Archive | career path

How MBAs can adjust to career setbacks in the current job market (guest post)

Categories: Business, Business School, career, career path, Education, guest bloggers, mba

The article below was contributed by Richard McMunn, who is a UK-based expert on career development and transition. When he reached out to me with an offer to write an article for me, I asked him to focus on how one might best handle the stress that comes along with being laid off, fired, or some other similarly traumatizing career situation. I think that the advice he came up with is absolutely golden.

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Title: How MBAs Can Adjust to Career Setbacks in the Current Job Market Author: Richard McMunn

Today’s economic and business climate is a tough one, and … Read the rest

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

How to bounce back from being laid off

Categories: career, career path, guest bloggers, other sites, transition

In today’s economy, many people around the world have had to deal with the shock involved with being laid off. For most people, being told that their employer no longer needs their services is a huge surprise and can lead to fear, apprehension, financial strain, and, worst of all, depression. Having been laid off earlier in my career, I understand how difficult it can be to come back from such a blow.

I’ve wanted to write a post on this topic for a while, but my schedule hasn’t really allowed me the time to think through how to best present … Read the rest

Advice for an MBA summer intern worried about chances for a full-time offer

Categories: Business School, career, career path, consulting, internship, mba, professional advice, recruiting

Hey, folks. The email below came to me from a rising second-year MBA student from a top program, who is currently in the middle of a summer Management Consulting internship with one of the MBB firms. He has reached out to me because he recently had his mid-summer performance review and the feedback that he received was not positive. Now, he’s worried that he won’t get an offer st the end of his internship and he’s worried that it’ll impact his candidacy when going into the full-time recruiting process in the Fall.

This isn’t a situation that I’ve faced myself, … 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

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

Question from a college Soph targeting a technology management career

Categories: About Marquis, Business, career, career path, consulting, Education, IT consulting, pre-MBA grad degrees, professional advice, Technology, Technology management, Technology-related

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,

… Read the rest

Most important traits for an undergrad in this economic environment

Categories: About Marquis, career, career path, Education, professional advice

The email below comes from a Freshman student at Indiana University who I met during MLK Weekend. She’s part of a program for the top students in IU’s undergrad business school and I spent some time hanging out with them on the Saturday of the weekend and organized a panel discussion with some of my Aon colleagues for them on the Monday morning. After returning to Bloomington, this student contacted me for advice on some issues that are top-of-mind for a lot of college students.

The student asked me 2 separate questions, but, as I was responding, I realized that … Read the rest

Question from a college junior targeting a Management Consulting internship

Categories: Business, career, career path, consulting, internship, professional advice

Hi, everyone! For those of you in the United States, I hope you’ve all had a great Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

The email below is from a Junior at Stanford University who is seeking my advice on how to best position himself to get an summer internship offer from a top Management Consulting firm. He emailed me at the end of the summer, but I didn’t have a chance to respond to him until a couple of weeks ago. I’m pretty sure that I got my advice to him in time for it to be useful for the upcoming summer internship … Read the rest

Comparing post-undergrad opportunities in brand management and boutique TMT consulting

Categories: Business, Business School, career, career path, consulting, mba

In the email below, a reader asks for my advice in comparing his 2 job offers coming out of undergrad: an assistant brand management role at Procter & Gamble and a position at a boutique consultancy focused on technology, media, and telecom. I was humbled but a little reluctant to respond to this email at first because the first job out of college is a huge deal. Also, the kid lives in Europe and I don’t know the job market out there too well. In the end, I just gave him my honest read on his situation and hope that… Read the rest

College junior wondering how to find his career niche

Categories: About Marquis, career, career path, career-life balance, consulting, professional advice

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

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

Considering a large vs. a boutique consulting firm to start a career

Categories: career, career path, consulting

The message below comes from a recent college graduate in Turkey who has a bit of Consulting experience under his belt as a summer intern for Accenture. Now that he’s graduated, he’s considering 2 options to start his full-time career: Accenture and a new boutique firm that is focused on the Middle East. As my longtime readers will remember, I posted a pretty long entry a while back to describe the differences between large firms and boutiques and have also covered this topic in different forms over the years. Since I’ve written in depth about this before, my response to… Read the rest

Conversation with Josh Savage, Global Benefits Consultant and Hip-Hop Artist

Categories: Business, career, career path, Conversations, music industry, my peoples

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