Long Term MBB vs. Tech Consulting
Forgive me if I sound a bit uneducated on this; I'm on this forum looking for the perspective of someone in the consulting industry.
This thread was sparked by a conversation I had yesterday. A friend from the bay area mentioned that a friend of a friend recently fired consultants from McKinsey and replaced them with Accenture Strategy consultants because the consultants from McKinsey were not knowledgeable enough in tech and the Accenture people had a higher value-add. The background of the CEO was that he and two college classmates had started and sold a tech company earlier and were on their second one. They lacked management experience and looked for consultants, but found that the tech experience of the Accenture team made them more valuable. This got me thinking of long term career choices and possibly choosing to develop a tech consulting background early in one's career rather than going to a generalist firm. As a whole, tech consultants will never be unemployed, and tech is obviously the future and growing rapidly, offering a wide variety of freedom in developing a career. It certainly pays to overestimate the growth of tech positions early in one's career, because in the long run it could wind up being incredibly lucrative. So I wanted to know what everyone's thoughts were on possibly going for a tech consulting role very early in one's career rather than going the generalist route.
Some thoughts I have are that pros of doing this are that you will never have to worry about being "on the beach" and will likely have an overwhelming amount of freedom in how your career develops just because of your skillset. Additionally, working with emerging markets would be a very lucrative option (this is just something I'm interested and not necessarily something that every aspiring consultant is interested in though). Obviously there's always the reality that if someone moves through a generalist firm they have the option to specialize just a few years later in their career, and you don't run the risk of being pigeonholed early in your career. If you're coming out of MBB, it would be very easy to transition with that name on your resume.
I'm not trying to start a contest of firm prestige in the comments, everyone at an MBB/T2/Big 4 firm is extremely fortunate to be there and anyone would be lucky to find a position consulting there. But what I'm asking is, at least in the long run, is tech consulting a more lucrative career path than it gets credit for?
Why would you expect management consultants to have in depth knowledge on tech?
I wouldn't generalize this specific case on the entire industry. Based on the numbers, I wouldn't understand why mgmt consulting AND tech couldn't both be "the future". They're not exclusive.
Anyways, I'm not sure about Bain but I know about McK Digital and similar BCG programs - not sure how techy these actually are though.
Now onto your actual topic: I agree with you, I have always been a believer that a technological background is important and makes you a much more interesting profile than generic business major/mgmt consultant. Tech people can more easily adopt their skill set than the other way around.
Management Consulting vs Technology Consulting (Originally Posted: 08/22/2018)
Hi all,
What are the main differences between Big 4 Management Consulting and Technology Consulting? I know they both fall under the general line of service of 'Advisory', but was hoping to gain some insight on some differences, including exit opps., and overall job description.
Not sure how insightful this will be, but one of my best friends works in TC at (LEK/OW/Accenture) and she's made it clear that if you're not into technology that it's not the right gig for you. To give you an idea of the work, her last engagement required her to parse the data and write code to reconcile an error with cash registers that mispriced tax by a penny for every individual transaction in each store location of a F100 retailer. She does not have a CS/tech background and did all of her learning (python, SQL, SAP) on the job. Her hours are fairly consistent at ~55/wk with harsher weeks closer to 70hrs during an implementation. Travel is dependent on the staffing model of the individual firm, where a regionally focused model will lend you a bit better of a lifestyle (not flying twice weekly), and a geographically agnostic staffing model will have you in an airport Sunday and Thursday evenings. This is obviously looking from the outside in, but I feel I have a good understanding as we've had a fair amount of flight delay phone calls.
Thanks so much for the insights - definitely helpful. Do you think the technology consulting divisions that fall under advisory in the Big 4 are similar?
Nulla cumque totam est doloremque. Expedita at maiores saepe ut omnis corrupti.
Ut omnis tempora iusto commodi. Eum dolorum tenetur quo vel esse dolorum molestiae repudiandae. Sit voluptatem eum rerum excepturi dolores ab quibusdam quidem.
Quia alias ut autem ex eligendi reprehenderit quo. Laudantium modi sint delectus voluptatem nesciunt. Nemo voluptatem repudiandae et aut tempore.
Fugit consequatur molestiae est. Omnis incidunt nam nesciunt nulla eos et occaecati. Expedita veritatis consequuntur non sit. Dolorum dolore incidunt voluptate voluptas quas a ut aut. Possimus expedita laborum vero id corporis accusamus rerum. Modi non ex eos soluta natus. Ea ut quasi omnis.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...