Management consulting from social science
Hi, I am scheduled to complete my PhD in a social science discipline next fall and made the decision to not pursue a career in higher education as I initially planned. Since learning about management consulting several months ago, I have been very intrigued by the opportunities this field offers and have been doing everything I can to prepare myself for applying next year. I've spoken to people an MBB and they've all said that I am eligible to apply for their advanced professional positions next summer and that is what I intend to do. This gives me about eleven months to prepare and I want to best utilize my time. I was wondering if anyone could offer any advice on how I should be spending the year to improve my chances? Thus far, I've been reading everything I can about management consulting and MBB in particular, learning the key frameworks, trying to improve my business knowledge and awareness of key terms, and getting my feet wet with practicing cases.
Any other advice would be extremely helpful. Even if I don't land a job at MBB, I still intend to apply elsewhere in the fall of 2018. Thanks in advance.
Hi Sezna,
"how I should be spending the year to improve my chances" is a very broad question, and so you would either probably get broad responses or no responses at all.
There is a wealth of information available on this forum. You can start by checking out the Hall of Fame (while the contexts of applicants might differ, e.g. non-target undergrad or lateral hire etc - i feel the key principles behind the advice are often very similar): https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/wso-hall-of-fame-consulting-forum
You could also use the search function as well.
Then, if there is any specific questions or burning issues you feel are not covered by any existing threads, post them and i'm sure the community will be willing to help.
Humanities/Social Science MA from HYPS Recruiting into MBB or Big4 Possibilities? (Originally Posted: 02/18/2018)
Hi Everyone, this is my first post here so please be kind
So I'm a senior at a non-target (top 30 liberal arts school on the East Coast) double majoring in a social science and humanities field (think IR or Government, and a language). I just got into one of the HYPS schools for a 2 year master's program in my major field that is neither super technical nor quantitative (but I have the options of taking classes at the business school at the institution). Would I have a shot at breaking into consulting at MBB? How about the big4? The thing is, I only had a summer capitol hill internship my sophomore year, and did a summer language programs the other years (fluent in that other foreign language now), so lack of experience is definitely a stumbling block.
Could you guys please provide some advice on what the possibilities are for me and what I need to do in order to get there? Would the move be to get a summer internship with a big 4 firm after my first year at the master's program, then leverage that and the HYPS school name to try to get into MBB at on campus recruiting? Would I even have a shot at a summer internship with my lack of experience?
Thank you in advance and any advice would be appreciated!
Hey kcc010, I swear if I had a silver banana for every lonely thread I posted too I'd be richer than @compbanker ...
No promises, but thought I'd mention a few relevant users that work in the industry: leo06242002 Ray Velcoro Italianmonkey
Fingers crossed that one of those helps you.
I think yes, as long as you do enough networking by yourself. I am a math and econ double major and I'm getting into a top 25 east coast master of finance program, potentially better schools and better programs, but I don't mean to show off since this is WSO. I just want to say that we all got a chance.
Undergrad Business => Masters in a Social Science from HYPS type of school => banking/consulting? (Originally Posted: 10/05/2010)
Hi,
So basically, I'm at a non-target and having had no luck getting internships at boutiques and other smaller firms, I've been thinking about what else I can do to try and break into finance. One thing that I have recently thought of is that maybe, and I want you all to judge the practicality of this, I can try to get into a masters program in a social science (i.e. something Asia related because I am actually leaning toward pursuing a career in Asia) and try and use the prestigious name on my resume and perhaps leverage that into getting an offer at a bank? I already have finance coursework and experience on my resume and I think that what I generally lack is name branding, which I could add IF I get accepted to the program. Here's a list of pros and cons as I see them and please critique them/tell me how feasible both the pros and cons are:
Pros: +Will add a much needed high-caliber school to the resume +Will make me more unique in that I won't just be a standard excel junkie +Allow me to study something I enjoy instead of just re-learning stuff in an MBA/Masters in Finance or Accounting program and I can always get an MBA if further career progression is needed +Since I want to go back to Asia, it might help me learn more about what I'm getting into, the history, what life is like, etc. even though I've already worked there.
Cons: -It will be expensive in terms of tuition and opportunity cost to complete the program -No guarantee that I will have access to finance OCR recruiting as a masters student in something other than finance/economics. -If I don't get into the program, I'll be stuck with a GRE score, a crappy undergrad, no job and being unable to apply to other programs unless I take the GMAT, which will require even more time and wasted energy to MAYBE score well on. -It might seem weird to go from finance => a social science => finance again, but I think the story I'm spinning could potentially work.
So let me know if you think. Should I maybe consider it, or should I be slapped for even thinking of something like this? My only other option is to really leverage my family network in my home and hope that they can come up with something, because thus far, my efforts have been futile on my own.
I think it is a decent idea, but realize you will have an odd resume and a lot of times odd=no job. Also, suppose you went to Harvard and did this. You would be competing with UG's as well as Harvard MBA's who would all be more normal candidate. You would most likely be ranked below the more traditional students. If you don't get a job right away you run the risk of having a pretty odd ball resume. Just my .02 cents.
Well you could go into consulting after your masters degree, then go to top 10 bschool, then finance.
Grad School Major is supposed to be more relevant to your career path than Undergrad Major. It could work out but I agree with Anthony that it's risky. The comparable masters program at Harvard that you're considering is 2 years long, requires moderate east asian language proficiency to graduate and would likely run 100k for tuition+expenses. So its a high price to pay and not just literally. If you're interested you should minor/take elective classes at your university in something related to be competitive for admission since a pure business student with no previous asian studies experience/academics would probably be denied admission.
OK, I guess its probably just not to even go there. 100k and 2 years of potentially lost wages/networking time for questionable opportunity at best probably isn't worth even the "Harvard grad" on my resume. So what would you recommend someone like me do? Nobody at my school really gets into banking/consulting and the ones that do either don't return my emails or said they couldn't help out and my own local shops haven't been that useful either, probably because I'm not on the east coast and thus they have low dealflow and aren't really hiring. Should I maybe apply to east coast boutiques for the summer, even though I'm at a non-target that isn't even in that region (thus they will be unfamiliar with it)? Otherwise, what else can be done? I'm already exploring F500s, but I'm not sure how good of a shot, aside from the 2-3 that recruit at my school, I'll have at those either since GE and all aren't easy to get into.
MIT or Princeton MFin?
Maybe look at a MA in Econ at an Ivy league school
MFE if you are mathematically inclined
I'm definitely not smart enough nor do I have the mathematical background/Eng background for an MFE and probably won't get into MIT/Princeton MFIN. I could maybe look at an MA in Econ, but I'm not sure how easy that will be with an undergrad degree in accounting/finance versus economics since I probably won't have enough math unless I really, really crank out math courses these next few terms.
I am, however, interested in other things as well, such as brand management. So I could maybe do a masters in marketing from a place like HEC Paris, go into brand management after, get an MBA, change career, profit. But I actually really, really am interested in real estate and would want to do real estate private equity someday investing in distressed or riskier assets in emerging markets. So I could potentially explore doing a masters in real estate program from Columbia or something like that. Would that be a decent choice maybe? Also, does anyone know anything about Real Estate I-banking? I kind of know what real estate PE is, but what is RE banking?
stfu and network like we did
best advice of the day
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