Happy new year, everyone! I hope everyone had a happy and safe celebration to bring in 2008. What better way to bring in a new year than to start responding to reader emails again, right? 
The email below is from a Stanford GSB applicant who would like to transition into Consulting after he finishes his MBA. Unfortunately, the round 2 deadline past yesterday and it took me a while to get to his email, so I hope he still finds my response helpful. His questions are mostly around which courses at the GSB are useful in developing the skills needed to be a consultant and what those skills are. I’ve already made a post about the second half of his question in the past, so I’m not addressing it here, but I did give him something on the first part.
And, before moving on to my response, I wanted to share this video of an MBA-themed parody of “Damn it feels good to be a gangster” by the Geto Boys. Some of you will recognize this song from the movie “Office Space” and, as far as I’m concerned, it’s a hip-hop classic. A guy from Fuqua put a great spin on it to make it fit every MBA’s biggest concern, the post-MBA job. You can check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNv2xIrfh88
————
OM wrote:
“Hi Marquis,
My name is OM, I am from Israel, and I am applying for Stanford’s full MBA program, fall 08.
I have been going through your blog and enjoyed your responses very much.
I served for 4 years in the Israeli army, last rank – first lieutenant, and worked for 6 years as Psychometrics teacher (Israeli SATs). I am interested in changing my career course (as you did), and join the field of strategic consulting (as you did). And hoped that you could tell me a little bit about your experience in Stanford.
What were the courses / programs / clubs / experiences which contributed most to your skills development as a consultant? What are the skills you think one should acquire in order to become a consultant? What skills do you think one could acquire in Stanford (and won’t be able to acquire elsewhere)?
What companies related to the field (such as McKinsey, Bain, BCG at cetera) recruiting on the campus ?
Thanks,
OM “
————
My response:
OM,
Thanks for checking out my blog. I’m sorry that I’m just now responding to your email. I was pretty swamped leading up to the holidays and I didn’t mess around with my blog emails during the holidays. I’m assuming that you’re a Round 2 applicant, so I hope this message is getting to you early enough to be of some use to you. If not, I apologize for the delay in replying.
The GSB has lots of offerings that can contribute to building the skills needed as a consultant and I hope you take advantage of as many of them as possible if you get in. The obvious one is the Consulting Club, where you can connect with classmates who either have backgrounds in Consulting or want to pursue that area as their post-MBA industry. You could also pursue any of the other clubs and organizations and take on an active leadership role to build the organizational skills that would be useful to you in consulting. As an example, I used that tactic as a member of the GSB Senate and learned a LOT in only a few quarters in that role.
As far as important classes, the entire MBA core will be valuable in helping to build the basic business understanding that you’ll need as a consultant. As I’ve mentioned on my blog before, I found the Excel Modeling, Strategy, and Marketing courses to be especially useful when approaching the consulting interviews and the early months of my post-MBA career. In addition to the Core, the GSB offers many electives that I have leveraged as a consultant, including “Interpersonal Dynamics” (also known as “Touchy Feely” and probably the most valuable course I took), “Formation of New Ventures”, “Managing Growing Interprises”, “Competition and Strategy”, and “Leadership Perspectives”. If you get into the GSB, I’d highly recommend these as must-take courses for you.
As for your question about the skills needed to become a consultant, I won’t address that here because I wrote a pretty extensive entry about it a year or so ago. I’d recommend looking through the archives on my blog and seeking out that entry to get my perspective on that question. I remember that being a pretty extensive one, so it would probably give you a lot to think about. And, I’m not really sure how to answer your qustion about the skills that you would pick up at Stanford that you wouldn’t be able to get elsewhere. I’ve never attended any other business school than the GSB, so I can’t comment on what skills or experiences you would or would not get at another school. I CAN say that you would likely have a great time and learn a lot at the GSB that would ready you for a career in Consulting, which are the most important things to keep in mind.
Your last question about the consulting firms that recruit on campus is a good one, as it will allow you to do some due diligence on them before you arrive at the GSB. I don’t remember all of the firms that recruiting on campus, but I do recall that there were a LOT of them, both large and small. The following are some firms that I remember coming to campus: McKinsey, Bain, BCG, Booz Allen, Mercer (now Oliver Wyman), Deloitte Consulting, Strategic Decisions Group, AT Kearney, LEK Consulting, Katzenbach Partners, ZS Associates, Monitor, Parthenon Group, and Kurt Salmon Associates. Please remember that it’s been a few years since i was a student at the GSB, so the list of firms that recruit there might have changed since then. I’d recommend reaching out to the Career Management Center and asking for a current list if you are admitted. With that said, you will certainly have a lot of companies to choose from when you start looking for your summer internship.
I hope you found the above helpful. Take care and good luck on your GSB application. I’ll have my fingers crossed for you.
-Marquis
The email below is from a Stanford GSB applicant who would like to transition into Consulting after he finishes his MBA. Unfortunately, the round 2 deadline past yesterday and it took me a while to get to his email, so I hope he still finds my response helpful. His questions are mostly around which courses at the GSB are useful in developing the skills needed to be a consultant and what those skills are. I’ve already made a post about the second half of his question in the past, so I’m not addressing it here, but I did give him something on the first part.
And, before moving on to my response, I wanted to share this video of an MBA-themed parody of “Damn it feels good to be a gangster” by the Geto Boys. Some of you will recognize this song from the movie “Office Space” and, as far as I’m concerned, it’s a hip-hop classic. A guy from Fuqua put a great spin on it to make it fit every MBA’s biggest concern, the post-MBA job. You can check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNv2xIrfh88
————
OM wrote:
“Hi Marquis,
My name is OM, I am from Israel, and I am applying for Stanford’s full MBA program, fall 08.
I have been going through your blog and enjoyed your responses very much.
I served for 4 years in the Israeli army, last rank – first lieutenant, and worked for 6 years as Psychometrics teacher (Israeli SATs). I am interested in changing my career course (as you did), and join the field of strategic consulting (as you did). And hoped that you could tell me a little bit about your experience in Stanford.
What were the courses / programs / clubs / experiences which contributed most to your skills development as a consultant? What are the skills you think one should acquire in order to become a consultant? What skills do you think one could acquire in Stanford (and won’t be able to acquire elsewhere)?
What companies related to the field (such as McKinsey, Bain, BCG at cetera) recruiting on the campus ?
Thanks,
OM “
————
My response:
OM,
Thanks for checking out my blog. I’m sorry that I’m just now responding to your email. I was pretty swamped leading up to the holidays and I didn’t mess around with my blog emails during the holidays. I’m assuming that you’re a Round 2 applicant, so I hope this message is getting to you early enough to be of some use to you. If not, I apologize for the delay in replying.
The GSB has lots of offerings that can contribute to building the skills needed as a consultant and I hope you take advantage of as many of them as possible if you get in. The obvious one is the Consulting Club, where you can connect with classmates who either have backgrounds in Consulting or want to pursue that area as their post-MBA industry. You could also pursue any of the other clubs and organizations and take on an active leadership role to build the organizational skills that would be useful to you in consulting. As an example, I used that tactic as a member of the GSB Senate and learned a LOT in only a few quarters in that role.
As far as important classes, the entire MBA core will be valuable in helping to build the basic business understanding that you’ll need as a consultant. As I’ve mentioned on my blog before, I found the Excel Modeling, Strategy, and Marketing courses to be especially useful when approaching the consulting interviews and the early months of my post-MBA career. In addition to the Core, the GSB offers many electives that I have leveraged as a consultant, including “Interpersonal Dynamics” (also known as “Touchy Feely” and probably the most valuable course I took), “Formation of New Ventures”, “Managing Growing Interprises”, “Competition and Strategy”, and “Leadership Perspectives”. If you get into the GSB, I’d highly recommend these as must-take courses for you.
As for your question about the skills needed to become a consultant, I won’t address that here because I wrote a pretty extensive entry about it a year or so ago. I’d recommend looking through the archives on my blog and seeking out that entry to get my perspective on that question. I remember that being a pretty extensive one, so it would probably give you a lot to think about. And, I’m not really sure how to answer your qustion about the skills that you would pick up at Stanford that you wouldn’t be able to get elsewhere. I’ve never attended any other business school than the GSB, so I can’t comment on what skills or experiences you would or would not get at another school. I CAN say that you would likely have a great time and learn a lot at the GSB that would ready you for a career in Consulting, which are the most important things to keep in mind.
Your last question about the consulting firms that recruit on campus is a good one, as it will allow you to do some due diligence on them before you arrive at the GSB. I don’t remember all of the firms that recruiting on campus, but I do recall that there were a LOT of them, both large and small. The following are some firms that I remember coming to campus: McKinsey, Bain, BCG, Booz Allen, Mercer (now Oliver Wyman), Deloitte Consulting, Strategic Decisions Group, AT Kearney, LEK Consulting, Katzenbach Partners, ZS Associates, Monitor, Parthenon Group, and Kurt Salmon Associates. Please remember that it’s been a few years since i was a student at the GSB, so the list of firms that recruit there might have changed since then. I’d recommend reaching out to the Career Management Center and asking for a current list if you are admitted. With that said, you will certainly have a lot of companies to choose from when you start looking for your summer internship.
I hope you found the above helpful. Take care and good luck on your GSB application. I’ll have my fingers crossed for you.
-Marquis
