Management Consulting - Confused.

I'm kind of confused with management consulting. People on the forum often say that an MBA going to management consulting can earn at least $100 to 120k after b school. I have been working in the I.T. industry for awhile and often work with IT consultants in the industry (those consultants help clients to design and build the system for a specific business product as well as advice clients on certain IT strategies to meet business demands.) While many IT consultants whom I worked with worked for small, no brand firms, they were making easy $120 to 140k base. In addition, an IT professional with about eight to 10 years experience on some business technologies can also make easy $120 base. So, why would someone want to go to b school for consulting? Besides, many IT consultants out there get highly paid because of their technical expertise in the industry. Also, many IT consultants work with clients all the time, and many of them have the business skills to conduct business. I'm not sure whether the term "management consulting" is basically the same as the general consulting. What am I missing here? Please shed some lights. Thanks

 

IT consulting can have good salary, but there is a limit to how much you can earn (unless you make partner, etc).

In management consulting, you could have worked two years then b-school then M/B/B. That's 2 years of work experience and you're making $150k+, vs 6-10 yrs in IT consulting. Further, exit opportunities from management consulting are far superior and generally people find the work in management consulting much more interesting.

 

Thanks for replying. For example, let say Joe Doe wants to do management consulting in IT at M/B/B after b school. How does the work in management consulting at M/B/B be any different than an IT consultant who has 6-10 years of experience in IT? I'm guessing that in management consulting in IT, you still go to a client's site and to help them on some IT business strategies, right? I'm not sure. But in reality, if you work in IT for two years right out of college, you really dont have enough exposure (or even the opportunity to get exposed) of those hard-core business technologies in the industry. Then (What I don't understand) how can you get $120k base right out of b school with extremely limited exposure of thsoe hard-core stuff. How can a firm like M/B/B sends a consultant to a client's site to help them to solve business issues when that consultant (fresh out of b school) doesn't have the knowledge or experience on those hard core technologies to design business solutions? I'm not trying to argue, but I'm just confused and want to get a clear picture how what's going on. Thanks again.

 
doctortt:
Thanks for replying. For example, let say Joe Doe wants to do management consulting in IT at M/B/B after b school. How does the work in management consulting at M/B/B be any different than an IT consultant who has 6-10 years of experience in IT? I'm guessing that in management consulting in IT, you still go to a client's site and to help them on some IT business strategies, right? I'm not sure. But in reality, if you work in IT for two years right out of college, you really dont have enough exposure (or even the opportunity to get exposed) of those hard-core business technologies in the industry. Then (What I don't understand) how can you get $120k base right out of b school with extremely limited exposure of thsoe hard-core stuff. How can a firm like M/B/B sends a consultant to a client's site to help them to solve business issues when that consultant (fresh out of b school) doesn't have the knowledge or expereince on those hard core technologies for business solutions? I'm not trying to argue, but I'm just confused and want to get a clear picture how what's going on. Thanks again.

Management and IT consulting are not the same things, no idea what you're talking about. You don't hire MBB to do IT consulting; you hire an FOB Indian.

 
Best Response

Examples for management consulting projects, strictly not in any order but may give you an idea:

  1. Cut costs within an organisation by x%
  2. CEO wants to grow organically, what are the options
  3. CEO wants to grow through M&A, what are the options
  4. Company has divisions 1, 2 and 3, all of which have grown activities in field X, now company wants to group all X activities in one new division, how do you do this
  5. Rich Saudi guy wants an airline, here's $2BN, can you please make planes fly by 2012
  6. London is concerned with their competitiveness as a financial hub, can you please test whether they're still important by 2020
  7. Bono wants to collect funds and cure AIDS, how can he do this?
  8. Microsoft is mildly annoyed by Google taking over, how could they respond?

I think 'IT consulting' is essentially 'we've just decided to implement SAP, can you pls make sure this works?'. The only overlap that I see between IT and management consulting is that everyone's an SPG member, but that's where it stops.

 
Cartwright:
MC = the genetically engineered child of John Paulson and Ivanka Trump

IT C = the resulting bastard child of vikram pandit and ken lewis tag teaming an unemployed Dell call center employee.

Sigh... GTFU.

 

Management consulting is really an industry for people who are afraid of making decisions and aren't really all that good in business. No one really makes a career out of it. Graduates use it as a starting point to get into industry but I don't really understand why since its better to build up your profile and your reputation within industry rather then go via consulting route. Most people I met from MC weren't contemplating it long term and are often looked down by industry people once they go into that industry. It has always been beyond me why CEOs decide to hire bunch of kids from top schools who have no business experience and have degrees as diverse as history, politics, geography, chemistry and etc.-what can they possibly know about business? Not to mention that these kids burn out sooner then they think since they are really dealing with something they know nothing about and yet their bosses put huge deal of pressure on them to deliver something they can't. MCs are known in the industry for stating the obvious, for always suggesting firing employees in order to drive down the costs, reselling reports from previous clients, providing analysis reports that are of no use, lack of innovation, speed over quality, and yes, they love their power points. Most of the time they basically offer generic prepacked strategies that are often irrelevant for particular client. Why would anyone with a top quality MBA waste their talent in MC is beyond me. Never having to make decisions, never actually implementing any business strategy, never having to realize any targets-its really just so fake. They use some buzzword to make something extremely simple sound like a brain science. Haha But I guess we all have to make money some way, so its OK, I guess. Its better that then not doing anything with your career.

 
Hey-lo:
Management consulting is really an industry for people who are afraid of making decisions and aren't really all that good in business. No one really makes a career out of it. Graduates use it as a starting point to get into industry but I don't really understand why since its better to build up your profile and your reputation within industry rather then go via consulting route. Most people I met from MC weren't contemplating it long term and are often looked down by industry people once they go into that industry. It has always been beyond me why CEOs decide to hire bunch of kids from top schools who have no business experience and have degrees as diverse as history, politics, geography, chemistry and etc.-what can they possibly know about business? Not to mention that these kids burn out sooner then they think since they are really dealing with something they know nothing about and yet their bosses put huge deal of pressure on them to deliver something they can't. MCs are known in the industry for stating the obvious, for always suggesting firing employees in order to drive down the costs, reselling reports from previous clients, providing analysis reports that are of no use, lack of innovation, speed over quality, and yes, they love their power points. Most of the time they basically offer generic prepacked strategies that are often irrelevant for particular client. Why would anyone with a top quality MBA waste their talent in MC is beyond me. Never having to make decisions, never actually implementing any business strategy, never having to realize any targets-its really just so fake. They use some buzzword to make something extremely simple sound like a brain science. Haha But I guess we all have to make money some way, so its OK, I guess. Its better that then not doing anything with your career.

Don't worry, we all get rejected at some stage in life. With time, the pain will numb down...

 

Well, considering an MBA is probably most useful for MCs due to the networking... you're an ass.

"You stop being an asshole when it sucks to be you." -IlliniProgrammer "Your grammar made me wish I'd been aborted." -happypantsmcgee
 

^ maybe so. but i don't think that everyone who thinks that the value/worth of management consulting is dubious at best is a management consulting reject. just as not everyone who thinks investment banking is _ (insert some derogatory description) is a banking reject. i won't go into my own views on mc as they are quite irrelevant.

don't be insecure buddy. so someone on the internet gave you his opinion on management consulting. whatever.

 
islandoffmorocco:
^ maybe so. but i don't think that everyone who thinks that the value/worth of management consulting is dubious at best is a management consulting reject. just as not everyone who thinks investment banking is _ (insert some derogatory description) is a banking reject. i won't go into my own views on mc as they are quite irrelevant.

don't be insecure buddy. so someone on the internet gave you his opinion on management consulting. whatever.

Don't bother trying to counter the MCs. Their insecurities I witnessed many times LOL Poor defend strategy, the "reject" thing, anyhow. Typical, childish and unoriginal.

Well, as the last poster said, I indeed had my shot at MC, one of the big ones, soon after grad school, and no I didn't hate it, I just found it repetitive, moronic and completely uninspiring from business, creative and social aspect.

I wanted to say something because I've been following this web site for a while and often feel sorry for people with magnificent profiles posting questions about whether or not they are good enough for MC only to have bunch of MCs here, some of whom are just kids, tell them "yes" or "no" or who dare to give them advice. I only wonder why? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There is an old saying in industry and it goes "those who can't do, teach, and those who can't teach, consult" LOL

 

or maybe he worked in it and hated it... like that guy that was in PE and hated it and is now switching to construction or something

i think its funny that hey-lo opened an account just to make that comment... he must really hate MC

looking for that pick-me-up to power through an all-nighter?
 

^^ Lol, no guys, Im starting at an ibank in a week or so, never did MC and don't plan to. I am well aware of all the critique on the subject, and I do agree with most of the points raised. But the venom coming out of that post hinted strongly towards some emotional trauma behind it. Just felt like calling it out.

And to give this discussion a little balance - two ways MC are actually usefull. One, they can bring unbiased opinion to an environment riddled with personal games and politics. Two, they do things on a regular basis that people within industry only get to deal with once or twice in a career (designing distribution channels, acquisitions) - and experience is valuable.

Three - they pat the CEO on the back when he feels insecure and give him a scapegoat come the next shareholder meeting after the briliant 'laptops with cupholders!' project totally backfired (...McKinsey said it would make millions, so how was I supposed to know?).

See? Tons of good reasons to hire an MBB guy. Also heard they do plumbing.

 

I think the criticisms above have a lot of truth...but it really doesn't matter. Value add or not, decision makers or not, the exit opportunities are tremendous and it's a highly respected starting place. Kind of like arguing that X isn't the best business school even though it is ranked #1. Well, whether it is or is not, perception is (almost) all that matters - and the perception of MC at the MBB level is very strong.

Definitely 100% true that the vast majority of people don't make a career out of it, hence the "alumni" section on every MC's website. Not many other industries tout the success of those who no longer work for them.

 

From my experience: 1. Client doesn't always know the obvious. Many times that's the only place they have worked (or have been for 20+ years) and don't know what's going on in outside world. When a pretty obvious idea was presented, I even heard something along the line of "Just because everyone else is doing it, doesn't mean it's right". It was a very simple, true and tried suggestion. 2. Layoffs are truly needed in most cases. Most employees don't have the right skills/competence to do what they are supposed to do (client often doesn't even know what they are supposed to do), and they are just grandfathered in. There is a problem when a department has 30 people, only 3-4 seems to be doing anything and if you ask what they are working on, they don't really have an answer. There are many others you'd see when you actually show up at a client site and spend some quality time there, and that justifies my job to me. We even had jokes like "As long as they are working, we'll always have a job".

To give you a quick idea, in normal times 5% are unemployed. That leaves 45% employed below average at worst. Assuming this bottom 45% are not all doing very basic tactical functions, these is a large number of below average people that always needs some MC servicing, as elitist as it might sound.

 

as an outsider, it seems like a lot of people misunderstand what management consulting is, at least as far as i understand it. consultants are not hired for their judgment, so "extensive business experience" is almost irrelevant. it's not their decision whether or not to implement the things they recommend: that's the ceo's job. they're hired to answer a question, usually with some form of concrete data, not to grade that answer.

who cares if someone's a freshly minted english major with no industry experience if they have hard statistics and concrete examples of peer companies who've tried similar things and had great success with them in hand?

put another way, no one would dream of attacking a prosecutor's argument by saying it was his first year on the job, and therefore couldn't have anything valuable to say; they would argue with the evidence he presented. ad hominem is simply a weak argument. now, does his experience affect the quality of the evidence he can marshal? perhaps, but not necessarily.

@ abacab

you're right, although i would have phrased it differently. jack welch said that in most large companies, a minimum of 10% of the workforce can be trimmed and revenue would actually INCREASE (he essentially says that bad employees get in everybody's way and are actually a liability), to say nothing of the profits generated by the lower labor costs. this isn't always because the employees are lazy: sometimes people are poorly suited to the type of job that they have (ie, a entrepreneurial person stifled by a regimented corporate environment). a person fired from a sales job may find great success as an accountant due to it being better suited to their temperament and skills, or vice versa. firing can sometimes be a long-term kindness.

usually the company keeps these employees because they don't want the hassle of firing them, and then has to overcompensate during recessions or industry downturns by cutting entire divisions filled with many quality employees. preemptive action can prevent this.

 

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