Dear,
I am a sophomore and I thought IB was an ultimate prestige career path out of unergraduate, but I realized it really is not. Then, I found management consulting very appealing and I decided to get a consulting internship (MBB preferably). How/When did you start preparing for your MC path?
I appreciate your time!
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Hey WallStreetEagle, I think you deserve a response...heck, everyone does. We're listening, sorry about the delay ...my best guess at places on WSO that could help:
I hope those threads give you a bit more insight.
Hey - the general approach that most people take is the following:
Read Case in Point - it's an infamous book that highlights the main frameworks and the interview process for Management Consulting. There are a few other books (BCG on Strategy, The McKinsey Way, Case Interview Secrets by Victor Cheng), but this has proven to be the most necessary.
Listen to Looking Over My Shoulder (LOMS) - it's a series of audio recordings of a consultant solving cases.
Practice Consulting Cases - they can be found by just googling "Consulting Case Book x University" I believe there is a post on WSO called "Consulting Resources" that has a handful from Wharton, Harvard and Kellog (and some oher Universities).
Once you've done a few on your own, the best way to adance is to have a mentor (senior student at your school, industry professional or even a professor with some time to kill) give you a mock consulting interview.
From what I know, many students practice a few dozen cases (like 20-50) before going for their consulting interviews. If you need more guidance or have trouble, WSO has a consulting interview guide ($197) - I haven't used it, but I heard good things.
Thank you very much for the detailed input! I guess I'll start by familiarizing myself with the framework and the general idea of case interviews. One thing I also wonder is that what kinda skillsets/perspectives will ALSO help you with IB/PE prep while you learn and practice case interviews?
I would aruge that being able to think logically is a necessary skillset for the whole finance world that's most easily developed in Consulting. That tends to be the trend I've seen. There are primarily three traits in consulting that hold the most weight:
This post (https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/5-years-ago-i-was-fired-from-oli…) dives a little more into it from advice perspective.
These skills are also directly transferrable to Investment Banking and that tends to be why many people who apply to Consulting ALSO go for Investment Banking with the primary differentiator being the consulting case prep.
Just dropped by to say IB is actually the ultimate prestige career path.
Seriously though, the above sources are really good
Thanks for your input. I would also much appreciate it if you could specify what you mean by the ultimate prestige career path. My thought about IB job and its prestige is that analysts can extremely pick up high-caliber work ethic, highly transferrable skillsets through finance area, and compensation (hourly age is not that impressive tho when you reflect the crazy hours)
The prestige comes with being able to handle the intense workload and the yearly salary (hourly aside) is far higher than most of the other corporate opportunities. At higher levels of Investment Banking, the work done has direct effects on the financial market (an LBO model you designed is pursued for instance).
If your college also has a consulting club definitely do good involved with that. It's good to do case cracks with other students to critique one another, and if firms in your area host case competitions - get involved with those too. Best of luck.
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