Hello everyone - to start, I'm from a non-target school with 3.0 GPA and a few internships. My previous co-ops have been in back office finance (some financial modelling, some administrative tasks). I'm set to graduate in about a year, and I've begun studies for the CFA exam. In addition, I've also begun a financial modelling course and am in the process of studying consulting cases and reading the go-to books (Case in Point, Interview Secrets by Victor Cheng).
With that said, I know the industry I'm trying to get into, but I haven't worked at the Big 4, and haven't had luck in other consulting firms either. My current approach is to look at Forbes 2019 Management Consutling Firms and find Large and Boutique consulting firms who are willing to hire interns.
Any advice would help!
CFA won't help much. Acquire new skills you can sell (technical skills or languages) and network like crazy. Your GPA isn't great either so if you aren't done with school I suggest you live in the library for the last year and bring it to a 3.3-3.5 at least.
Thanks for the advice! I'm working on building both the appropriate skillset and the network. Out of curiosity, what specific technical skills (aside from Excel) should I focus on?
I would say data visualization is a well-kept secret that consulting firms love but don't openly express.
Master Tableau/PowerBI and you'll be miles ahead of other candidates. Some VBA experience wouldn't hurt as well.
I also recommend you follow financial news closely (although you probably do already) and subscribe to a few newsletters.
Mental maths mainly and being able to extract signal from noise, especially in qualitative information. Know what is needed and what isn't. If you can boil a 100 page document to a 10 page one and be able to convey the key points as well or better than the original, you're good to go.
Consulting firms are much more open to people with non-traditional backgrounds. Have seen tons of friends from marketing / start-ups (albeit known ones) / logistics move into consulting - you just need a compelling story as to why you want to do consulting, and how your skills will transfer. This isn't difficult to articulate because all corporate functional knowledge can be applied to the right projects in consulting
I would encourage you to apply to local boutiques that play in the industry you’re interested in. While working there, network with another 2-3 bigger firms. Work for the boutique for 6-12 months and apply to larger firms after. I’ve seen this work the best for us non-targets. I’ve helped friends from school place in > and big 4 consulting with this method
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