Connecting with employees at consulting firms
Hi everyone!
I'm a PhD student looking to break into consulting after I graduate this fall/winter. I have a list of my top 15 firms or so, and am working on prioritizing the list and making connections at the firms I am most interested in.
I have done about 5 informational interviews by working my second degree connections on LinkedIn, and they all went great. Very informative, and most told me to reach out when I submit my application so they can tell the recruiter to keep an eye out, which I'm extremely grateful for. However, at this point I've essentially exhausted my connections, and there are still quite a few firms that I would like to learn more about.
Does anyone have any advice on how to proceed from here? The options I'm considering are cold-emailing consultants, or reaching out to recruiters and trying to get connected to consultants after speaking with them. For the former option, input on how to select the best consultants to contact, and approaches to improve the chances of getting a response would be great. For the latter, does this approach work? Are recruiters willing to connect prospectives with consultants? I'm guessing it varies by firm.
In case it's relevant, I have spoken with people at MBB and am focused on connecting with consultants at T2/T3, and also life science boutiques.
Thanks in advance!
I've got a bit, yeah. So from what I understand, you've essentially tapped out all of your connections that have gone to consulting firms, and you've still got about 10 firms to go that you'd like to connect with.
If that's the case, I would go talk to your University's career center, if you have one. They have connections to all sorts of people in all sorts of places, and as long as you can get past the students and work with the directors of the career center, then you'll be in really good shape. They'll connect you with alumni, which are usually strong promoters for you.
If there isn't one, then I would go on the consulting company's website, and look for recruiter information in the offices that you want to go to. It's a bit of stretch and feels a bit awakward, but an email like, "Hello, I am X, getting and PhD at Y, and I'm really interested in your company. I can't find relevant alumni/breaking into this from LS/don't know how to proceed (wordsmith that), but I'd really like to connect with some consultants at your firm and talk about the work there. Is there anyone you could hook me up with?"
Wordsmith that, of course, but you know the drill.
It's also helpful to become good friends with the consultants you've reached out to, and then ask them what they think. You want to do this after the person has changed from a contact that wants you to come to their firm to a friend that wants you to succeed regardless. It's super helpful: I had practiced a case with someone at my current firm (before I had any offers), and he said that I did well enough that he wanted me to succeed regardless, and connected me with another person at a different MBB.
Let me know if you have any questions. Remember, I'm praying for you, we're all in this together!
-KHC
I hadn't thought to check with the career center, but that's a great point. Thanks for the tip! Glad to hear you think contacting recruiters could be a potentially fruitful effort as well.
Also, when it comes to becoming "friends" with a contact, is it as simple as contacting fairly frequently (every month or so) and showing genuine interest? I feel like I connected quite well with one person, and got candid answers from him about the industry. However, the process of following up with connections without having something specific to talk about has always seemed a bit...forced to me.
Yeah so the way you become friends is by asking to practice a case with them, nailing it, taking their feedback, asking to practice again with improvements, and being social and kind the whole time. I tried to make my conversations about my wife, or newborn son, or about how I could help them out, or about what life was like for them, and then just got talking more and more about life, until we got comfortable. Candid answers isn't what you are looking for: you want them to be the kind of people that like you enough that they text you out of the blue and ask how things are going.
So, I guess, what I'm saying is that you need to be genuine. If it feels forced, that's because it is. Be genuine, though, and everything will work out.
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