Entry Level Consulting: Is it really better or more interesting?
My friend that worked at Accenture told me that in Consulting the first few years of consulting are nothing special. The work you'll be doing analyst and senior analyst is just similar to grunt work you'll be doing in industry. A bunch of excel, meetings and support work for senior people but you don't really have the position to exercise your strategic muscles. You won't learn anything that you couldn't learn in an average role in industry? I'm thinking of a business analyst, finance analyst, operations, marketing type roles.
I wanted to get your guy's thoughts on this. Here are some questions running through my head: How true is this? How much does it depend on which shop it is: MBB vs tier 2 vs Accenture/Big4? Aside from the exit opps, is there much value in starting in consulting as an analyst and doing 2-3 year stint? Is it just about getting through your 2 years so that you can go onto do something better or will you actually learn more and do more interesting work? Assuming you go into consulting for just a few years, Is it better to get into consulting at the associate level?
Personally, I feel like I want to experience consulting for at least a few years and ideally would prefer starting out there. But I wasn't sure whether a stint as an analyst would really provide things like applying the consulting toolkit and mindset, strategic skills, rapid learning and growth that is equivalent to multiples of equivalent years of industry experience(2 years consulting=4 years industry), etc. If not what do you say you walk away with such a stint?
Based on my experience (2nd year analyst at one of the MBBs) vs. my former classmates in industry, management consulting provides you with a plethora of experiences that is hardly matched elsewhere. Even though the basic nature of the job won’t change from project to project (i.e., a combination of PPT production, Excel modelling, problem solving sessions, client management), the diversity of (1) industries, (2) functions, (3) people you work with, both colleagues and the clients and (3) nature of the project (strategy vs. implementation) will help you build a very solid foundation of soft “management skills” and give you exposure to different situations.
Sure, you won’t be talking/advising the CEO of F500 companies, however your Partner / Senior Partner are most of the time relying on the analysis you produced (with the guidance of your Manager / Senior Managers, if you’re an analyst) to deliver those recommendations. Also, you’ll find yourself having more responsibilities vs. your peers in banking / industry, as it’s quite common for analysts to independently handle the relationship with middle managers and below employees (which isn’t that bad, if you think you’re less than a year out of school and have zero experience in the industry).