How have exit opportunities changed for you after exiting consulting?

Question

One of the big perks for consulting: the exit opportunities!

However, I'm wondering if those exit opportunities are something you only get a chance at once (when you exit) or long after you've left consulting and gone into different industries.

Some of the exit opportunities open to consultants include: VCs, PEs, Industry, Startups, etc etc. Now let's say you leave consulting and go to a startup. Will it now be quite hard to go into PE or Investing roles after? You technically still fit the mold of having done consulting, just that now you did consulting and a startup.

For those who are a bit further on in your careers, do the benefits of "exit opportunities" consulting brags about still live on years post your MBB journey? Or is it a depreciating good?

Answer 1

Hi there,

I would be happy to share my thoughts on your question:

First of all, based on the experiences in my personal network, having worked in strategy consulting is of course not a depreciating asset, even if you may not continue to be hired as "the ex-strategy consultant". You can build upon what you've learned in strategy consulting and move forward from there. Strategy consulting really isn't the only industry where you learn valuable skills and acquire knowledge.
Moreover, as interesting as this topic may be, I would advise you to first focus on securing a consulting offer before thinking about leaving.

You can find more on this topic here: How to succeed in the final interview round.

If you would like a more detailed discussion on how to best prepare your application files, for your upcoming pre-interview assessments and/or interviews, please don't hesitate to contact me directly.

Best,

Hagen

Answer 2

Hi,

based on my peers and network, I would say it depends. There are natural entry points to the jobs you mention. Say for example PE after around 2 years of consulting. Now if you exit to tech and then later want to switch to PE that will be more challenging as you are no longer fitting the natural entry points.

However, this does not mean that your strategy consulting experience is a depreciating good. Rather you are going down a path which makes some next steps more likely than others.

Best,
Lukas

Answer 3

Hi There,

This is a great question and happy to answer. I think it depends on a few different factors:

1. Length of time you worked in Consulting

2. Type of Work/Range of Work you completed while in Consulting

3. Position you obtained & worked in right before you left

4. New position roles and responsibilities

5. Time away from consulting

Overall, the skillset you would obtain in a Consulting role does not necessarily devalue or become less important, it happens to be really more the path you go down. If you did quite a bit of diligence work and then go to a PE Investing role and continue to go down that path, then I would argue your consulting work is not only relevant, but probably still something you may reference. However, if the work you are doing it completely unrelated to your path, then you will still have the stamp of working at your firm, but you probably will not really use it/won't be looked at as heavily for your new role.

It really depends on your path, but at some point, your most recent experiences will probably be looked at with a bit more importance.

Hope this helps!

-Ankit A