Consulting after Teach For America? (History major, no experience)
Hello All, I am currently a senior at a large private school in New York (Not an Ivy, but a respectable school for the area), and I have been admitted into Teach For America. I was wondering if anyone would have any advice on how I can make the move to consulting when my two year commitment is over.
I am a history major, and unless I can get an internship for the fall, I would not have any experience in the industry. To be clear, I am not looking to work for an elite firm; I already understand that is out of reach (unless someone thinks other wise). I am just looking to gain some experience before going to business school. Any and all advice and criticism is appreciated.
As an aside, if any would like to hear about the TFA application process, please reach out. I am by no means a blue chip caliber candidate, so I may be able to help you.
Not to change the topic, but I am very interested in TFA myself. Is there a consensus that TFA is better as a pre-business school endeavour (after having worked in IB or Consulting for a few years)? Or is it better to go directly after UG? I want to participate in TFA but also don't want to hinder career progression.
I'm not really qualified to answer this but I would imagine its hard to do IB or consulting before TFA. That would be a serious pay cut. The other way around would seem more appealing. If I could do it all over again, I would have picked a serious major, tried to get into TFA and get a quality job in IB/consulting, and then do TFA with a deferral from my other job (if that makes any sense). Hope that helps.
I believe you could realistically apply to a tier 2/boutique consultancy with such a background. I'm never too sure how TFA is seen in business but it's a good rubber stamp to have on your resume. Also, if you do a good job there you will gain valuable recommendation/soft skills that might be quite useful later. Networking with people within the industry would help you have a clearer idea of what's within reach and what you need to work on to have an attractive profile. What you can start by doing already is improving/polishing your business knowledge, etc.
Thank you for the response Ruhm,
What would be the best way to improve my business knowledge? Reading through case studies? Or should I take certain business/math courses during my time at TFA at a local CC?
check out coursera.org to improve your business knowledge by taking courses created by professors around the country.. They have all types of courses on Strategy/Management/Finance/Marketing etc. They also have courses on data analysis tools that can be helpful for some types of consulting, like Tableau, SAS, SQL, or some advanced excel stuff.
You can audit the courses for free, or you can pay to get the certificate (not sure how much it would help w/resume)
As Showtime said, coursera and similar open resources are great options. I would use case studies to illustrate what you learn on the side. No need to train for case interviews yet (if that's what you meant).
I met one TFA grad at McKinsey while networking for internships. He went to Harvard undergrad, and it seems like TFA places pretty well into consulting. While MBB might be a stretch from your college, I'd encourage you to at least try to network your way into an interview. From there, it's just about your case prep/business acumen, which you have a full two years to practice and develop. Just start early on that stuff and you should be in good shape.
Cool, thanks for the advice Mondo, I'll definitely start networking now.
For at least 2 of the 3 MBB, TFA is treated as a target campus.
What do they look for in candidates from TFA? Wouldn't my college and major disqualify me, or is TFA enough to make up for that?
College, potentially. Major, not so much (It's not like that has stopped most MBBs from hiring strong talent).
Doing two years of TFA is a strong indicator of political horsepower (working with kids in disadvantaged districts, navigating through all the stakeholders involved with a school, including angry parents).
If you can back that up with the quantitative / academic acumen (e.g., strong GPA), it's pretty attractive for any consulting firm since they know you can likely do the job. I have a few friends in TFA right now and they take just as much mental abuse and long work-hours as an average consulting project.
Added Note: I can't comment on how a TFA alum would place in terms of title. They might be starting from scratch as an analyst / associate.
Depending on your GMAT and undergrad GPA, I'd seriously consider going for your MBA at a top 15 program after TFA. TFA is a very normal path to top graduate programs and you will both gain the skills needed for consulting at a top firm in addition to getting access to the on campus recruiting. You can apply at the same time as you try interviewing for consulting roles. A lot of consulting firms will want to see an MBA at some point so you'll be getting a jump start. A lot of TFA candidates qualify for scholarships; regardless, the expense of b-school is well worth going from your TFA salary to $150k+ as a post MbA consulting associate.
A lot of top MBA programs also have strong public policy programs (I'm at Booth, so our public policy program would be Harris). There are a number of TFA classmates of mine who went to Harris as a foot in the door, then applied for a dual degree with Booth, and most of them are now headed into consulting. You can go direct to b-school as well but I'd talk to other people who have made that transition to see what motivated them and if its something you would want to consider down the road.
i've considered that path and it's definitely something I will pursue at the same time. Would you have any recommendations for GMAT prep? I have not started yet, but I've studied for the LSAT for over a year and my RC and LR sections were very strong. It is the quant that I would need to focus on.
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