I was a (pre-MBA) strategy consultant (Deloitte/Accenture/PwC) for 2-4 years since graduating from undergrad at a top 25 school (think Michigan/UVA/NYU/Tufts or something similar) where I majored in math.
Most of my projects were centered around financial transactions where we performed due diligence of targets or advised clients on potential cost restructurings but I have also been exposed to revenue growth strategy and large enterprise transformations.
Most recently, I went through the PE off-cycle recruitment process and secured a lower/middle market PE role in NYC. I was slotted for a lot of roles that were for the due diligence or operations team at larger funds but what attracted me to this fund was the more blended role across investing and operations.
I'm thinking this thread could be helpful for two groups:
1) Undergrads/ industry professionals interested in consulting
* Strategy consulting recruitment (undergrad & experienced hire
* Day-to-day insights, how to excel once you get the job, how to acquire the skills/ background that you want for your future career
2) Current consultants looking to move into finance
* Project experiences & skillsets that are most relevant for making the transition
* Networking and recruiting techniques for moving out of consulting into a different industry
First off, thanks so much for doing this!! I'm an undergrad student about to head into ft recruitment for Summer 2021. For context, I have 3 internships and my fourth one coming up as a Business Analyst in the coming summer at a boutique MC firm; I go to a Canadian semi-target; GPA is at 3.3-3.4. I'm aiming to apply to consulting firms for the 2021 FT Start Date.
1) I was wondering if you had any insights as to how to make it through the preliminary resume/cover letter selection leading to the interview.
2) Do you happen to know how the recruitment timeline has changed as a result of COVID-19? From what I can gather, many firms are beginning their recruitment cycle in June and interviews ill be held up until September.
3) I'm going to be beginning at a boutique (
Can you please provide a detailed end-to-end walk through of your recruiting process for off-cycle? Can you talk about your new role in more detail and what that process looked like specifically?
My process lasted ~6 months across three main phases:
1) October / November - Modeling Practice / 1st degree contacts catch up
Completed WSO PE course along with CFI Financial Modeling course
Met with friends in finance and former consultants to begin laying the foundation for growing my network
2) December / January - Met with almost all major recruiting firms / 2nd degree contacts
I would highly recommend getting connected with recruiters by a friend who has already worked with them
If you don't have a connection, be persistent with your emailing and only ask for 15 minutes of their time
Once you get a hold of them, make sure you meet them in person to maximize your chances of impressing them
Ask to be considered for roles that are aligned with your background and interests
Same advice applies for meeting with industry contacts as well
This is a numbers game so be persistent and don't get weighed down by rejection
3) February / March - Interviews / Picked mentors within the recently built up network
The first two steps were all about building a lead funnel. Once this was in place, by February I was able to get a good amount of leads from recruiters and contacts for first round interviews
I probably met with about 60-70 recruiters and contacts -> from them, I got about 15 first rounds / meet and greets -> 5 of them went to later rounds -> 2 were final rounds -> 1 offer
This process was a bit nerve wracking, which is why I relied on the mentors I found in my networking for advice on navigating and negotiating
The process for my current role took quite a while. I got connected with them through an old manager from my firm. I met with them in January for an intro interview. A couple weeks later they sent a modeling test. The test was followed by a couple more in-person interviews over several weeks. The final round took place over 2 skype interviews during the quarantine.
All in all, it took about 3 months.
This firm is focused on lower market industrial companies. It's a classic platform/ roll-up strategy that they are currently executing. My role is a hybrid senior associate working mostly on acquisitions for the first 12-18 months followed by more work with portfolio companies after that.
Awesome. Would also love to hear more about your new role and team. Can you speak to how it blends investing with portfolio operations and how that was different from other ops roles you saw?
This fund is relatively new (~12-18 months) so it is still building up it's team (only 4-5 investment professionals) and it is more of an all-hands-on-deck environment whether that's acquisitions or PortCo work.
The partners have mixed backgrounds in investing and consulting and the associates will be working with them to acquire new companies as well as integrate them into the platform.
From my understanding and conversations with professionals, traditional ops roles at bigger, brand name firms are solely focused on due diligence and/or business strategy of portfolio companies. The skillset required is very similar to PE consulting (these firms have in-house teams). At a smaller shop like the one I'm joining, you would have the opportunity to build investing chops while also utilizing your consulting background.
Sorry for stealing your AMA but I have plenty of questions. Very helpful information. I'm interviewing for similar MM PE portfolio ops roles and trying to benchmark compensation - what do you think is a realistic range and structure for associate roles in T1 cities? I haven't found a ton of good data compared to investment roles.
Also - I know you sorta got best of both worlds, but how do / did you evaluate investing vs. ops career path? What did you find attractive or unattractive about both as you went through the process?
I would expect base salary to be from 100-130 as an associate but I'm not sure about bonus. As you go up, I would expect your bonus would be tied to the performance of the portfolio companies that you cover. These teams can be pretty lean so there is room to grow if the fund is expanding.
I looked at investing & ops as two foundational skillsets that I wanted to master for my future career. I already had plenty of ops experience from consulting so I made it a priority to gain investing experience in my next role. I don't think one is more or less attractive - both are solid skillsets that will set you up for a long and successful career.
Happy to chat more offline about my preferences and reasoning.
Yeah I'd love to chat. Will PM
Thank you for doing this AMA. I look forward to following along to this thread. Can you talk about the process of experienced hires to strategy consulting recruitment and how to excel in the job specifically? For brief context, I am within consulting but would like to lateral into strategy. In your opinion, when is the best time for an experienced hire to recruit into strategy consulting?
I came in through undergrad so I can't speak personally to experienced hire recruitment. But from what I have seen/heard, lateral moves into strategy are fairly common, especially as the practices begin to grow.
Within the same firm, the typical game plan is:
Find a strategy MD willing to sponsor your transfer
Have a 3-6 month track record of project work that is strategy or strategy-related
Network with more junior folks who can support your candidacy, attend strategy HH, etc.
Overall, it's not easy but it is very doable especially if there is demand in certain groups for headcount.
I have heard that Deloitte & Accenture have increased their experienced hire recruitment so I would leverage your contacts at outside firms to see if that's a quicker route.
Thanks for the post! Would love to learn more about your networking experience and tips on interacting with recruiters (what questions to ask, how to pitch yourself, etc)
After 1st and 2nd degree connections, networking was mostly through cold-emailing and LinkedIn messaging. I would ask for 15 minutes of their time for advice on recruitment and insights into their career path. I had a high success rate with this tactic (most people can spare 15 minutes and people like giving advice) and typically kept the conversations friendly and informal. The goal of these calls was to be top of mind for contacts when opportunities came across their desk.
With recruiters, I reached out to all the big firms and asked to schedule in-person meetings. I felt that this was critical to stand-out as a consultant. I would always ask about their niche in the industry, what were the last placements they worked on and what made the final candidates successful. For those meetings and later interviews I pitched myself as: 1. Having visible client work advising Fortune 500 clients on revenue, costs, and M&A 2. Possessing strong financial modeling skills from M&A projects 3. Being unique from typical banker candidates due to my C-suite client exposure and post-acquisition related work (cost restructurings)
This is an extremely helpful thread and appreciate all the insight.
I'm a strategy consultant (~ 3.5 years experience) focused on CDD assignments for LMM PE and looking to recruit off-cycle. Have not yet begun outreach to headhunters but was wondering if you had a sense for how any of this has changed in a COVID-19 environment? Obviously wont be able to meet them in person.
Has optimal timing for off-cycle changed at all since on-cycle recruiting was delayed? Or is it just simply good to reach out when you feel ready in terms of modeling skills, interviewing, etc. I noticed you started this process in December.
Appreciate the time!
I'm interested in the 2nd bullet point you mentioned:
2) Current consultants looking to move into finance
* Project experiences & skillsets that are most relevant for making the transition
* Networking and recruiting techniques for moving out of consulting into a different industry
Could you elaborate on both of these? Some context as it pertains to me but happy for you to keep things generic so others can get value:
Corp Dev out of school where I work mainly from a Deal execution perspective (partnerships, minority investments, M&A) along with business growth strategy (internal consultant role). Team is lean and we do anything and everything from Biz Dev to Strategy. Would appreciate some context around the types of skills / experiences you spoke about that carried the most stopping power when making the transition to PE.
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