Investment Banking to Consulting

Coming up on six months in IB and realizing that I would like to make a shift at the 1 year mark to consulting.

Job postings for entry level consulting gigs seems to be structured towards new grads and experienced laterals.

Is there a path from IB to top tier consulting (MBB - T2) or will this shift require a more improvised approach, ex. networking, and cold emails, or going back to school?

I feel confident in my ability to explain the shift but just want to gauge how desirable I will be as a candidate and if the market is open to this sort of thing at the moment.

5 Comments
 

Lateral market is essentially dead right now unless you have a really niche/in-demand skill (e.g., GenAI skills). Even campus pipeline is quite reduced in most geos.

You’re probably stuck either 1) waiting out the market or 2) going to get an MBA. All signs point to 1 taking at least as long as 2.

So, you can either bide your time in IB or take some sort of risk leaving. A sneaky play here might be to look at 1-yr MBA programs abroad (e.g., insead, oxford, lbs) which will cut down on the potential wait

 

LBS minimum is 15 months (and still same 100k gbp cost). Oxford would be extremely risky, might as well just push for T2 lateral then. 

 

Fair, I also didn't realize buddy only has six months experience - simply won't cut it. 

 

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