione quia reprehenderit suscipit.

Tenetur ullam dolorem voluptate iure qui corrupti quo. Et dolor consequatur mollitia nesciunt aliquid dolores. Unde amet sed occaecati qui rerum.

Career Advancement Opportunities

March 2024 Consulting

  • Bain & Company 99.4%
  • McKinsey and Co 98.9%
  • Boston Consulting Group (BCG) 98.3%
  • Oliver Wyman 97.7%
  • LEK Consulting 97.2%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

March 2024 Consulting

  • Bain & Company 99.4%
  • Cornerstone Research 98.9%
  • Boston Consulting Group (BCG) 98.3%
  • McKinsey and Co 97.7%
  • Oliver Wyman 97.2%

Professional Growth Opportunities

March 2024 Consulting

  • Bain & Company 99.4%
  • McKinsey and Co 98.9%
  • Boston Consulting Group (BCG) 98.3%
  • Oliver Wyman 97.7%
  • LEK Consulting 97.2%

Total Avg Compensation

March 2024 Consulting

  • Partner (4) $368
  • Principal (25) $277
  • Director/MD (55) $270
  • Vice President (47) $246
  • Engagement Manager (99) $225
  • Manager (152) $170
  • 2nd Year Associate (158) $140
  • 3rd+ Year Associate (108) $130
  • Senior Consultant (329) $130
  • Consultant (586) $119
  • 1st Year Associate (538) $119
  • NA (15) $119
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (145) $115
  • Engineer (6) $114
  • 2nd Year Analyst (342) $102
  • Associate Consultant (166) $98
  • 1st Year Analyst (1046) $87
  • Intern/Summer Associate (188) $84
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (547) $67
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
3
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
4
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
99.0
5
kanon's picture
kanon
98.9
6
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
7
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
8
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
9
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
10
Jamoldo's picture
Jamoldo
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”