Hi there,

This is indeed an interesting question which is probably relevant for a lot of users, thus I am happy to provide my perspective on it:

• It is very much possible to make a career switch from market research to strategy consulting, but the likelihood of success will depend on a variety of factors. These may include your qualifications, skills, and experience, as well as the specific consulting firm and role you are targeting.
• In general, strategy consulting firms are looking for candidates with strong analytical skills, problem-solving ability, and communication skills. As a team lead with over 4 years of experience in market research, you may have developed some of these skills, but it is important to consider whether you have the specific expertise and experience that consulting firms are looking for.
• If you are interested in making a career switch to strategy consulting, it may be helpful to assess your current skills and experience, and determine what additional training or experience you may need in order to be a competitive candidate. You may also want to consider networking with people in the consulting industry, attending industry events, and gaining experience through other opportunities. This can help you to gain a better understanding of the consulting industry and increase your chances of success in making a career switch.

In case you want a more detailed discussion on what to do in your specific situation, please feel free to contact me directly.

Best,

Hagen

It is definitely possible! I worked in an economic consultancy for 6 years and managed to recently secure a BCG offer.

Here are the three things that helped me:

• Why the move?

You need to be clear on why you want to move (e.g. more exposure to high-level strategic decisions that you have influenced by market research you were involved in). 

It will also help you narrow down on the skills that you bring to the table (e.g. quantitative skills, managing a complex research piece).

These things will be invaluable in getting your foot in the door through networking as well as helping you on interview day.

• Getting a foot in the door

I was lucky enough to receive a referral to BCG. I would recommend networking to try and secure one yourself, to maximise the chance of your application getting looked at.

This will require you to find people who you may be similar to (e.g. experience, work and school contacts etc..) and that you can convince you are applying for the right reasons and are a potentially good fit.

• Aiming for being exceptional on the day

Once you have the interview set, you will need to practice ALOT! There are lots of great experts on PrepLounge which can help you with that. Take a look at my 3 stages of case preparation. Doing 10 live cases with a partner may only get you to stage 1. Set enough time to really prioritise casing.

Please consider upvoting my answer if you found it helpful! Very happy to chat if helpful.

(editiert)

I have a different view than other coaches. 

I think it is a quite difficult move, in particular given the current slowdown in consulting. 

It may be possible to move from market research to the knowledge team at MBB firms. But be aware that the knowledge team is not a consulting team.

However, it depends on your university background, GPA, brand of the current employer, etc.

Honestly, it's going to be hard unless you really can emphasize consulting-based skills from your current role. 6-12 months ago it would have been much easier.

That said, why not try…

Get as strong a resume as possible. Do “side” consulting work (lots of pro bono sites for experience). Network like crazy. And job at any opportunity that comes. With enough hustle and determination you can make most things happen.

With the background you have, it is probably easiest to start within investor support groups of consulting firms. They do a lot of due diligence work (typically including market research). While it probably is not much different from what you have been doing and might not align with your mid-term career focus ambitions, it could be a way for you to get a foot in the door and provide immediate value to the firm. 

Over time, you could build out the full consulting skill set and transition more and more into strategy work if you so desire.

Hi there,

Q: What are the odds of making a career switch from market research to strategic consulting when you are a team lead with over 4 years of experience in only market research?

It is possible but to assess the odds we would also need to know your full profile. You can either post an anonymized CV or get one-to-one feedback from current/former consultants to get a clear answer.

In general, to get an MBB invitation for interviews you will need to work on 3 things: 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 should structure correctly are:

• Work experience
• Education (university brand, major, GPA, experience abroad)
• Extracurriculars and volunteer experience

Common red flags include:

• Low GPA
• Bad formatting / typos
• 3-4 pages in 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 explanation

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2) COVER LETTER

You can structure a cover with 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
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

This is probably the most important point. In your case, would be great to connect with current consultants with experience in the industries you worked in.

To find a referral, you should follow three main steps:

1. Identify the people that can help you (most of the time, the best bet is Alumni of your university)
2. Write to them a customized email
3. 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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BONUS: CASE INTERVIEW PREP

In terms of the interview itself, you can find some tips below:

▶ How to Prepare for a Consulting Interview

If you need more help please feel free to PM me.

Good luck!

Francesco

Hi there,

There's a place in consulting for just about any profile. It all depends on whether or not you have the right skills. I myself went from being a fairly specialized Petroleum Geologist to being a Generalist Consultant at McKinsey.

Using McKinsey as an example, they expect you to be a great problem solver, an inclusive leader, have great personal impact and entrepreneurial drive. Since recently, a capacity for courageous change was added to this list. If you can identify with these, it's time to build your application from the ground and really bring the right attributes to life. This is step one…

Next step is to research potential positions and start networking to learn more about the reality of consulting in those different positions e.g., expert vs. generalist. If you get good traction with your contacts, you might get a referral out of it and things can happen very fast from there.

For now, I recommend to do more research on the different company websites and browse linkedin for interesting profiles that could act as ‘role models' for your transition.

Hope this helps a bit and please let me know if there's anything specific you need help with.

Best,

Moritz

Hello,

It is definitely possible as long as you are to show the transferrable skills on your CV and justify your motivations in your Cover Letter.

Management consulting firms pride themselves on hiring people from various backgrounds, so that should not be a disqualifier.

Try working with a coach here to ensure that you CV/CL bring out the best in your experience!

Feel free to reach out if you need any help :)

All the best!

Rushabh

Hi there,

It depends. There are other important factors to consider:

1. Professional experience within that job (what successes and achievements can you discuss)
2. Professional experience before this job (other ft and internship experiences, ideally with reputable and relevant companies; startup founder)
3. Your academic resume (degrees, reputable universities, top of class,…)
4. Experience abroad
5. Extracurricular activities (leadership positions in groups, clubs, etc.)

It should be possible given other elements of your resume fit!

All the best!

Cheers,

Florian

It really depends on the rest of your CV. Your experience won't be highly valued, and you're likely to be considered as a relatively inexperienced candidate. So it basically means that you need to have some high quality indicators in your CV in terms of academics, extra-curriculars, but also current career progression.