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

Man, I love it when college kids hit me up with questions because I’m often surprised by how insightful those questions are. During my undergrad days, I didn’t have a clue about career issues and didn’t even know to ask about things that kids contact me about now.

The email below is from a rising Junior at the University of Minnesota who has a good academic foundation, but doesn’t know what he wants to do career-wise after college. I’m sure that this is a feeling with which many people can identify. His specific questions are about how I was able … Read the rest

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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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In this entry, you’ll be introduced to Tanisha Drummer, a Strategy professional and former Management Consultant. Tanisha is a friend of mine from my years at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and has done some really interesting things in her career. Tanisha is a former Management Consultant in Accenture’s Strategy Practice, where she focused on Marketing strategy for 4 years before business school and 1.5 years afterward. She’s been in her current Corporate Strategy role at US Cellular for over a year now and has been having tremendous impact.

I’m tempted to give you more background on her … Read the rest

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The email below came from a reader who found me through the interview that I did for ManagementConsulted.com about a year ago. During that interview, I shared several insights that I picked up during my time at McKinsey and tried to give some tips for other folks who want to follow a similar path. Since that interview, I have received several emails from people who had really good and specific questions about topics that I didn’t cover that day and the email below is another one of those. I’ll let you read this person’s questions below.

I’m not certain that … Read the rest

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In today’s entry, I bring you the third installment of the “Conversations” interview series, featuring a discussion with Linda Abraham, Founder and President of Accepted.com. Those of you who have applied to business school in the past few years or are currently applying likely know about Linda and her organization. Those of you who don’t should definitely start learning about her because she’s one of the best admissions consultants in the game today.

Since the mid-1990′s, Accepted.com has worked with tons of applicants to undergraduate and graduate programs over the years and has seen significant success with its focus … Read the rest

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In the past few months, I’ve posted several articles about the iffy job market and, at times like these, we all owe it to ourselves to be as thoughtful as possible about managing our careers. I’ve built my career the hard way by making a lot of mistakes and learning from them to improve, but, looking back, it really wouldn’t have been so challenging if I’d had someone to coach me (which is one of the reasons that I’m so passionate about sharing good career and education insights on this site). Unfortunately, most of us don’t have access to a… Read the rest

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What’s going on, y’all. I’m writing this entry with a big smile on my face because today was the second warm day in a row here in Chicago. That may be a weird thing to be happy about, but y’all weren’t here on those days when the temperature was in the -20′s a few months ago. Walking outside and not needing a coat here is amazing. I know that it’ll probably get ridiculously hot soon, but I’m loving the few days of Springtime weather that we’ll see in 2009. Even better, the folks outside just looked happier now that the… Read the rest

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Hey there, everyone. I hope you’re all having a great Sunday and are getting some decent rest in before starting another week of work. As for myself, I’m on my way out to check out the Chicago Ribfest to likely eat waaaaay too much and do some major damage to my swole. I’m going to have to hit the gym pretty hard tomorrow to make up for this afternoon. So far, the month of June has been pretty cold and rainy in Chicago, so it’s nice that we have a day in the 70′s and folks are outside in droves.… Read the rest

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