Leveraging Startup Experiences in Tech Consulting
Hi all,
I recently graduated from UPenn with a 3.32 GPA in Science, Tech, and Society concentrated in Business and Info Tech. I chose the major because it allowed me to take a variety of classes in both Wharton and the engineering school, e.g. Entrepreneurship, Web Design, 3 CS classes, and Enabling Technologies.
I ended up withdrawing from a CS class in order to pursue a startup with a friend. We ended up launching two startups, one with about 1,000 users (and currently expanding), and the other was a B2B API startup. Our customers included a handful of medium stage companies and we were making about $12k a year until Facebook shut us down. We also received a YCombinator interview and met with FB M&A.
I am a decent programmer, an experienced designer, and am very familiar with most "technologies." I received final round interviews for Product Manager roles at both LinkedIn and Facebook, but didn't get them (both are difficult to get–FB has 80 PMs/4,000 employees).
Given the circumstances in my life, I've decided that I want to apply for tech consulting jobs. I just returned from a 2 month vacation, and I will be preparing to apply in the coming fall. I have my eyes on Deloitte's BTA role particularly (a good friend is the lead recruiter), but Accenture, IBM, Capgemini, Gartner, and a few other companies look appealing as well.
I have a few questions, feel free to answer them in a numbered format:
1. How should I leverage this experience in my interviews? I don't want to sound like I will inevitably leave the company early on to start my own company.
2. How should I prepare? To keep myself (really) busy this summer, I'm also taking Coursera's Algorithm and Intro to Databases courses. I'm genuinely interested in these subjects and I think it will help me look more technical since my major is not technically engineering.
3. Should I apply through Penn's career service site with all the other seniors? I realize my circumstance is probably slightly different, so any advice is appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
Apply online. Why are you different? You think you're the only one with a slightly different path? And sure learn more. Learning more helps, but don't expect them to believe your signal. I love Coursera too... but it can look childish to put it on a resume (I think) as there is no external validity. An exception to this is if you're able to create some interesting programmed code and make a portfolio. Lastly, I don't know what 'leveraging experience" means. But if I were you I would a.) put it in my resume and then b.) practice talking about it with a friend or mentor. That's probably about it.
You got this shit bro. You know what needs to be done. No more excuses: Get at it!
Thanks for your response.
I have a friend who is the lead recruiter at one of the companies and he said that I should wait until the fall to apply, and I should apply with the usual OCR (on campus recruiting) batch. He said applying online is generally a black hole.
I guess you're saying that's not the case, so I'm unsure now.
Bump
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