I'm looking to get into consulting with only about 1 year of work experience after undergraduate. I currently work in the Midwest at a Fortune 100 CPG company as a financial analyst. I like finance but would like broader exp before business school and am also looking to move out of the Midwest.
Went to a good liberal arts school in Midwest and had 3.65GPA but it is relatively unheard of outside of its' metro area. Wasn't sure what I wanted to do after school and didn't have many consulting opportunites so I continued from my summer internship and joined a great finance program.
Had one connection into Deloitte and did very well on the first interview. During the final round was thrown by the amount of math and fell apart trying to keep all of the info straight.
I would love to hear insight on how to best position myself for a job at a top 5 firm. Two possible options I can see are:
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Sell myself as a entry level candidate with 1 year of successfull work expeience at a good company. I could try to get into the Fall recruiting schedule with the senior class and get interviews by showing that while I didn't go to an Ivy League, I already work at a great place and have had success.
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Be an experienced hire. I know little about this process or if it even happens often at the entry level. How do I make contact? When do they look exp hires? What can I expect the recrut=iting process to look like?
Any insights would be greatly appreciated!
given the slow rebounding of the US economy, I would not target MBB or similar large consulting firms immediately, especially since there are a number of seniors in colleges from better schools lining up to become entry level analysts. Your 1 yr in corp fin notwithstanding, you really don't have a compet advantage compared ot them. My rec is to leverage your industry knowledge int eh CPG firm you're at and whatever finance skills you've built up, practice case prep exhaustively, and target smaller more niche consulting firms that also do strategy/mgmt consulting type work. There are a number of smaller mid market players, and their turnover is as high as MBB as most of those analysts go on to b-school. Undoubtedly, you will need to also get a top MBA if you want to be successful in mgmt consulting, a lackluster MBA brand will be a signifant barrier to your career, so be sure to goto top 10 or keep re-applying until you get in.
Good Luck!
Consulting is about two things - (1) billing and (2) travel. Show willingness to do both and I don't care who you are, someone will hire you.
Thread closed.
BingoBango i like statement
Goinggolfing - I was in the same position as you. After almost a year of experience, I switched to a Tier 1/2 consulting firm - but joined as an entry level consultant. I think you should try for the same - experienced hires usually have at least 3-4 years of experience and/or an MBA.
Cheers
Bbjhva - glad to hear it can be done! What was your strategy to get interviews? Alumni network? Did you enter during the college recruiting process or off cycle?
Definitely can be done. Dude I networked via cold emails and playing the "I'm joining as an entry level consultant but will bring a year of experience from a boutique consulting firm" to it. I was not from a target school but graduated in the top percentile of my class which helped. Also, I practiced case interviews like a demon and I reckon I did pretty well in those.
So my advice to you would be network and aim to GET INTERVIEWS. Meanwhile, practice case interviews like hell and if it's meant to be, you'll sneak in.
Is there anything to be said for applying to offices lower in prestige? I would assume new York, Boston, chicago would be more desirable but does that make them tougher to land or is it a wash because they have more staff?
It won't make a difference in a real consulting firm. Most firms practice hoteling so your location is really somewhat irrelevant. When I was working for IBM, they basically said that they didn't care where you lived as long as you were near an airport. Read my previous reply to you - you're thinking about this in the wrong way. Just focus on your replies for interviews towards (1) billing and (2) travel. That's all consulting is and that's how you get hired - stop thinking about "prestige" and all that other crap.
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fyi US hiring of top consulting firm offices is much more competitive than hiring in intl offices. So be sure to qualify your recommendations based on the geographic locations of the offices to which you are applying. MBB in Europe is like Accenture and Deloitte in the US to give you an idea.
If I've got 6 months before the recruiting cycles start up is there anything I can do to better my chances? Are there many volunteer consulting opportunities outside of college? When should I start to network? Is it better to build a relationship through an email or two now and then coffee to get an interview or should I wait till the timing is closer?
Start getting those informational (coffee) meetings now. Start networking now. I would ask to sit down for a meeting in the first email.
Ok its been a few weeks, I've been networking and have had phone conversations with about 10 college alumni at top 5 firms. I've gotten referrals to HR for three firms but haven't heard from them on interviewing, should I be making an effort to keep the process going?
I'm worried that nagging the contacts I've made (have only had 1 phone conversation with each of them) to give me HR contact info or an update will sour the connection, but at the same time don't want to lose any momentum I might have after getting an offer of help.
One firm is huge and likely has a lot of turnover and positions available but i have heard the HR process can be really slow, the others are smaller and my contacts have said there aren't currently positions available but that HR now has my resume. What do I do?
On another front, I'm preparing for my next finance rotation at my current job. My ultimate goal is to attend a top MBA program so would a Corp Strategy or Corp M&A role look better than joining a Tier 2 consulting firm?
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