How to transition from IB to consulting?
I am currently at a target school and have a full-time offer from GS / MS. However, I have decided to instead pursue a career in consulting as the work seems much more interesting. More specifically, I'm interested in joining the PE practice of an MBB firm.
I am studying finance and have completed internships at GS / MS, a large PE fund and a smaller VC firm. I don't have any of the extracurricular / entrepreneurial experiences that consulting firms typically like to see. My background so far is 100% focused on finance. Would the MBB firms even be interested in someone with my background and if so, how would I go about positioning myself and my prior experiences?
I'm from a different country, so take my input with a grain of salt. But several friends of mine did exactly that: interned in IB, decided it wasn't worth it and started FT at MBB.
Based on their experience it is super easy to get into ACs with your background (MBB value IB experience). After that, it's your performance in the case studies and the interviews that counts. Prepare yourself using Preplounge or something similar. Good luck!
Very helpful input, thank you!
Do you know if they are less harsh on people with a finance background in the case interviews? For example, I know that in IB they will be much harsher on you in interviews if you have a finance background compared to if you did management consulting, engineering or whatever before.
Don't know. Certainly depends on the interviewer, though. But I haven't heard of interviewers being harsher on ex-IB people.
Never went through it, but I assume you are a smart and capable person to make the pivot.
Having a GS/MS and a recognizable PE firm on your resume is very appealing. I would network hard, have a strong story about why you want to make the pivot to consulting, and practice case studies (I am sure there are resources online).
Best of luck.
Its 100% doable. I worked full-time in M&A for a year before lateralling to MBB where I've since primarily worked in the PE practice. A fair number of ex-bankers end up doing PE due diligences since they are a good fit for people with our background (similar clients, fast paced projects, etc).
Main thing is to get good at casing (practice with people in consulting so you get rapid and actionable feedback). I probably did 20ish cases before my first interview, which is far less than what you might hear from others. Position yourself as very interested in learning about businesses and continuing to work with clients, but having a desire to learn more about the operational / strategic side of companies, not just the financial / transactional aspect as you would in IB.
Thanks for your response!
What made you switch to MBB and what made you choose to primarily work with the PE practice rather than the general practice?
How did you find the time to practice casing while working in m&a? Did it take a while to learn?
I found that I enjoy diligences (the type of work the PE practice does) the most. Diligences aren't for everybody, but I find the process of diving really deep into a company and market the most engaging aspect. You go from knowing very little or nothing at all to achieving expert-level knowledge in a very short timeframe. Also, I enjoy the quantitative aspect of the work (putting together various analyses using survey data, market modeling, etc.) as I am naturally a pretty numbers-oriented person.
I should also note that I am not currently in the PE practice at my MBB (it isn't a requirement to do DDs), but many people do spend a single rotation (usually 3-4 months) within the practice where they will exclusively work on PE projects. If you are curious, I recently made a video on my experience with DDs, and plan to speak more in the future about my exp transitioning from IB - feel free to give it a watch.
Great video man, esp for a new content creator. Could you please highlight IB vs MBB exp in a video? touch on your process of lateralling, regret going into IB, skills worthwhile in IB versus useless, how you fit in case prep while working IB hours, were you cautious about networking/putting name out there during down turn in IB risk of losing job, etc?
Thanks!
Absolutely - will keep this idea top of mind for future videos, stay tuned!
Amazing video with very practical information. Much more informative than the typical high-level videos where people only say that they help companies with "strategy" without any further details.
Would be very interesting to get even more practical information. For example, if you could pick a well-known public company and then do a 10-20 min video where you go through in a bit more detail how a commercial DD would be set up for that company. Great content, keep it coming!
Hi can you please share the link to your video! Thanks- cool that you put yourself out there!
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