Fired from T2 Consulting Firm

Hello Everyone,

I just got terminated for under performance at a T2 strategy consulting firm LEK/OW/ACC strategy/Deloitte S&0 and wanted to know how to best proceed from here. This came as a shock to me being 9 months out of undergrad and want to know the options I have or possibilities to go to an M7 Business School 5 years or so down the line. I have been on 3 projects and on the middle of the 2nd one my responsibilities switched to advanced excel modeling which I had a hard time keeping up with (The reason for termination).

Stats: Top 10 Target School Major: Political Science/Econ Double Minor: Business GPA: 3.5 SAT: 2100 Internships: Small Cap Pe, ER, Congressional Aid

5 Comments
 
Most Helpful

I know people that have been in a similar situation. I highly suggest you take 2 courses of action:

  1. If consulting is what you want to do, start reaching out to and networking with other consulting firms (alumni, fraternity, etc) and really start off and focus on why you want their firm. E.g., I really want LEK because I want to do pharma and enjoy DDs. You will be asked what happened with your current employer so have a good fluffy answer that you have perfected. I know someone that was laid off at T2 and spun it around to land an offer at MBB

  2. Cast your net wider. If you are interested in IB, Corp strategy, etc. network very hard in these areas. It is generally easy to say you are seeking a change in careers, want to join XX industry, and determined consulting wasn’t for you. From what I heard from peers who switched consulting > banking or banking > consulting, no one asked whether they performed well, got return offer, etc

As a separate piece of advice, don’t assume it’s just one excel model that led to a lay off. Really ask for and sink in all the feedback your prior firm has for you. Being a first year that was laid off is really not the worst thing, but being laid off twice in 2 years or being an underperforming associate / VP scan lead to bigger issues. Focus on developing the foundation so this doesn’t happen again

Hope this helps

 

"being 9 months out of undergrad"

It's not exactly the end of the world, although that particular company is probably a bad idea to apply to again until some time later.

They almost certainly did you a favor by letting you know now instead of later that you're bad at the project/job/whatever. Similarly, if you are this junior, they have a big "parts bin" of people like you to put on that project.

You were a new hire. It so doesn't matter what happened to you in the grand scheme of your career. Unless you continue to suck at "Advanced Excel", in which case you better pick something else to do. If you anticipate beefing up your skills in the near future, just go get another job, doesn't even need to be in Tier-Anything consulting. Body shop, industry, tech, gov, whatever.

When, a year or two from now, you decide to apply for more experienced positions back in mgmt consulting, there will be relatively little interest in this unpleasant episode. It'll be your "I screwed up, but then I learned from the experience and got better" answer to the textbook greatest weakness interview question.

The rule of thumb is that only your past 3 jobs matter, and sometimes only your last long-term job and project.

Going to B-school without some real experience is going to be a waste of time and money. It's not going to teach you on-the-job skills.

 

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