Ultimately I want to break into management consulting. I have an extensive background in sales (5ish years). I got experience in business development, full sales cycle, team management, go to market strategies, etc. I’m currently about to graduate with my MBA from a good school. Definitely not a target, but it’s at least recognized nationally. I’ve done about a year of pro Bono strategy consulting work set up by the MBA program with different companies. (pretty much like an internship but the program says it’s technically not an internship) I don’t have any super technical skills besides Microsoft office and various CRM platforms/sales tools (although I’m willing to learn a technical skill after my MBA). My main question is, given my experience being mostly in sales and having only 1 year of relevant consulting experience. What is your advice for breaking into consulting with a notable firm? Is there a niche I should look into? A technical skill I should learn first? Any advice would be appreciated. #consulting #mckinsey #pwc #ey #deloitte #bcg #bain #consulting
Just apply for consulting roles dudes - you’ll be good. U don’t need any experience for consulting.
Yeah I had a slight feeling I was over thinking it. I’m definitely just gonna shoot for it and see what happens
Just make sure your presentation uses slides for the record
What school? Also if non-target rule out MBB but b4 will hire anyone with a pulse lol (I’m at EY, strategy group).
American University, In D.C.
Dude that’s well known enough! I did mine at Maryland American is private! You’re a shoe in for b4, figure out who does the recruiting at your school and get in touch with them, I can’t imagine you wouldn’t get an offer at one of them
You have the key skills needed that’s is MS Suite of applications. Excel and PowerPoint will be your everyday. Deloitte is hiring crazy now, definitely apply and you should be able to crack SC level with an mba.
Any chance you could share what the average salary range for a first year SC could potentially be for Deloitte?
Try to negotiate high initially itself. SC range is 130k-160k Deloitte is known to low ball on base and title so negotiate at the beginning
You can Go to tech sales and you will do interesting strategy , marketing ,mba work and make tonnes of money .. I work in product management in Faang n trying to move into tech sales .. earlier product management used to have lot of mba’s and product managers would work on strategy and marketing and they used to get paid well but now its not worth it it pays less than tech sales and has too many engineering folks who don’t expect any strategy work but all tech work .. like it’s just glorified but boring tech work with no glory.. product managers are now considered as glorified tech assistants by engineering folks , which I can understand as now most companies hire non mba as product managers n they are doing all tech work like agile stories etc , which engineering team can do so engineering just hates them and creates lot of work politics problems At G, they are given no respect .. at FB and Amz, they are given little respect due to PIP fear ..but it has lots of politics with engineering folks !
Great insights. What’s your thoughts on if you have a great product and customer experience, then why have a sales team? PS I was a director of sales at a semiconductor company before leaving.
Just apply. DM me for referral
I’d recommend finding your niche, whether in an industry or service area, and stick with a non consulting company.
Thanks for the insight! Can I ask a little more of why you suggest this?
I wouldn’t want a career creating PowerPoint presentations and analyzing Excel spreadsheets for various clients or departments. Now, I’m fortunate to be picked up for an aerospace client, leveraging my background. Also, I get to play an operational role with the customer versus behind the scenes. As a consultant, you legally can’t make any decisions for a customer or federal agency. Or manage any worthwhile team. Pursue what interests you. I did, and my career has taken off, pun intended.
Based on my past experience working at MBB, this is MY TAKE on how people are evaluated in the recruiting process: Making an analogy with a game, let's say you must score >75 pts Core elements: - Problem solving skills: 40 pts (min 35) - People skills: 30 pts (min 25) Secondary elements: - School you graduated: 20 pts - Prior experience: 10 pts +++ Min 15 pts combined (i.e. If your school is bad, you must have great prior experience and vice-versa) Notes: School and prior experience are more important in the early application stages, when it's basically just HR looking at your profile, deciding on whether or not you'll be invited to an interview. PS and Ppl skills are *almost* everything you need. Conversely, even if you score the minimum acceptable score in PS and Ppl skills (60 pts), prior experience only really comes into play if your school is really bad. Hope that's helpful.
You need to excel and ppt honcho.. In Management Consulting small work is shown as if it will create wonders for you. Most of the things you estimate basis solution available and put that burden on Ops to get implemented on ground. If you are good at talking and little bit of expertise in the are where you are applying.. Consulting will work for you. But do remember it is a high pressure job where you will do a work of two FTEs and still your manager will say your peer is doing good. So you may need learn to lick assess badly...
MBB might be tough given the school, but others would be OK. Don't worry about experience, yours is absolutely fine. Prepare your resume, tailor it a bit. Do some networking with the recruiters until you get the interview. After getting the interview, just focus on interview prep and ignore the rest.
If I were you I'd post this question on the MBA subreddit. They're very attuned to how recruiting works for consulting firms
Thanks for the advice. I’ll try that for sure