Hi all,
I am wondering what are the opportunities available for entry level positions in the top consulting firms? McKinsey/Bain/Boston/Booz?
From my (or complete lack of) knowledge, most of these consulting firms do not really hire large numbers straight out of UG. Most get some work experience...and then move in. If this is true, what are some paths/careers to focus on? Also, MBA/B-School...will it help?
This may be a lost cause as I am an Econ Major, 3.255 GPA (Started in Pharm School!), from a non-target. No banking experience. Although I'm currently at BlackRock Ops and will be doing Finance at Lehman this summer. My resume isn't too shabby, but nowhere CLOSE to the top-tier students. I am just curious, since the field does interest me, perhaps I could always keep it in mind for the future.
Getting into MBB out of undergrad is just as competitive (if not moreso due to the small number of 'top firms - 3) as IB. All of these mgmt consulting shops do recruit heavily out of UG for entry-level positions.
Some random thoughts:
-I work for one of the firms you mentioned and I graduated from a target. From my observations and experiences on both sides with recruiting teams, I think it is much harder to get in from a non-target in consulting than it is in banking. You will generally hear of very few people using alumni networks to get interviews, etc. For the last recruiting cycle, the "worst" schools I saw resumes from were WashU and UCLA; and that is 1 each out of about 100 resumes. The UCLA kid had interned at a MBB Asia office and the WashU kid had interned at JPM IBD, just to give you an idea (>3.8 GPA, 1400+ SAT was a given).
-Business school recruiting is much more defined and having seen b-school recruiting first hand, if you go to a MBA business schools ">M7, you demonstrate a strong interest in consulting and you make an active effort to get recruited, you have a very good chance of landing at a top strategy firm.
-If management consulting is something you have your heart set on, do not try and transfer in at the analyst level. There are no guarantees and you do not want to be typecast as "that IT guy from IBM", etc. Your best bet is to have a good job, do b-school and then make the jump- if it is industry, make sure to work in an industry where you would also like to consult in because you will almost definitely be given that sort of project work at the post-MBA level.
I don't want to discourage you but given your profile it will be extremely tough to get a strategy gig...
Good insight ideating. Thanks.
You talked about undergrad and b-school recruitment, but how about lateral hires (from banking to consulting)? Say, after one or two years. Do such opportunities exist?
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