Quick Questions about Management Consulting
Hey guys,
I'm a rising senior at a target school who has just started to come around to the idea of going for management consulting during recruiting (I have a humanities background and was previously planning on going to law school after graduation).
I've read quite a bit on these forums and have looked at frequently recommended websites like managementconsulted.com and caseinterview.com, but I still have a few pretty basic questions.
1) I've read that business schools outside the top 10 are generally not worth attending (obviously, YMMV). Assuming my goal is to attend a top business school, offers form which companies would be worth taking? I know getting an MBB offer would be great, but it may not be realistic. If I accepted an offer from Deloitte, would I still have a strong chance of going to a top B-school? What about Booze, etc? How low can I go before a top B-school becomes unlikely/unrealistic?
2) How much does office location matter? I have heard that applying for some locations (generally non-NYC) makes securing an offer easier. Is this true? To what extent? Also, assuming it is true and I were to accept an offer in a less-competitive market, would this diminish my chances at B-school in any way?
3) Generally how much time should I be looking to spend preparing for case interviews? I don't have a business background by any stretch and am solid with numbers, but my skills are probably rusty.
4) By the time I interview, I will have had minimal and non-business work experience. How much will this hurt me? Is is a dealbreaker in any sense? (For what it's worth, I have around a 3.78 GPA, a high LSAT score, the equivalent of a 1510 SAT score on the old scale as my core stats).
Thanks in advance.
Don't count yourself out for a top B school based on the prestige of the firm. People with solid experiences from a range of consulting firms - Booz & Co, Monitor, Deloitte, Accenture - have entered HBS/Wharton/MIT etc. Know of many people from internal strategy groups at Capital One, Disney and the like who were admitted to HBS. Many enter B school with the aim of switching to a more highly regarded consulting firm - ie going from Cap One to McKinsey. At the end of the day, there is some overlap between the consulting engagements across top tier and second tier firms, though of course each firm has a different focus and firms within tiers compete for business among a different class of clients.
Office location matters if you have a particular interest in an industry and know that that is what you want to pursue. Obviously some locations are more popular than others, but if you can get into a good firm, location becomes less important as long as you get good case experiences. Only area where I could see a potential downside of poor location influencing B school admissions is when you work in an office that has been hit particularly hard by the downturn - ie Chicago office staffs many cases for consumer businesses, but say these businesses have stopped hiring consulting firms and so the work is spread thin. Some consultants in this case wouldn't have a lot of rich and varied experiences to speak to in their B school apps.
Start early, ie now. The more practice the better. Be careful not to overpractice though, since the worst thing you could do in an interview is to not think critically on the spot given the context and rely on frameworks.
At MBB, I know that they really are trying to draw the best and the brightest across disciplines, so as long as you have top notch grades and scores (SAT looks fine, GPA is in the targeted range), you should have a decent shot at getting first rounds. It's really important that you spin your experiences into being relevant to the positions you're applying for, meaning that not having direct business experience should not mean that you don't have transferable skills that employers are looking for. MBB do care about SAT scores, even though those can be dated.
Have answered some of your questions (as well as others) in more depth at the blog below. Feel free to get in touch with any other inquiries. Best of luck!
Thanks for the response. So some locations are easier to be accepted into than others, simply by virtue of the fact that they are less popular among students?
So which firms would not be likely to help me gain admission to a top b-school?
What distinguishes one non MBB firm from another? What are the differences within MBB firms?
Lack of work experience isn't a problem, but firms will want to see "leadership" in some way (clubs, sports, accomplishments, etc). As long as you have those, you're fine!
What distinguishes one non MBB firm from another? What are the differences within MBB firms?
People and culture. McK is most prestigious and internationally recognized brand, works hardest. BCG is most academic, also stronger globally compared to Bain. Bain is youngest (most ugrads), best work/life balance. Gross simplification but there you have it.
I think he said non-MBB... like Booz, Deloitte, Accenture, etc. I'd like to know this as well...
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