MarquisParker.com // Business Strategist, Speaker, Advisor, and Coach

Hey there, everyone. Today’s entry is in response to an email from a PhD in Biotechnology who is interested in a career change to Consulting. He wants to know how to direct his career to position himself as an APD candidate for a consulting firm and, while I’ve never been a recruiter, I’ve tried to give him some good general tips to follow.

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TR wrote:
“Hi Marquis:

I’ve been reading your blog for around 6 months now & I must confess that your blog is what got me interested in consulting in the first place. I think you are… Read the rest

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What’s up, y’all. As some of you may have noticed, I started this blogging thing four years ago this month and, in that time, my stuff’s probably been read by a few thousand people (I’m not sure because I’ve never added a counter). So, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised or embarrassed when I get recognized when I’m out and about. Well, it happened again today and I couldn’t keep myself from grinning and feeling surprised when it happened. Here’s what went down…

So, I just happened to be working in the ATL office at the end of the day… Read the rest

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The email below came in from an undergraduate who is about to finish up her Computer Science degree but doesn’t really have a passion for programming…familiar story, right? Well, she’s interested in moving toward consulting, so I tried to give her some advice to move in her that direction. Too bad I didn’t have this much forethought when I was a senior in college because I might be a Partner at my employer by now if I had…

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PP wrote:
Hello Marquis,

I just came across your blog today, and was amazed at how helpful
some of your answers… Read the rest

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I just got this follow-up email from CareerCore’s founder:

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Andrea wrote:

“If you’re referring it to
young people (college through graduate school), here are a few specific
things they might find interesting

1. COREvaluations that assess their competitiveness for specific jobs
(school teacher, management consultant, investment banker, pharma sales,
etc). Takes 6-7 minutes. In addition to finding out how competitive they
are, they get a personalized action plan laying out steps they can take to
enhance their competitiveness.

2. Building their Personal Board of Directors. Getting friends, professional
colleagues, professors, career counselors, parents or others who can provide
the… Read the rest

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Hey there, folks. I just received an email from one of the founders of Management Leaders for Tomorrow (MLT), which, in my opinion, is the premier comprehensive MBA application prep and undergrad career prep organization in the US today. She was writing to let me know about a new site they’ve launched called CareerCore (http://www.careercore.com) that uses network and their own professional development assessments to offer career advice and guidance to professionals and students. I included her email below to provide even more information about the site. If you are on the verge of starting your career, are considering a… Read the rest

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The email below is from an Engineer who wants to make a career change into strategy and finance, but isn’t sure if he needs only an MBA or if he should also pursue another grad degree at the same time. I guess I can add a little context here because of the joint degree that I earned at Stanford. Our situations are somewhat different, so I’ve tried to make my response general enough to apply to him.

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MC wrote:

Hi Marquis,
Find your blog very interesting , helpful and well written.
I know you already talked a little bit… Read the rest

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As you guys know, I’m a big fan of spreading information about organizations that I believe to be worthwhile causes. Well, I got an email from my man Nate this morning about a non-profit org called Prize4Life that he started last year with one of his HBS classmates, Avi Kremer.

During his first year at HBS, Avi was diagnosed with an neurological disease called ALS and, instead of giving up hope, he pushed himself toward finding a cure. Here is an article about Avi and what he’s doing to work toward a cure for ALS: http://www.prize4life.org/cgi-bin/blosxom.cgi

Prize4Life has been a… Read the rest

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