Archive | management consulting

Advice for a paralegal looking to move into Consulting

Categories: Business, career, career path, consulting, management consulting, professional advice, transition

The email below is from a relatively recent college grad who currently works as a paralegal at a large law firm, but strongly desires to make a transition into management consulting. One complication for him is that he’s only been in his current job for about 6 months and isn’t sure how making a jump so soon into his job will affect the way that consulting firms will look at him.

Tough situation, right? Check out the text below to see the advice that I shared with him.

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JH wrote:

Hi Marquis,

I’ve graduated from the U. Va. in

… Read the rest

Prospective McKinsey consultant seeking advice on connecting with current staff

Categories: career, consulting, management consulting, McKinsey, professional advice

I received the following email from a reader who is interested in applying for a position at McKinsey & Company’s London office, but is hoping to speak with someone working in that office before submitting his application. As I mention in my response to him, he may have a bit of an uphill battle with connecting with someone from McK before applying, but, if he’s willing to hustle, he may be able to make it happen.

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NE wrote:

Dear Marquis,

I’m interested in applying to McKinsey in London. However, before submitting an application, I wanted the opportunity to find

… Read the rest

Advice for an entrepreneur considering transitioning into Management Consulting

Categories: Business School, career, career path, consulting, entrepreneurship, management consulting, mba, recruiting, Stanford GSB

The email below came to me from one of my classmates from Stanford GSB, who was seeking my advice regarding a potential job search. Following our MBA graduation, he launched a start-up and has been grinding on it full-time since then. Recently, he’s been considering making a career transition, using his entrepreneurial experience as a launchpad into role in Management Consulting.

Given my experiences as a former Consultant, he reached out for my perspective on this proposed action. What he’s thinking about isn’t exactly the traditional path into Consulting, but it certainly is not impossible. Check out my response below … Read the rest

Question from a medical student considering Consulting as a career

Categories: career, career path, consulting, management consulting, professional advice

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

… Read the rest

Work-life balance advice for a soon-to-be McKinsey intern

Categories: career, career-life balance, consulting, management consulting, professional advice

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

Question about transitioning to a “Big 3″ Consulting firm as an experienced hire

Categories: career, career path, consulting, Financing the MBA, management consulting, mba, professional advice, transition

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

High-level overview of the Management Consulting industry

Categories: consulting, management consulting, strategy

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

Reader wondering how to get into McKinsey from a school with less brand name

Categories: Business, career, consulting, management consulting, professional advice

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

Moving from government work to Management Consulting

Categories: Business, career, consulting, management consulting, mba, Networking, professional advice

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 MBA … Read the rest

Follow-up to Consulting candidate with concerns about lifestyle

Categories: Bschool admissions, Business School, career, consulting, management consulting, mba

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

… Read the rest

Candidate interested in Consulting, but with concerns about lifestyle

Categories: career, career-life balance, consulting, management consulting, professional advice

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

Active duty military soldier with future interest in Consulting

Categories: career, career path, consulting, management consulting, mba, professional advice, recruiting, transition

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

Soon-to-be MBA1 student seeking advice on prepping for Consulting internship interviews

Categories: Business School, career, consulting, Industries, management consulting, mba

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

Indian MBA student looking to break into Management Consulting

Categories: Business, Business School, career, consulting, management consulting, mba, Networking, professional advice, recruiting

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

Princeton Senior with questions about my experiences at McKinsey

Categories: career, consulting, management consulting, professional advice

The email below came in from a reader who is currently in her senior year at Princeton, my alma mater (GO TIGERS!!! B-)). She was fortunate enough to make it to the closed list for interviews for Analyst positions with McKinsey and Bain. Her interviews are coming up next week and she had a series of questions for me about my experiences as a Management Consultant at McKinsey. It seems that she thought I’d been a Business Analyst there, but, despite her mistake, she asked some pretty good questions.

I didn’t answer all of her queries as fully as … Read the rest