Advisory (big 4) to Management Consulting after 1 yr (future goal: MBA - entrepreneurship or not-for-profit)
Hi WSO,
As I'm new to this forum (and relatively new to the professional world in general), I'd appreciate any insights from more experienced professionals in consulting; Here's the situation:
I just finished up my first year in risk advisory in one of the big 4s. I come from Economics/Math background at a top public university in the country, and was looking only for strategy/management consulting during undergrad recruiting season. Due to tough competition and my status as an international student, I couldn't land a position in MBB after getting through several second-round interviews with a few tier1 & 2 firms that do sponsor work Visa. I ended up accepting an offer from a big 4 risk advisory practice that I naively thought would be similar to consulting, but was terribly mistaken since the work was basically internal audit. I was also preparing for a certification for internal auditor but decide to give it up after passing 2 parts - I constantly feel I'm wasting my time doing this boring and useless exam.
After one year I know for sure I would have to get out - I'm done with GMAT with a decent score (720+) and will be aiming at top 5-10 MBA down the road (possibly after working 3-4 years). I also earned magna cum laude for my degree in Economics during undergrad and try to get as much experience in not-for-profit area as possible since I'm very interested in nonprofit work (had an internship during college at a well-known nonprofit doing development work and loved it), and I know it'd help me with MBA application too.
My question is: How should I position myself as I start (once again) looking into strategy/management consulting? I'm experienced with case interviews (as those were the only interviews i went through during college, except for, of course, the interview for my current job..), but still need to catch up on it as it's been almost 2 years since I touched any cases.
My long term goal is to start my own business or getting into nonprofit management. Possibly the little accounting knowledge I have gained at big four will help with starting a business, but for some reason I know if I keep working my current job I'm just going down the wrong path.. for either short-term goal (strategy consulting - MBA) or long-term goal (entrepreneurship/nonprofit work; I’m passionate about music and hope to do business/nonprofit related to music).
Thanks for reading this lengthy message! Any advice is greatly appreciated!
If your long-term goal, which I assume makes you the happiest, why are you concerned with strategy consulting?
Is it the money? Proving you 'can' handle it? I'm just curious why strategy consulting when you're long-term goal is non-profit. While it would surely help develop you, why not go right to non-profit work?
Also, I'd finish your Internal Audit certificate, never hurts to have it on the resume and the skills can come in handy off and on in a career - especially as big data becomes more important. Having clean, usable information for analytics is quite an advantage to large organizations - non-profits included.
Thank you TylerT for the reply!
To respond to your first couple of questions: I'm hoping to stay in the US with a couple years of work experience, and to be honest no nonprofit would have the budget to sponsor my work Visa at this point. But in the meantime, I understand there is some leeway around this so I definitely would not stop looking at nonprofits and nonprofit consulting too (Bridgespan Group).
In addition, I consider myself as a big-picture person and strategy consulting helps develop critical thinking and familiarity with the business world (as mentioned I come from social sciences background). After interning at the big nonprofit during college, I realize the connection between running a nonprofit and running a business - despite the different end goal, the strategic toolkit & concerns have a lot of similarities. As I would also love to explore starting my own business down the road, strategy consulting would offer an excellent opportunity to develop necessary skill sets, especially from a high-level perspective.
Correct me if I'm wrong since I've never really worked in the industry, but would love to hear perspectives from professionals.
As I'm interested in music, and just about anything in the cultural sector (film making, record label company, music business, theater, publishing company, etc.), perhaps consulting in media & entertainment would be a starting point?
Thanks again!
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