Do you need an MBA to go from Consulting to Corporate Strategy?
Hi Everyone, I'm a Sophomore at a semi-target, state flagship university. This summer I'll be interning at Booz Allen Hamilton in their Strategic Innovation Group. I'm hoping to leverage that experience this fall during Junior Internship recruiting so I have a shot at more strategy focused firms like MBB, Deloitte S&O, LEK, OW, etc. Looking more long term, I'd like to end up in a corporate strategy role at a F100 after 2-3 years doing management consulting. Assuming I'm successful in landing a full-time offer at one of the higher tier consulting firms (a huge assumption I know), will I need to get an MBA before transitioning to Corporate Strategy? Is an MBA useful for moving up the ranks within the Corporate Strategy division? I know this is still pretty far down the road, but I'd just like to get an idea of whether or not I should be planning on going to business school given my career aspirations. Thanks
Definitely possible without an MBA. I did 2 years of consulting at Deloitte S&O and then moved over to a F250 company doing Corporate Strategy. F100 would definitely also have been doable. Lots of colleagues made similar moves.
After 2 years in Corp. Strategy, I am now headed back to get my MBA. In terms of whether an MBA is useful for moving up the ranks, that will vary a lot by company. Some may absolutely require it, and some may totally discourage it. My group is kind of in the middle. Nearly everyone above my level has an MBA, but this is more of a result from the fact that my group primarily recruits from top consulting firms, and nearly all consultants (past a certain level) have MBAs. I don't feel that it is essential that I get an MBA to advance, so I am doing it more as a career accelerator (whether I return to my current company or not) and a valuable personal growth experience. My company has certainly been supportive of this decision both in terms of recommendation letters as well as an offer to return post-MBA with both partial tuition reimbursement and a guaranteed promotion.
No, you don't need to have one.
However, an MBA is a superb training ground to work in teams, testing your communication, leadership, decision making and project management skills. It also helps with financial analysis. It is also very useful when changing jobs and careers.
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