Prospective Consulting Analyst in a Tough Spot
I'm a recent college grad pursuing consulting and have recently found in a bit of a perplexing situation. First, some background info to help contextualize everything.
My school is a solid one and likely a target for Big4, semi for a number of T2, and non-target for MBB. I have plenty of peers with excellent FT positions or internships at those types of firms. I took a very aggressive approach to my academics that has allowed me to graduate two years early at age 20 (skipped a year in elementary and graduated college in 3 yrs). While this has been friendly for my pocketbooks, it hasn't been so friendly for my career thus far. I was unable to land a decent internship in Summer 21' and all I have to show as far as industry experience goes is a externship thing at a Big4 that was frankly BS. This is likely due to the fact that I was applying for junior-level internships as a sophomore who had, unsurprisingly, a sophomoric resume and transcript.
Surprisingly, I somehow managed to land plenty of interviews at firms I'm interested in (1 MBB, Big3/4, 4 T2's and a couple others boutiques). Sadly, I either shat the bed in those interviews (mainly the behavioral ones. Did fairly well in cases IMO) or was simply passed over for an experienced candidate. I also passed on a fairly enticing corporate banking offer from a bulge bracket early in the recruitment process to pursue consulting instead (definitely regretting this one).
I recently received an offer from small (50-100 employees) strategy consultancy that I'm finding increasingly attractive as my desperation grows. 75K Base with meaningful bonus Total expected comp: 83-90K (low-ish COL city)
Should I just take it? It's a new (less than 15yrs) firm that I doubt many of you have heard of. The culture and environment is quite nice and they have a unexpectedly solid list of clients that range from no-names to Fortune 50.
My end goal would be to climb the consulting ladder to a much better firm (perhaps MBB post-MBA) and I'm not sure if working here would be conducive to that.
What should I do? Take it? Keep trying for a better firm? Any help is much appreciated.
Apologies for the long post.
Well since you are a recent college grad, then yes I would take it. If you don’t have any other job offers, do you really have a choice? Also, do you have a safety net to keep job searching for a while (I.e will your parents let you stay at their place while you job search)?
Seems like a decent gig. Not sure about exit Ops or anything, but pay seems good - the average starting salary at colleges like ivys are still like in the 70s so not a bad gig.
Other option I see is to go to grad school and get a MSF degree at a target school. Obviously this would cost more but you would have a chance again at MBB and other “top” options.
I'm leaning towards taking the offer at the moment. Do you think the following path would be conceivable?This firm (1yr) -> Boutique/T2/B4 (2-3yrs) -> Top MBA -> MBBIf I went the MSF route, I'd still take this job as matriculation usually only happens in the fall and I'd work until next September. Having concrete FT consulting experience would surely help with admission and eventual recruiting.
Well I don’t know anything about your firm so I can’t say if it would be possible to lateral. You should look at where people have exited from your firm. Top MBA is always very difficult, especially without a MBB/T2 or top UG background, depends on your story and scores.
I would take the offer and do an MSF if you get into a top one. For example for Vanderbilt MSF you can get into top T2s and have a shot for MBB. Quickest path to potential MBB/T2 in my opinion.
The firm actually has pretty low turnover for one as small as it. Most former employees (on LinkedIn at least) are former interns. Among the several former FT’s, most went on to “climb the ladder.” It’s a finance focused firm so many went into banking or some kind of investment management at good firms (JPM, Fidelity, etc). Ones who stayed in consulting ended up at T2, Boutiques, and B4. This sounds good but we’re talking about a very small sample size of about 4. Regardless, EO’s are probably decent.
I graduated from a pretty good school but not elite (think T30) and did well there GPA and EC’s wise. That along with a strong GMAT (should be doable. Got a 99%+ SAT) is half the battle for top MBA’s. Obviously experience matters a ton so that’s where my area of concern lies. People from my school who pursued MBA tended to end up at top programs.
I’m probably leaning the future MBA route over MSF but I’ll still apply to them just in case. If I get into a sufficiently strong program and strike out with “climbing the ladder” I’d take it.
Sounds like a good plan then! Congrats! Seems like you’re in a good spot. Take the offer, apply to MSF and if that doesn’t work out, go to MBA. Focus on being one of the best/top employees you can at this firm -put your head down and grind.
Obviously I have a lot of things to do and figure out but I thankfully have plenty to do of time to do so. Thanks for the help!
Here’s what I would do. Take the offer and work 1-2 years. Try to network and land at a better firm for a couple years and then see where your options are. I will be 24 starting full time in banking and I feel like I am far ahead of most people. Starting at 20 and having 4 years of experience when you are 24 will put in a great position! You should be able to get into a top business school with 4-8 years of work experience and working in a variety of roles. Good luck!
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