Want to be in Ops. Is IB to Consulting a Waste?
Current 2nd year IB analyst. Want to switch to operations. My question:
If I want to get into operations, is going IB --> consulting a waste? Should I / can I bypass consulting by going to an Ops position at a company?
On one hand:
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Consulting will likely have the same feel to it as IB (Excel, PowerPoint)
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Consulting isn't operations, per se. It's serving clients, making them happy no matter what, and collecting fees, just like in IB. You don't really give a shit about how well clients do.
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I will have already "done my time" in IB. Further "doing my time" in consulting feels like a waste compared to going straight into an Ops position at a company.
On the other hand:
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Consulting is a very easy jumping off point to Ops positions in a number of companies across a number of industries
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I'm not sold on any particular industry as of now. While I have some ideas, the only thing I know for certain is I definitely don't want to continue with my coverage group's industry.
Given all this, if I want to do Ops work, would going IB --> Consulting be a waste?
Thanks
Not too familiar with where you're located/what type of consulting you're considering but maybe you could look into Operations Consulting? I know MBB & T2 focus more on strategy but I believe Kearney, Big 4, LEK do a bit of work related to the operational side of things for clients.
What is an operations role called at an F500? is it just called operations? -- I've never heard of ops roles, always assumed they were BO like at a BB. So, really appreciate your insight/examples
There's a bunch of names for it..
In tech, you have Strat&Ops professionals who specialise in the "ops" part of that combination and are usually housed in a specific vertical like Product, Marketing, Sales, Customer, Finance etc or in a general "BizOps" role. Startups also sometimes just call it "Ops". You also have Program Managers who similarly are focused on Ops.
Work is largely process improvement, function enablement, optimising systems, improving efficiency and generally doing whatever needs to be done to improve they way a function or the business operates in order to accommodate growth.
In other sectors it could be focused on Supply Chain / Logistics, Production Management or Workforce Planning / Optimisation (for service businesses). Or more IT focused like a Business Analyst type role where you're refining the way certain internal processes work. Obviously we all know about Ops in financial services firms. Some companies also just have generalist "Operations Manager" roles.
It can also be a bit of a misnomer label sometimes. People in finance often refer to Corporate Management leaders (CFO, VP HR, CMO, VP Strategy & CorpDev etc), Domain Leaders (Product, Brand, Content etc), General Managers (i.e. CEO, Head of a BU / Region) or Entrepreneurs as "Operators".
It's one of those extremely vague words that needs to be more clearly defined by whoever is uttering it otherwise it's pretty much meaningless.
Go straight Ops. Consultants have near 0 actual Ops exposure and can't manage real teams that don't consist of talented, self-motivated workaholics who'll do anything to please their boss. Very different than making a team of uninspired 30-50 yo's do something they don't want to day in day out. I'm ex MBB
This makes sense. I think this is the approach I'll ultimately take. Do you agree with the idea that consulting from my position would be more of "doing your time" like IB when it doesn't have to be that way, i.e. can easily go into ops from IB and that's a fine and dandy path?
I say the same thing all the time
Really well said, agree with this guy.
The only reason to choose CO is because you want to delay gratification and enter the corporate ladder a rung higher after 3-5y in ops than you otherwise would.
Ea fugiat laborum vero ab reprehenderit iste quae. Quidem qui id maiores. A nulla eligendi occaecati minus.
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