When to know you should give up?
If you've seen my post history, you'll have seen I've done everything humanely possible to get into a strategy consulting role for a few years now. That... has not worked out.
I've taken every advice that I provide on this forum - tailored application package reviewed by industry professionals, networked consultants and managers with ~100+ coffee chats each bout of applications, and ~30-50 mock interviews for consulting leading up to the few opportunities I get.
After failing to even pass the HR chat, despite touching on all the right themes and having spoken to consultants in the teams I hoped to be joining and getting stone-walled by every goddamn firm about any f*cking way to improve my answer, I've decided it may be time to consider a different career path.
The process doesn't leave any room for feedback, I'm unsure if they simply preferred someone with a strategy experience or if there's something I'm not seeing in my answers or interviews. For context, I always request feedback post-interview and I've never had any firm actually provide it. I'm not worth their time for some f*cking reason.
I'm not sure I have the experience or ability to even get into Investment Banking and I just recently received unfavourable news of various back-end positions and the firms commented they found others who were a better fit. I imagine they may simply be the fact they had more relevant experiences.
I also find the consulting interview process to be the most inane process to have ever existed. It doesn't represent anything - not any ability to think, it completely ignores the ability to research or prepare presentations or clean data as a business case would show and it's gotten so rigid that there is an entire industry created for passing these interviews. When going through this once, it's not terrible, you study for a month or two, get really good for a few weeks, and then NEVER use that goddamn sh*t again. But when you have infrequent interivews, or god-forbid request with the Middle East who's timeline extend 2-3 months, it becomes a constant headache to think "can I solve this case the way these people predict?" I say "these people predict" because I've noticed that managers have their own styles of how they expect you to dissect the case - they have preferences towards case styles.
With the onslaught of crappy news and what feels like a dead end, I've decided to contemplate other career paths. The "Great Resignation" came and went and tbh, Canada was more or less unaffected by this "great opportunity to switch", but it may just be my lack of FT experience as well. The job market has shrunk from an already abysmal state.
Has anyone else felt this stuck before? I've done everything possible for the chance to work in a field I've spent two years breaking into and now, I'm told to "sit and wait" for another year, pay ~$50-100k for MBA to then re-recruit a good ~3-4 years later in a country that doesn't pay good wages to begin with. I'm also in a niche operations consulting role that I don't plan to specialize in, if I sit too long, then my opportunities to get into strategy consulting will be shot once more.
tl;dr - no luck anywhere for too long, career switch?
Edit: the literal feedback I received: "we feel we have other candidates align more closely with the role.". Catch 22 vibes.
Usually people go back and get an MBA if they want to get into more competitive consulting positions. While it is a big investment, you will make good money depending on the school you graduate from. Maybe not as much as banking. But still good money
ok, couple of things from my end...
I love Canada, have lived there for years and found the culture, nature and people to be truly amazing.
But...:
- Canada was the *only* country I couldn't land a job in, I had to keep the one job I had which was a transfer from London, UK.
- Canada has an incredible amount of young, educated and intelligent applicants in relation to the number of roles. Sometimes this will affect your interview experience. Everyone is moving to Canada because the visa/PRs are easy to get and citizenship is straight after that. It has very few barriers if you study there as well. There aren't enough jobs or houses for all the people moving to Canada.
- Location: I was told my chances would be better outside of Ontario, if I would be willing to move. So I flew around the country from New Brunswick to Alberta, just to figure out that they don't really recognize my top tier BB experiences from the US or the UK. Apparently that wasn't good enough?
- Often, Canadian hiring managers are looking for the "perfect candidates", even more than in other work climates.
- Lack of recognition of foreign credentials or a lower recognition.
- Strong focus on local education and work experience as well.
- Bay street is not E14 or Wall Street - it is a significantly smaller town with a smaller job market and fewer opportunities.
At that time I had almost a decade of finance, PE and VC experience. Maybe it wasn't the right market or location, who knows.
I wish you best of luck, but I would maybe focus on a different slice of the corporate cake.
I've said this before, I'll say it again. I hate this sh*t country. The jobs are obscenely difficult to get for sh*t pay.
Canada is an amazing country if you are..
- a tradesman (plumber, carpenter, electrician, etc) and skilled at what you do. You will have more contracts than time.
- a nurse or doctor, because of the significant shortage and quickly increasing population due to immigration
- self-employed and in an in-demand area, mostly IT or something like that. Devs probably find work easier.
- a founder of a start-up which is either selling a digital product or service or can work based on the population in The 6.
- an owner/operator of a small business or franchise, this might work if the location is right.
- an intl. student from abroad who will acquire PR and citizenship post degree. Easiest route to live in a Western country, they will work any job just to say they have PR in the West.
If a young or foreign person is educated, with experience and high expectations looking for a corporate job.. I would be worried for them. This might not work out at all.
I met loads of Canadian gig economy workers with good degrees - probably the one country with the most qualified pizza delivery guys.
Canada is still a very young country with a bright future, it just doesn't have the job opportunities or compensation like other nations.
Just to add another bit of data: I spent almost three years trying to find a job in Canada (in any province) and couldn't find anything. It was the most ridiculous job search of my entire life.
One day, I woke up in a shabby motel in St. Johns, almost all houses around me looked entirely disheveled. The small company that invited me had EIGHT interview rounds and then wanted to meet face to face to "deliberate" about the outcome. Step NINE was a tour of their premises and meeting the colleagues and management - I was the ONLY candidate because no sane person would ever consider leaving Toronto for a socially disadvantaged neighborhood in the Maritimes.
They did not make an offer because they needed someone better, a better match to the role....
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