The email below is from a young lady that I met at the 2007 MBA Jumpstart event that I attended last month. During the dinner, I spoke to several of the candidates about a variety of topics, including working in consulting, my employer, and a quick exercise referred to as the “Six Degrees of Marquis” where I tried to find mutual connections between each of the students and me. She’s just started her first year of business school and is wondering how to best position herself early on for a summer internship in consulting.
The first question in her email is something that I’ve answered a few times on this blog, so I decided to focus on her second question, which one that I don’t think I’ve been asked before. The conferences that occur in the Fall are the first opportunity many students have to meet people from the firms and are a great forum for strong first impressions. I wouldn’t say that my advice below are a set of ‘must-do’ steps, but, if I was a first-year Bschool student again, I’d probably act as described below.
——–
EA wrote:
“Hey Marquis!
Don’t know if you remember me but this is ‘EA’ – I met you at MBA Jumpstart and sat at the same table with you during dinner. I’m still surprised that you knew someone who knew almost everyone at that table. Super impressive!
I don’t think i got your business card during the event but I came across your blog so was lucky that I could retrieve an alternate email for you. Anyway, school started last week (I’m a first year at Duke) and the importance of getting a ‘jumpstart’ on the job search process became even more pertinent to me. With that said, I wanted to ask you a question about your own experiences with recruiting for consulting. First, at what point during your MBA career search did you narrow down to consulting and once you did, what specifically did you (or alternatively did you not do) that you felt led to your success in attaining your job? Second, I am attending the National Black MBA conference in Orlando next month. I know that most of the consulting firms don’t recruit at this event, but I was just wondering from your own experience (assuming you have participated in this conference or have some insight) how I can make the most out of this conference in terms of making myself memorable to consulting recruiters at this event?
I know i have asked some pretty lengthy questions so please feel free to reply whenever you have the time. I’ll truly appreciate any insight at all that you may have.
Have a great week and I look forward to hearing from you.
Thanks!
‘EA’ “
——–
My response:
EA,
It’s good to hear from you and I’m glad that you found your way to my blog. I hope that you find it helpful over the next couple of months as you get adjusted to life in business school. As I might have mentioned at MBA Jumpstart, you’re about to embark on a stage of your life that will change your outlook on a lot of things and I’m really jealous of you right now
Now, let’s tackle your questions…the first one about what led me to consulting as a career and what made me successful are topics that I’ve covered in my blog a couple of times before, so I won’t dig into them too much here. Just take a look at some of the archived blog entries and you should be able to find the answers to those questions. In fact, I believe that I addressed them in the most recent entry that I uploaded. Take a look through those older entries and let me know if you have any further follow-up questions.
Your second issue about making yourself memorable at the National Black MBA Association (NBMBAA) conference is a great one and I don’t think I’ve ever been asked it before. As you mentioned, most of the consulting firms won’t be doing interviews and extending offers at the conference, but several of them will be present and ready to meet candidates. Last year, firms like McKinsey, Accenture, AT Kearney, Deloitte, and Booz-Allen Hamilton were represented, so you could make early progress in getting to know potential employers. In terms of step-by-step preparation for these types of conversations, I would suggest the following:
1. Your first step will be to get your resume updated and ready to distribute, which many students don’t even think about until the internship recruiting season starts in the winter. You may think that it’s a little early to be visiting the Career Services office, but they will certainly help you get your resume tight enough for the companies if you ask them. It’s up to you to make that proactive step toward starting that process.
2. Figure out your “story” for why you want to make a move into consulting as a post-MBA career. You should be able to tell company representatives about your pre-MBA career and how it both led you to business school and helped prepare you for the sort of work that consultants do. I doubt those reps would push you too hard on the story, but getting it right in preparation for these conferences would go a long way toward getting you ready for your interviews.
3. During the conversations, ask GOOD questions that go further than standard topics that are covered on the firms’ websites and can be found by doing high-level due diligence. It isn’t very often that candidates get a chance to speak to company reps before they come on campus, so you should ake good use of the opportunity while it’s in front of you. Also, be sure to make an impression because company people talk to so many candidates at these conferences that it’ll be easy for you to get lost in the shuffle. There will definitely be other candidates who will jump at the chance to ask questions and make that strong impression, so don’t be afraid to do so yourself.
4. Before you walk away from a company rep, be sure to get a business card and follow-up with an email soon after the encounter. The email should serve as a reminder of who you are and it would be helpful if you reference some topics from your conversation (so that it doesn’t seem like a form-email).
5. Then, before the firms’ on-campus presentations, follow-up with the contacts you met again to re-introduce yourself and re-state your interest in their firms. These emails will probably be similar to the earlier emails that you sent, but I’ve always found these types of follow-up emails to be a nice touch before seeing a candidate again.
FYI, this same advice applies if you choose to attend the National Society of Hispanic MBAs conference later on in September or any other conferences over the next few months. Often, students will attend both conferences even if they aren’t Black or Hispanic (I saw several non-Black and non-Hispanic kids at last year’s NBMBAA conference) because there are job opportunities that can be accessed there that aren’t available on campus. Just make sure you’ve got your mind right and are fine with leaving the conference with several good contacts rather than a handful of job offers and you’ll be able to consider the trip a success.
Take care and good luck with your first year at Fuqua.
-Marquis
The first question in her email is something that I’ve answered a few times on this blog, so I decided to focus on her second question, which one that I don’t think I’ve been asked before. The conferences that occur in the Fall are the first opportunity many students have to meet people from the firms and are a great forum for strong first impressions. I wouldn’t say that my advice below are a set of ‘must-do’ steps, but, if I was a first-year Bschool student again, I’d probably act as described below.
——–
EA wrote:
“Hey Marquis!
Don’t know if you remember me but this is ‘EA’ – I met you at MBA Jumpstart and sat at the same table with you during dinner. I’m still surprised that you knew someone who knew almost everyone at that table. Super impressive!
I don’t think i got your business card during the event but I came across your blog so was lucky that I could retrieve an alternate email for you. Anyway, school started last week (I’m a first year at Duke) and the importance of getting a ‘jumpstart’ on the job search process became even more pertinent to me. With that said, I wanted to ask you a question about your own experiences with recruiting for consulting. First, at what point during your MBA career search did you narrow down to consulting and once you did, what specifically did you (or alternatively did you not do) that you felt led to your success in attaining your job? Second, I am attending the National Black MBA conference in Orlando next month. I know that most of the consulting firms don’t recruit at this event, but I was just wondering from your own experience (assuming you have participated in this conference or have some insight) how I can make the most out of this conference in terms of making myself memorable to consulting recruiters at this event?
I know i have asked some pretty lengthy questions so please feel free to reply whenever you have the time. I’ll truly appreciate any insight at all that you may have.
Have a great week and I look forward to hearing from you.
Thanks!
‘EA’ “
——–
My response:
EA,
It’s good to hear from you and I’m glad that you found your way to my blog. I hope that you find it helpful over the next couple of months as you get adjusted to life in business school. As I might have mentioned at MBA Jumpstart, you’re about to embark on a stage of your life that will change your outlook on a lot of things and I’m really jealous of you right now
Now, let’s tackle your questions…the first one about what led me to consulting as a career and what made me successful are topics that I’ve covered in my blog a couple of times before, so I won’t dig into them too much here. Just take a look at some of the archived blog entries and you should be able to find the answers to those questions. In fact, I believe that I addressed them in the most recent entry that I uploaded. Take a look through those older entries and let me know if you have any further follow-up questions.
Your second issue about making yourself memorable at the National Black MBA Association (NBMBAA) conference is a great one and I don’t think I’ve ever been asked it before. As you mentioned, most of the consulting firms won’t be doing interviews and extending offers at the conference, but several of them will be present and ready to meet candidates. Last year, firms like McKinsey, Accenture, AT Kearney, Deloitte, and Booz-Allen Hamilton were represented, so you could make early progress in getting to know potential employers. In terms of step-by-step preparation for these types of conversations, I would suggest the following:
1. Your first step will be to get your resume updated and ready to distribute, which many students don’t even think about until the internship recruiting season starts in the winter. You may think that it’s a little early to be visiting the Career Services office, but they will certainly help you get your resume tight enough for the companies if you ask them. It’s up to you to make that proactive step toward starting that process.
2. Figure out your “story” for why you want to make a move into consulting as a post-MBA career. You should be able to tell company representatives about your pre-MBA career and how it both led you to business school and helped prepare you for the sort of work that consultants do. I doubt those reps would push you too hard on the story, but getting it right in preparation for these conferences would go a long way toward getting you ready for your interviews.
3. During the conversations, ask GOOD questions that go further than standard topics that are covered on the firms’ websites and can be found by doing high-level due diligence. It isn’t very often that candidates get a chance to speak to company reps before they come on campus, so you should ake good use of the opportunity while it’s in front of you. Also, be sure to make an impression because company people talk to so many candidates at these conferences that it’ll be easy for you to get lost in the shuffle. There will definitely be other candidates who will jump at the chance to ask questions and make that strong impression, so don’t be afraid to do so yourself.
4. Before you walk away from a company rep, be sure to get a business card and follow-up with an email soon after the encounter. The email should serve as a reminder of who you are and it would be helpful if you reference some topics from your conversation (so that it doesn’t seem like a form-email).
5. Then, before the firms’ on-campus presentations, follow-up with the contacts you met again to re-introduce yourself and re-state your interest in their firms. These emails will probably be similar to the earlier emails that you sent, but I’ve always found these types of follow-up emails to be a nice touch before seeing a candidate again.
FYI, this same advice applies if you choose to attend the National Society of Hispanic MBAs conference later on in September or any other conferences over the next few months. Often, students will attend both conferences even if they aren’t Black or Hispanic (I saw several non-Black and non-Hispanic kids at last year’s NBMBAA conference) because there are job opportunities that can be accessed there that aren’t available on campus. Just make sure you’ve got your mind right and are fine with leaving the conference with several good contacts rather than a handful of job offers and you’ll be able to consider the trip a success.
Take care and good luck with your first year at Fuqua.
-Marquis
