MBB entrance opp coming from Big 4 Audit/Consulting, already have non-top-tier MBA

How did you do both advisory and audit work in your Big 4?

Not going to happen. You just aren't going to get into MBB as an early career experienced hire, especially not from a marginal audit/advisory job. It's an unfortunate reality, and a shame that you blew your MBA bullet.

If you work hard enough, you could possibly get into some Tier 2/3 shops that are closer to what you do, like an Oliver Wyman, Deloitte S&O, Alix Partners, but even that won't be easy, and will certainly be tough to get on the pure consulting gigs once at those places.

Disclaimer: I worked very hard to do this, after having gone from Deloitte Audit --> S&O, and had the ear of Directors/Principals, who all told me to go to one of the target b-schools and that they'd help me once I got there.

Also, consider an MSF? Others on this board are very knowledgeable about the opportunities coming out of those programs. I'd imagine that an MSF could open some doors that you can't open right now, although I'm not so sure about MBB.

Thanks for the advice. Yes, basically just needed an MBA to break into any business-related career, since I only had a science background and wanted to change direction. Sadly, I did this only after I had finished undergrad. Should have just worked somewhere and then done the MBA, but I literally knew nothing about how any of these things worked or the right way to get there. I'm kind of stuck now and looking for something hopefully more satisfying and financially rewarding, and a respectable consulting role seems to check the boxes of what I'm looking for.

The MSF is so heavily geared towards individuals with little work experience, though. I know a lot of individuals who did MSF either directly following undergrad or 1-2 years out to do a career switch. Not sure what the age + the MBA before MSF will signal to potential employers. Can we get @TNA on this question?

Figured that was the case. Schools really don't let you know what you're in for or what doors your closing by doing an MBA right after college (love those $$$). They easily could have funneled you into a MACC and you could be doing the same thing you're doing now, with the MBA option still on the table.

@TNA seems to be the goto guy for all things MSF related on the Business School Board. Would see what he was to see about the usefulness of one in your situation.

IMO, MBB is about brand as much as it is about ability. Outside of MIT, maybe UT Austin has brand enough to help you get into these consulting shops.

If you did an MSF I would down play your MBA as much as possible on your resume.

Personally, I don't think the MSF is worth the risk for you. Why not just keep working at the job you have, get some experience and go to a Tier 2 consulting shop. Maybe in 3-5 years do another MBA. I know MBA programs frown on this, but I believe they make exceptions for people who do MBA's young and international programs.

If that doesn't work, check out MIT's MS in Management. It is set up for people with international MBA's. I believe there are a few other programs which basically sell you a brand in one years times for people with MBA's from lesser known schools.

• I should have better worded my initial post. My MBA was at a non-top-tier school (think top 50-60 for public institutions) here in the US. The international bit was about a consulting internship for the summer before my last semester for my MBA. And yes, I believe the MBA program could have done a better job with educating me on options, instead of "Ok, you have a science background. Do this MBA, and you'll be set to be working reasonable hours doing interesting work making six figures one to two years out of school. Here's some completely unrelated stats to back our claims." My fault for being unaware at the time, but that happens when you switch careers and haven't had years of exposure to what the best paths to success in this field are.

Great points here. I could look into Tier 2 as suggested and try for more consulting and finance (hopefully transaction services work) related engagements until then, but it won't be easy to avoid the IT Audit work here (which I consider a black hole, the longer I stay the more difficult it is to get out).

@TNA Thanks for chiming in. Speaking from experience, the problem is two-fold. One is that it's incredibly hard to get into a Tier 2 shop (S&O, OW, ACN MC, etc.) with an audit background. I did some tricky shit to be able to do it within Deloitte, and the options outside of Deloitte were tough to find. More important, and the second problem, is that it is difficult to shed the Accountant branding that you get going from a few years of being an auditor.

When I transferred to S&O, I had huge demand for finance projects from partners/managers that helped me with my transition. While the work was 1000 times better than audit, it was still very finance function focused (IPO-readiness, finance area process improvement, etc.). My external opportunities were similar - EY FS to do Finance Process Improvement, FTI Consulting, Navigant, and other firms that are fine, but are definitely a similar career path to continuing as an auditor.

Basically, all I'm saying is that if you can find a way to break into a generalist shop like S&O or elsewhere, then I would do that over going back to school. However, if your offers all seem to be pointing you down the same road as I mentioned above, and you don't like that (there's nothing wrong with it - just not for me), then I think school could be a great pivot point. Really like the idea about the MIT MiM and other equivalent programs. They could make a lot of sense.

I see, I see. I have yet to make an attempt at a generalist/S&O to understand the feasibility of being hired, but I will go ahead and explore that. It seems I'm correct in that the sooner I can shed Audit the better. Would rather spend my time in a career where I'm happier and at least have a fighting chance to make six figures before I hit 30 (currently would be stuck in audit and be waiting until 34-35 to hit that salary, that's not cutting it).

There is plenty of money to be made in non-strategy consulting, and the career path is infinitely more rewarding than audit (obviously just my opinion). The partners at my current firm have made many millions doing exactly what they're doing now, starting a CFO consultign shop and growing rapidly. Our strength is in numbers, but they make a ton of money (and pay better than industry to lower-middle levels, which is nice).

I can't speak specifically to TAS exit opps. There are definitely some people on this board that have TAS experience, but since I went directly to S&O, I never made the transition over to TAS, which is a much more common out from audit. I do know a few people from S&O that went the start-up route and they all enjoyed it, even though I now think every one of them is in or is going to business school. It's definitely hard to go from a nice, steady salary to some equity that likely won't pay off.

There are obviously a number of ways that you could get involved with a start-up, but I do think that right now, you'd basically be in a position to be an accountant there, which is probably not what you want. Of course, I knew a girl a year above me that left after one year of being an auditor to be a "CFO" of a start-up with six people, that has since gone public. She was demoted multiple times to basically be a General Ledger Accountant, but had a nice slice of equity and is probably significantly more wealthy than the current actual CFO.

I think what you have to decide is if your goal is to make steady six-figures, or to get involved in a cool role at a start-up. Some people (ex-MBBers, ex-bankers, etc.) could probably combine those goals and get on board a semi-safe start-up that has the money to pay well. In your situation, if you want a non-accounting role, you probably won't be able to do that, so I think you just need to determine which you'd prefer in the next 3-4 years and go after it hard.

Good luck.