Solid internship experience but low gpa to consulting

I was talking about "resume screening" not interviews. Also, I said mbb consulting or big 4. I was talking about financial due diligence, tax consulting, and audit work.

But the cpa track in big 4 or bulge brcket (M&A advisory) is sort of consulting role.

As you mentioned, it is great way to explain the industry experience on interview, but my main point was resume screening

jjnfks

correct me if I'm wrong @snickett but its not that they don't place value in having consulting background, its that other things have a lot more weight. I interviewed at Bain and they didn't even blink an eye at my big 4 MC internship position, they were wayyy more interested in talking about the industry work I had done a couple summers ago. You can gain a lot more valuable skills working outside of consulting than going to MBB which they are well aware of. 

You have seen a lot of people go from big 4 to MBB but there are a lot of people who also don't start at consulting, may just be a case of a skewed sample. As of BB firms, its the technical skills they gained working there and they know they type of mindset they have towards their work. When you're young it's not really about sticking to one path, more about trying out a bunch of different things so it makes a lot of sense why people go from BB to MBB. Generalist work, great exit opportunities, exploring various industries, more strategy work. 

I was talking about "resume screening" not interviews. Also, I said mbb consulting or big 4. I was talking about financial due diligence, tax consulting, and audit work.But the cpa track in big 4 or bulge brcket (M&A advisory) is sort of consulting role.As you mentioned, it is great way to explain the industry experience on interview, but my main point was resume screening

Yes I think you phrased it better than me. Adding a bit of broader context here:

Consulting is a very broad, generalist job. You don't need experience with a specific industry, or to come in with strong understanding of financial modeling, or to have studied anything specific, or to have any certifications/formal skills. Everything they care about and want to assess with regards to problem solving/competence comes across in the case, and the personality/behavioral criteria are discussed in your interviews. They don't need you to show up and hit the ground having done consulting prior.

So when they're doing resume screening prior to talking to you, they're looking for signifiers that you are competent, high achieving and interesting. Also nobody is getting a performance review or reference from their summer internship so actual performance is not judged, just having completed the summer. It's hard to get a summer internship at Morgan Stanley, probably as hard/harder as getting a summer role at BCG, so they treat those two things as equal proof that you are high-achieving and competent. It's just exceptionally rare that someone who did a summer at one MBB is trying to recruit FT at another one (and overall banking class is bigger), so the IB SA kids make up a bigger portion of their applicants for FT.