How to switch from an engineering to a consulting career?

Question

Dear Forum,

I'm asking for your help and experiences to help me figure out what my next steps into consulting might be. I've been making a plan for the last few days, but would be incredibly interested in your recommendations.

Briefly about me: I am 23, engineering student at German university. Will finish my degree in September with 1.3. In the A-levels I had a 1.5, in the Bachelor equivalent only a 3.0 (I'll get to that in a moment). Scholarship present, both theses of the study nominated for highest technical price. Parallel to my studies, I worked for two and a half years as an IT employee in an e-automotive medium-sized company (30 employees), among other things as a project manager (often approx. 40-60h/week) and later shortly as a technical consultant. During this time, I managed many projects, including digital marketing, cybersecurity and merchandise management, and helped plan strategic corporate decisions. Therefore I had little time for my Bachelor equivalent degree.
Since April I have been active in a student consuting group (first experience with management consulting), was financial director of a carnival association for 2 years (over a thousand guests per year) and sit on the board of the youth organization of one of the big political parties in Germany. Unfortunately NO international experience (thx Corona for cancelling both semesters abroad) or classic internships.

I really want to switch to consulting after my studies and not start as an engineer, because I mega enjoy the economic-entrepreneurial topics and want more customer contact (also I like to work 50h+). Now I applied to Kearney + Wyman three weeks ago to test the waters and promptly got two rejections (plus panic). Goal for me is to get into McK/BCG eventually (explaining why would take too long). I assume the main factor for the rejection is the lack of international experience and consulting experience.

Do you have any recommendations on what I could do now to strengthen my profile? I am currently thinking about applying for international positions at Accenture/Capgemini or in-house consultancies, and I will be sending out a lot of emails to the HRs today asking them about this. Do you guys have any tips or recommendations for me on how to proceed now and would make sense?

Thank you so so much!

Answer 1

Hi there,

You need to remember that this is a numbers game. You can have the best resume + cover letter in the world and still get rejected. Even the best application doesn't have a 100% chance of getting accepted.

That said, there are a few things you can do:

Network extensively - if you network, and especially if you get a referral, your odds go up substantially
Get your resume and cover letter reviewed professionally. What's a few hundred $ to maximize your odds for a $160k offer?
Get additional experience - there are lots of free/pro bono consulting experience programs out there
Apply to a lot of firms. I personally applied to 30

Answer 2

Hey,

I doubt that you were rejected for your lack of consulting experience (most of the new hires for entry position don't have any) nor the lack of international experience (everyone knows that Corona made it difficult so HR are being more flexible). You seem to have interesting professional experiences for a student, if they are nicely put they would definitely catch the eye of a recruiter.

For entry positions, not being called for an interview is most often due to not fitting the academic requirements (university or grades) or a poorly written resume/cover letter. It can also be that they are not recruiting (as much) at the moment and only invite outstanding profiles to interview.

Do you know if students from your uni, with similar grades, got rejected as well? Did someone with experience review your resume/cover letter? You can have a coach on preplounge help you on the latter, in case you have no one in your entourage.

Good luck!

Answer 3

Hello,

I think Ian's advice was pretty spot on. To strengthen your profile, I would recommend getting additional useful experience (the Accenture/Capgemini or in-house consultancy jobs you mention sound great), and making sure your resume is as polished as it can be by getting some expert feedback on it.

If your ultimate goal is MBB, my main recommendation would be to network - go to industry events, proactively reach out to people. If you can ultimately get a referral, that will significantly increase your chances of success.