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

The email below came in from a reader who is currently in medical school and is considering joining McKinsey & Company after graduation. His question is about job security as a Consultant and whether he’d be making a risky move by passing up a surefire career in medicine to learn about business in Management Consulting.

Unfortunately, it took me a while to respond to this reader’s email, so I might have sent it to him too late to be helpful in his thinking around the decision. I hope that isn’t the case though.

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DN wrote:

Hi,

I am a

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The email below came to me from a college junior who has scored a unique opportunity for a summer internship at McKinsey that is unlike any other that I’ve ever heard of. He found out about me through the interview I did for ManagementConsulted.com a couple of years ago and asked for my advice on how to maintain a work-life balance during his internship. In my interview, I mentioned that as one of the toughest parts about making the transition into the Consulting industry.

I have a feeling that he’ll be surprised by my response because it wasn’t as touchy-feely … Read the rest

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The email below is from one of my visitors who was seeking advice on how to transition to a Big 3 Consulting firm (i.e., McKinsey, Bain, and BCG) in an Analyst role as an experienced hire. Consulting firms usually hire Analyst-level talent directly after school, so the move that this reader is targeting can be a tricky one. I know a few people who have done this, so I definitely have a few ideas on the topic.

His question is similar to ones that I’ve received a few times before, so, luckily, I was able to refer him to a … Read the rest

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The email below was written by a student from the Indiana University group that I mentioned a few entries ago. I met him during a student trip to Chicago held in mid-January. He and I chatted a bit about his desire to move into IT after his college graduation and, since I used to work in the industry, he thought I’d be able to give him some good advice. Please read below for his questions and my answers to those questions and a key question that he didn’t ask but that I thought would be important.

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AK wrote:

Marquis,

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Recently, I’ve received several emails asking me to provide an overview of the Management Consulting industry and, in those cases, I’ve referred people to my archived blog entries, where Consulting is discussed at length. Given the interest in this topic, I thought it would make sense to present a single big “Here’s what Consulting is all about” perspective. Normally, this perspective would take a long time to create, but, fortunately, I’m able to leverage something that I created back in 2009, which may be a little old but is still largely relevant to the current state of the industry.

A … Read the rest

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Long-time visitors to this site are probably used to seeing folks ask me questions about how to get into McK (or one of its peer firms). In this case, the author of the email below was seeking advice on how he could position himself to get into McK’s Philippines office. He believed that his situation was complicated by the fact that he comes from an academic institution that doesn’t have a top brand in his country, which, according to him, can have great impact on one’s chances at the top firms. Because I don’t know the policies in his office… Read the rest

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Happy new year, everyone! Hopefully, you all had a great holiday season and a safe entry into 2012. Now that I’ve had a couple of days to recover from the holidays, I figured that I should get back to posting truth and wisdom

The message below is from a reader who currently works as an intelligence analyst for the government and wants to make a transition into Management Consulting. He’s wondering whether he has a shot of making this move without having to go off to business school. As my long-time readers know, I’m a huge fan of the … Read the rest

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Last week, I posted my response to a reader who was interested in pursuing a career in Consulting but didn’t know whether the lifestyle sacrifices would be too much. After my response, he sent me another email with a couple of follow-up questions. The continuation of my exchange with him is below.

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DL wrote:

Marquis,

Thank you for your thorough response to my questions. It came exactly when I needed and were a great help in making my decision. Over the last several weeks I have given a lot of thought to what you said and wondered if I

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This post is all about a topic that concerns a lot of folks who are targeting positions in Management Consulting, the lifestyle…Or, more specifically, the sacrifices in lifestyle that can come as a Consultant.

The email below came to me from a reader who is interested in going for a job in Consulting, but is worried about whether he’d have to sacrifice time with his wife and son in order to do so. Also, he’s curious about whether he’d be a fit for a top firm given his background and personality. Check out the text below to see my response. … Read the rest

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A couple of weeks ago, I posted my response to a question from an active duty soldier who is targeting a career in Consulting once he finishes his time in the service. After receiving my email, he followed up with another one to probe a little more on the subject. I’ve posted the follow-up exchange below.

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RH wrote:

Marquis,

Thanks! Your advice was spot on and exactly what i needed. I have been focusing my efforts toward Booz Allen because i know several people who work there, so that makes it easier to get in the door.

In your

… Read the rest

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The email below came in from an active duty soldier in the U.S. Air Force who is interested in pursuing a career in Consulting after his time in the service ends next year. He’s close to completing his MBA at a non-top-tier MBA program (he has done his coursework while in the military) and he’s wondering if that would hinder him from having a shot at a big-name firm.

I might have mentioned this before, but I’ve got a soft spot for folks in the military because several of my family members have served. I hope that my advice is … Read the rest

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Hey, folks. Wow, it feels like it’s been forever since I’ve posted an entry. I have to apologize for that and say that it wasn’t because I didn’t have anything to write about. The past couple of months have been crazy with me moving into a new role at my day job (which included a bump-up to VP), so I’ve spent most of my time with my head down to make a good starting impression. That said, I’ve still been responding to some emails in my Inbox, but I just hadn’t taken the time to post them up here. This… Read the rest

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In this entry, I’m fielding a question from an MBA student from a business school in India. He’s interested in Consulting, but, while his school has great placements in several industries, it doesn’t have a reputation of placing people into the Consulting industry. It appears that his undergraduate institution isn’t very reputed in India, so he’s wondering whether he has a chance to break into Consulting.

Emails like this that ask about how things go in other countries are tough for me because I only have what I’ve read about business customs in other nations to serve as a foundation … Read the rest

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In this entry, you’ll be introduced to a young business professional named Josh Savage… Read the rest, a Global Benefits Consultant at a huge multinational firm in Atlanta. So far, he’s done some interesting things in his career, but, in my opinion, the most interesting thing about him is that he’s a hip-hop artist and is 100% committed to that as his future path. If you spend 5 minutes with him, you’ll realize that his personality is not like most other folks in his corporate line of work and, given his sense of style and “swag”, he’s more of a “Pharell Williams”-type

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In this entry, we’ll be talking to a Seattle-based business professional named Kenji Crosland, who is an entrepreneur and search-engine optimization expert. Kenji currently serves an “SEO Samurai” for Teachstreet.com, a startup that brings motivated learners and talented teachers together. Prior to joining Teachstreet, Kenji founded 2 businesses with the most recent being GoldHat.org, a social donations site focused on funding creative projects.

Before taking his initial plunge into entrepreneurship, Kenji’s career took him on an interesting path, which included working as an English tutor and headhunter in Japan and as an author and copywriter. When I … Read the rest

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