I’m not certain that I provided the kind of responses that he was seeking, but I did do my best to give comprehensive answers to most of them…and I’ve given GREAT answers one of his questions MANY times over in the past few years

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DT wrote:

Hello Marquis,

I have just read your interview in the ManagementConsulted blog. Glad that I did, because it was very informative and inspiring! Rest assured that I will be following your blog too from now on. I just have a couple of follow up questions and I would be really grateful if you could fine some time to answer them. For your information, I have an Aeronautical Engineering background and I’m going to start the MSc Management program of the London Business School this September. My desire is to work in one of the Big3 consulting firms with a future aspiration of a corporate management role. So, my questions are the following:

1) You said that we should plan about the impact that a career in consulting could have in our personal lives (loved ones, family etc). You also said that if you had done such a planning things could be different. Can you comment on that? What type of planning are you suggesting?

2) I was always wondering if the firm chooses the airline which consultants use. It seems a minor issue but I wouldn’t like to fly with airlines without proven record and good reputation.

3) Do you have any more insider tips about recruiting? Networking, interview preparation, due diligence in the research of the companies…anything else?

4) Last but not least, the million dollar question: Do you think that I must sometime do an MBA, or the MSc Management that I will do, is sufficient in order to climb the ranks of a consulting firm?

Thank you very much for your time and I hope we stay in touch.

Regards,
DT

Key points:

• 1) You said that we should plan about the impact that a career in consulting could have in our personal lives (loved ones, family etc). You also said that if you had done such a planning things could be different. Can you comment on that? What type of planning are you suggesting?
  This is a pretty complex question to answer, but the short answer is “it all depends on the type of person you are and the priorities you make in your life”. The longer answer is explored in the video.
• 2) I was always wondering if the firm chooses the airline which consultants use. It seems a minor issue but I wouldn’t like to fly with airlines without proven record and good reputation.
  From what I’ve experienced and heard, firms give their consultants the choice of which airlines they’d like to fly. But, oftentimes, the airline chosen comes down to several factors, including convenience, availability of flights in a given city/region, and loyalty. No matter what, a firm is not going to mandate that its employees fly on an unreliable, unsafe, or overall undesirable airline.
• 3) Do you have any more insider tips about recruiting? Networking, interview preparation, due diligence in the research of the companies…anything else?
  Yes, I have LOTS of other tips and I’ve covered them several times before in other blog entries. Check the archives and they’ll be easy to find.
• 4) Last but not least, the million dollar question: Do you think that I must sometime do an MBA, or the MSc Management that I will do, is sufficient in order to climb the ranks of a consulting firm?
  I don’t believe that an MBA is necessary to move up in a consulting firm and know several people who have done so with an equivalent of the MSc in Management degree. One potential area of concern is the level at which the person would start at the firm, but that is all situational based on the firm and the candidate’s background.