What is the stereotypical path to MBB Consulting ?

First off, I'd like to apologize if this has been asked before, but I really have not seen this question answered yet on WSO. While it is pretty well-known that the ideal path to an SA position is usually: Freshman PWM -> Sophomore Boutique -> IBD SA -> FT IBD, is there such a defined and common path that can be seen in consulting? Or do most people have more varied backgrounds? Really curious about this, since I've noticed that many junior-year summer consultants had no consulting experience going into that position.

 

What's the consulting recruiting timeline when compared to IBD (ie. more advanced or less so) ? When do some of the larger non-MBB firms (ATK, Oliver Wyman, Accenture, etc...) recruit?

 
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In my experience, MBB and the other top firms all recruit at the same time.

For consulting, it's not nearly as utterly insane as it is in IBD where, if I'm not mistaken, summer recruitment happens a full year in advance.

Consulting recruitment is mid-late Fall, but varies by geography. In Canada for example, all of the firms interview in January with applications due in December-January. The U.S. is on slightly earlier timelines.

 

The most typical path I have seen is non-MBB consulting internship as a sophomore before doing an MBB internship as a junior aiming for a FT offer. That might be 20-30% of a class intake at my firm, just to provide you with a data point.

 

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