Career change/intro to consulting

Hi there,

First and foremost, you're exactly right about networking.

Remember, as you network you're not just trying to “get in”. You're also answering your above questions! Ask those people if the role they're in fits you. Find out what the role titles are that intrigue you. Find out if their firm matches what you want, and feel free to ask them for other firms/suggestions that fit your description. Be really clear on what you want and don't be afraid to tell them and ask for advice relating to that!

LinkedIn is your friend, both in terms of networking and also in terms of finding “related” companies and roles.

It looks like you're looking for an internal strategy role, which means you're going to have a ton of options (more than for consulting). Figure out the industries and specific types of roles within that that interest you. You should absolutely start casing as well, as cases will likely appear.

Good luck to you!

Hello,

Here are my thoughts:

1) From first impressions, this looks more like an internal consulting role to me i.e. you will be working on making process improvements based on the directions of the CEO's office, but specifically for your firm

2) It could be that there are some external consulting projects available, but I will need more details about the company and role to assess

3) In either case, it would definitely help to practice case interviews as that is typically what you might be tested on (unless, ofcourse, you ask the HR and find out what is exactly expected from the interviews)

4) Thus, yes, to some extent, it will be beneficial for you to prepare as if you were applying to strategy consulting firms!

Feel free to reach out to me directly if you need any help!

All the best!

Rushabh

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:

• You are right, the preparation and later the interview process will most likely be very similar to strategy consulting interviews, except that your interviews will focus more on operations management (from a strategic perspective). As such, I would advice you to get acquainted with all the many resources here on PrepLounge given it would be a very solid starting point.
• Moreover, you might think about brushing up your theoretical operations management knowledge. You may either work with the material back from university if meaningful, or maybe also start by reading strategy consulting publications from that field, at best focused on banking.
• Strategy consulting is a sub-category of management consulting. Even if it doesn’t really matter how you would call it for your preparation, I would not consider this to be strategy consulting, but a more operational consulting type.

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

Can anyone recommend me where to start? Not really sure what to study or read (but I would assume I should be studying as if I’m studying for a MBB position?)

You should prepare operations-heavy cases. You can filter for these in prep lounge.. MBA casebooks tend to have flags on the “type” of case something is. Focus on those in your prep.

Also is this considered strategic consulting? Would my studying revolve around this or maybe still management consulting?

This is internal consulting rather than external management consulting. However, it doesn't matter if that is what you want to do as your next career move.

Hi there,

1) Not interested in working for MBB, but very interested in strategy roles either within banks or even other firms! Can anyone recommend me where to start? Not really sure what to study or read (but I would assume I should be studying as if I’m studying for a MBB position?)

This is what I usually recommend to strategy consulting applicants. You may want to focus on cases resembling the companies/industries you will apply to in the preparation. Please note that whether you are going to have business cases or something else will depend on the company and how they structure their recruiting process.

1. Identify the companies interesting to you. Create a DB with all jobs/companies interesting to you so that you can look for a referral later there (see point #7).
2. Define a calendar for your preparation. Identify how many hours you have before your expected interview and allocate the time slots for preparation in your calendar, working on the points below. Many candidates need 100+ hours to be ready before a consulting interview starting from zero so you can keep that as a benchmark.
3. Start reading good MBA Consulting Casebooks – you can find several for free online (INSEAD is a good one to start). Read the cases and try to apply your structure to solve them. Whenever you see there is something missing, upgrade your structure with the new insights. Try to read a new case per day – in this way you will absorb better the information with constant learning.
4. After the first 5-10 cases in books/casebooks and basic theory, start to practice live. PrepLounge can be helpful to connect with other candidates for that. There is a relevant part of the interview score that is based on your communication, which you cannot practice at all if you read cases only.
5. Keep track of your mistakes and see which ones you are repeating. This is super-important, as otherwise you may do a ton of cases without fixing the real issues. If you find common mistakes, try to identify the reason for them (feedback from experienced partners would be particularly useful for this). Be sure to focus on both the behavioral part and the case part during the mocks. The case part should also cover market sizing, math and graph analysis.
6. Before your application, be sure to review your CV and Cover, so that they are in the required format for a strategy role.
7. At least 3 weeks before the application deadline, start networking to find referrals. You can find some tips here.
8. Before the interviews, be sure to prepare your questions for the interviewer  – a great way to show you prepared in advance and to connect with the interviewer for a good final impression. Ideally, try to get information on who they are and study their profile to have good questions to ask.

2) Also is this considered strategic consulting? Would my studying revolve around this or maybe still management consulting?

It seems you are considering internal strategy or operations roles. Some projects might be related to strategy, but whether that’s pure strategy or operations or something else depends on the specific job itself.

Good luck!

Francesco

Hi there,

You're essentially outlining a path from specialist to generalist, because the strategy/management consulting type is neither good at management nor strategy; they're simply good generalists.

Hence, I recommend you this book to get started titled “Why Generalists triumph in a Specialized World”. This should set the scene for the path you're about to embark on.

By the way, I used to be a Petroleum Geologist (specialized) and after some years at McKinsey am now leading strategy work for a global integrated logistics company. I don't know a lot about logistics but I'm a good generalist, which is why I succeed. 

Best of luck!