Hi there,
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1) Does anyone have experience making that move from a no-name startup to a large consulting firm, and if so, advice on how to structure the pivot?
I sort of made the opposite move. Both are feasible – I hired several people in my first startup that ended in consulting after that.
It is totally fine to move from a startup to consulting. The main issue from your description seems the lack of brand name of the startup. But you can compensate for that with a strong referral.
Overall, you need 3 things to land in strategy consulting: a great CV, a great Cover and a referral.
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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
The fact you don't have consulting experience is not a problem if you structure your CV correclty.
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:
- Introduction, mentioning the position you are interested in and a specific element you find attractive for that company
- 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
- Why you are interested in that particular firm, with additional 1-2 specific reasons
- 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 main steps:
- Identify the people that can help you
- Write them a customized email
- Have a call and indirectly ask for a referral
As general tips:
- Don’t use LinkedIn for your communication – emails work better. You should target 30% conversion for your messages; if you are not achieving that, there is space for improvement
- When sending emails, your goal should be to organize a call, not to ask questions – you can then use the call for the questions
- You need to close the call with an indirect request for a referral – don’t leave that to chances. There are specific ways to phrase it
You should prepare three main things before the call:
- Your own pitch. 3-4 lines should be enough
- 3-4 questions on the personal experiences of the person. Avoid to ask questions about the company
- A closing question for the referral. It should be an indirect request to avoid being too pushy
You can find more information on networking and referrals here:
▶ How to Get an MBB Invitation
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2) Is startup experience appreciated and should it be emphasised or de-emphasised?
Totally fine to emphasize it - there are several overlapping areas between the two worlds. Just be sure to have a clear answer for why not another startup given your experience - they most likely will ask you that question.
Good luck!
Francesco
