Different Types of Consulting - Respective prestige level

mmonkey:

"There are just as good consultants at PwC/Deloitte/OW/Monitor, etc. as there are in MBB. "

That's nonsense, on average this is definitely not true.

Firstly, you can't dismiss something as "nonsense" when you then discuss a completely different metric (the average, rather than the upper bound).

I would agree about Deloitte, but as for Monitor/OW, the only difference to MBB is the prestige, and people want the prestige so they can hop ship. It's not the low-level analysts doing it for their CV that make a good consultancy, it's the managers, principals and partners. And they don't give a shit about prestige.

I worked for a tier 2 shop. Project experiences include: - Network analysis / optimization for airline co - Predictive analytics modeling framework for retailer - B2C marketing strategy for traditional b2b hardware co - PMO for IT implementation for retailer - PE due diligence

Nice! More contributions would be great.

abcd

Can you elaborate on the types of models you were building for these excperiences? Looking into purchasing an online program but can't decide if cases would be better for big 4 advisory type of work. Thanks

All sounds like cooler projects than what I'm involved with in MBB lol

At a Big 4 Advisory firm for a bit over 2 years and have worked on the following: - Distribution Channel planning and mobilization (road-mapping and resource planning) - Implementation of a nation-wide quoting platform - Cost model for IT department - Vendor Selection to update/change an Insurance carrier's operations and business process - Product Strategy for an Insurance company (more focused on the Cost-Benefit model side) - Integration of a Business Intelligence tool

Most important lesson I've learned in the past 2 years is this: Almost anything explained in a high level sounds awesome. Even while writing this post and trying to boil down my project in one line, I almost convinced myself that they sound like cool projects. Its when you get into the details and the nitty-gritty (which you most likely will) - that's when things can get very uninteresting/too technical very quickly. Granted, I did enjoy some of these projects, and even during the ones I did not like, there were aspects I enjoyed. Just thought I'd put that out there.

but if you really read every post on this forum on the subject then you'd have the answers to all of your questions... just search these questions are always getting asked...

best of luck :)

I have never seen anything regarding management consulting here, it's mainly business consulting from what I've read. If you could find a thread on one, I would gladly read it.

usually here we consider MBB to be management consulting...(which is literally half the threads in the consulting forum) what is business consulting vs management consulting in your opinion?

"Business consulting" would be a vaguely more general term that encompasses management consulting. What exactly did you think the difference was?

To be honest, I thought Business Consulting encompassed the financial end more so, while Management consulting pretty much dealt with the daily operations end(including lower management). I suppose it was just a misunderstanding on my part, it's just confusing to decide what you want to be "when you grow up," even though I'm almost there, ya know?

This is only one post but it seems to me:

-you do not know how to look up terminology -you do not know how to use the search function find answers

The most basic thing management consultants do is desk research. Read the Vault guide to consulting (see scribd.com) to get a better basic understanding of what you're getting into.

id say that there are essentially two poles of consulting--mgmt and technical, and that most types can be placed somewhere on the spectrum in between. mgmt at its most general would be what youre referring to--ie lets say i want to know how to grow my company, so then i hire a strategy consultancy. technical at its most specific would be something like say there's a guy who specializes in say IT, and you need something very specific done (need a better network set up or something), and so you hire them to do it.

What kind of sub groups are there are of management consulting or different areas if there are not as pronounced as well as how each rank. I talked to one friend who recieved offers at Deloitte's consulting branch and McKinsey as well for supply chain consulting. I would imagine that McKinsey would be her choice (given its higher rating on vault), but she said that specifically for supply chain Deloitte was better (and paid better). More specifically, I am a finance major so I wondering if there were certain types of consulting more aligned and a more natural fit for a finance major.

if youre looking for finance--

-McKinsey's corporate finance practice -financial institutions consulting at McKinsey, owfs/mow, bain (but with the exception of owfs i dont think you can specifically apply to these practices) -pe due diligence at MBB

most consulting anyways isnt really about your skills as much as your ability to think (and bullshit) rigorously, so your major usually isnt that relevant. if youre looking for rankings, there are thousands of those types of posts on the forums, so either search the threads or do some research on the internet.

Do a bit more research on consulting and try and set up talks with current or ex-consultants. Strategy consulting will be your best bet, but you cannot really apply for a specific segment/industry (other than the corp fin groups). However, once you start you can angle for finance-heavy projects, FS clients, PE work, etc.

No one really cares about "specialty" rankings. Mckinsey > Deloitte, can't really think of any circumstance one would pick Deloitte.

Don't really know how to break down different types of consulting- if you want a good luck at the different functions, closely examine the Monitor website and the different companies of the Monitor Group. Read the Vault guide as well.

"...can't really think of any circumstance one would pick Deloitte."

She says she was offered 50k at McKinsey and 75k at Deliotte.

There are as many flavours of consulting as there are fields in which people may need advice. From strategy to lactation consultants (I kid you not - http://www.lcgb.org/) It's relatively easy for anybody who provides advice as a service to call what they do 'consulting'.

Corporate Whore - The Musings of a Legal Prostitute

At my internship with Accenture, there was a clear split between business consultants and IT consultants. They were located on different floors of the office, never had projects together and even had separate christmas parties or other corporate events

In a Big 4 company, these different divisions will usually be completely separate. Unless there is some kind of rare project where it is both IT and S&O at the same time, you usually will only work with people in your department. However, there are many offices where the different consulting divisions will be on the same floor. In addition, these companies are making a push to have more events where you can network across divisions.

Depends. Most big transformations will have Human Capital / Change paired with S&O consultants, and almost always in big Implementation (SAP/Oracle) projects. Also depends on the office. A small regional office like mine, we are all on the same floor so city events are together. For the lines of service we tend to go our own way for the bigger events.

I've been contacting some friends within Deloitte to try and get me in touch with some of their other divisions and everyone always says they don't really know anyone. It seems like there is a clear split in the work and no interaction (unless you're friends and go out to drink/eat/party).

I've been contacting some friends within Deloitte to try and get me in touch with some of their other divisions and everyone always says they don't really know anyone. It seems like there is a clear split in the work and no interaction (unless you're friends and go out to drink/eat/party).

Unless you make the effort on Fridays (when you're actually at your HQ'd office) to network with people from other areas, you're probably only going to know people from your vertical/horizontal alignment. Things can change if your client has your firm working on like 5 different types of projects and you all go out for dinner/drinks at night.

I've noticed there is quite a difference between how different areas/acquired firms/and internal networks operate. (For example, some people on long implementation projects aim for 40 hr weeks, strategy guys expect at least 60 etc). Sometimes it can feel like you're working for a completely different company if you're staffed in a new area within the firm (which I like, you learn more/different perspectives).

When you're in the huge consulting arms of Deloitte, PwC, or ACN, it's all WHO you know and who likes you. Expand/focus your question if you're trying to figure something in particular out about these firms that we can help you with.

We have a little bit of both. I am planning to get lunch with some of the girls from other departments in the office, and we get people brought in on projects from all departments, but generally we need to make an effort to get to know people as well.

Events help, and we have an intranet and a big focus on internal networking which helps also.