Archive | Blog

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

Question from a recent LBS MBA grad starting at McKinsey London

Categories: Business School, career, consulting, professional advice

The message below is from a longtime reader of this site who recently graduated with his MBA from London Business School. Also, he scored a post-MBA position with McKinsey’s London office, which is a huge feat given the office’s popularity. Now that he’s started the job, he asked for some tips on how to position himself well at the start of his time at The Firm. Hope he finds the following advice to be useful.

—
AH wrote:

Hi Marquis!

Thanks a ton for the fantastic blog you’ve run the last few years. It inspired and guided me a lot

… Read the rest

Question from a Freshman studying business and seeking career guidance

Categories: Business, career, Education

Hey, everyone. I can’t remember if I mentioned it earlier, but, back in September, I was invited to give a talk about optimizing one’s career and education at Indiana University. The audience was a group of freshman who were part of a special residential program for top students in the undergrad Kelley School of Business called the Kelley Living Learning Center. This was my first professional speaking engagement, so it was a pretty big deal for me.

The email below is from one of the students who attended that speech. Although he is majoring in Business, he isn’t sure which … 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

Question from an MBA applicant with entrepreneurial aspirations

Categories: Business, Business concepts, career, consulting, entrepreneurship, mba, professional advice

The email below is from an aspiring entrepreneur who found me through my interview on Management Consulted. He’s a former Equity Research Associate who took the entrepreneurial plunge with his father last year. Now, he’s planning to apply to business school and is looking for some advice about getting further along on his entrepreneurial journey. He has several questions about my own journey and how Management Consulting might fit into that story. Without further delay…

—–
MS wrote:

Hi Marquis,

I came across you interview on Management Consulted and found the interview very informative and helpful. Let me briefly

… Read the rest

European reader considering MBA versus MSc in Finance

Categories: Business School, career, Education, mba, pre-MBA grad degrees

The email below is from a reader who is deciding whether to pursue an MBA or a Master of Science in Finance. I get these kidns of questions every now and then and, while I’m not an expert on these other grad degree, I do have opinions on the questions. Hopefully, this member found my perspectives to be useful.

—–
JH wrote:

Hi, Marquis. recently I’ve discovered your web site and read three of your blogs after registration. It was very informative and useful for me. Thank you! Taking advantage of opportunity to contact you, I would like you to

… 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

What You Can Actually Do With An Online Business Degree

Categories: Business School, career, Education, mba

For those that are faced with entering the education arena or contemplating returning to it, many often wonder exactly what you can do with an online business degree. As we’ve seen in recent years, it’s been terribly difficult for anyone to find a job and just because you have a degree, this doesn’t mean that you’re automatically entitled to a job. There are many factors to consider when both entering and leaving an educational environment for the larger work-force.

A business degree, like any other type of degree program, is only a starting point. It is only a guide that … 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.

—–
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

Planning for conference attendance – #Hashtags to Handshakes

Categories: events, guest bloggers, Networking, other sites

The article below was submitted by my friend Mike “Ambassador” Bruny, who is a successful life coach and speaker on a range of topics including networking, motivation, and diversity. He has a passion for helping people to make the most of their interactions with new people and, as a part of that, he thought the following piece would be useful for the readers of this blog.

—–
Title: Planning for conference attendance – #Hashtags to Handshakes
Author: Mike “Ambassador” Bruny

September 1st is the unofficial end of summer. School has started, vacations are ending and there is a feeling … Read the rest

Follow-up to active duty military soldier post

Categories: career, consulting, Government, mba, professional advice

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.

—
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

20 essential Six Sigma blogs

Categories: Business, Business concepts, interesting articles, operations, other blogs, other sites

A few months back, I received an email from Rose King, who manages content for Bschool.com, to pass along a link to one of their articles listing the top 20 blogs with information about Six Sigma.

For those of you who have never heard of the Six Sigma concept, here’s a definition from Wikipedia:

Six Sigma seeks to improve the quality of process outputs by identifying and removing the causes of defects (errors) and minimizing variability in manufacturing and business processes. It uses a set of quality management methods, including statistical methods, and creates a special infrastructure of

… Read the rest