Being a non target in Australia (applying for MBB and T2).

Hi Danny, 

Actually, the uni often matters less than what you did during your uni time. 

For instance, have you done any internships in consulting? Or any internships that have helped you develop skills that would be useful in consulting? Have you been part of a consulting club? Have you done any probono consulting work for a local organisation?

These are all within your control and can help improve your CV dramatically over the short run (by comparison, you can't change your university so easily). 

Hope this helps. 

You might also find a few more useful tips in these two guides:

Expert Guide: Build A Winning Application Strategy

Expert Guide: What Do Management Consultants Do?

Best,
Cristian

Hi Danny,

Q: Will being a non target in Australia dramatically reduce my chances of securing a T2 or MBB consulting offer?

You can check it on LinkedIn. If you see very few of your school alumni working there, most likely your chances are low. If you see a good number of alumni, you should still have a good chance.

Even if you don’t see a track record of your school alumni, there are still ways to increase your chances of getting an invitation. I would recommend the following:

• Prepare a CV/Cover in line with the consulting format. You can find more on that in points #1 and #2 below
• Find referrals from alumni of your school. You can find more on referrals in point #3 below
• Apply to a wide range of consulting firms, including Tier 3/Boutique
• If it doesn’t work, target a strategy role and apply again in 2 years/after the ban to the consulting firms
• If that also doesn’t work, you can work for 2-3 years and then target a top MBA (eg INSEAD) and apply again after that

In terms of the application, I would recommend working on 3 main things to increase your chances of an invitation. I listed them below.

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1) CV

The key elements they will look for and that you can optimize are:

• University brand
• Major
• GPA
• Work experience
• Experience abroad
• Extracurriculars and volunteer experience

Red flags include:

• Low GPA
• Lack of any kind of work experience
• Bad formatting / typos
• 3-4 pages length
• Lack of clear action --> results structure for the bullets of the experiences
• Long paragraphs (3-4 lines) for the bullets of the experiences with irrelevant details
• Long time gaps without any explanation

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2) COVER LETTER

You can structure a cover in 4 parts:

1. Introduction, mentioning the position you are interested in and a specific element you find attractive for that company
2. Why you are qualified for the job, where you can report 3 skills/stories from your CV, ideally related to leadership, impact, drive and teamwork
3. Why you are interested in that particular firm, with additional 1-2 specific reasons
4. Final remarks, mentioning again your interest and contacts

In part 2 you can write about experiences that show skills useful in consulting such as drive, problem-solving, leadership, teamwork and convincing others.

It is important that in part 3 you make your cover specific to a particular firm – the rule of thumb is, can you send the exact same cover to another consulting company if you change the name? If that’s the case, your cover is too generic.

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3) REFERRALS

To find a referral, you should follow three steps:

1. Identify the people who can help you
2. Write to them a customized email
3. Have a call and indirectly ask for a referral

You can find more information on networking and referrals here:

▶ How to Get an MBB Invitation 

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BONUS: INTERVIEW PREPARATION

After you managed to get an invitation you need to find out how to pass the interview. You can find more on that at the link below.

▶ How to Prepare for an MBB Interview

Good luck!

Francesco

Being from a non target school reduces your chances no matter the region because there's only a few spots available compared to the number of people applying so firms can afford to be very picky with whom they select. In order to increase your chances of being interviewed you can focus on networking with alumni of your college who are currently at the firms you want to work at and ask them for referrals and other help to get your foot in the door. 

Hi there,

To be fully honest, yes it does!

The more junior the profile, the higher the weight of the academic pedigree. This does not mean that you have no chance at all.

You can somewhat balance it with other factors (as you mentioned) as well as a strong referral from the target company.

One thing you could do is to scan LinkedIn for current consultants, who graduated from your alma mater. See how many there are and then reach out to some. ;-)

All the best,

Florian

Yes, it definitely does.

Hi Danny,

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

• First of all, yes, the fact that you are coming from a non-target university is an additional challenge when applying to consulting, especially if you don't have a lot of work experience that would matter more than your academic achievements.
• However, if you are interested in this industry, I see no reason why you shouldn't do your best to succeed and see the results.

If you would like a more detailed discussion on how to best prepare for your applications, please don't hesitate to contact me directly.

Best,

Hagen

Hi Danny,

I screened resumes and conducted interviews for Big 4 consulting arms for over 4 years and non-target schools has not been a blocker at all - however what we cared about more is showcasing transferrable skillset in structured communication, succinct writing styles, and logical thinking. 

Happy to chat more about it to learn about your background and what kind of consulting you are interested to explore :) (quiet frankly there are so many different types of consulting that can be confusing haha)

Cheers!