Consulting application: MBA vs. Experienced Hire

Hello there,

The short answer is yes, absolutely. They hire industry candidates without prior consulting background.

There are typically 2 types of experienced hires coming into a consulting firm:

• Industry expert: have been working in industry for quite sometime and develop domain-specific knowledge. Usually will get allocated mostly in specific industry / function.
• Experienced consultants: this refers to consultants who made a move from another firm.

There is no rigid rule regarding the exact position given for the two. For example, industry expert can be designated in Expert Path or can be part of primary Consulting Vertical, but dedicated to specific practices (industry / function).

This works the same for experienced consultants as well, with the Expert Path almost exclusively rare unless the consultants also have been working in industry before coming back.

Typically, MBA hires would be put mostly in generalist consulting vertical vs. the tendency to put industry recruits immediately into expert path, but that is subject to the result of the case interviews.

Hope it helps.

Kind regards,
Nathan

In general consulting will accept any background to their Generalist Tract. As for Expert Track they would usually wanted deep experience in specific function / industry.

If you have an MBA you would usually recruited for a level before Manager specially if you have only short working experience in industry.

I would suggest to apply through campus channel as applying through website will be very slow and it would take sometime for the Recruiter to notice your application.

Hi there,

There are two types of experienced hires  - (1) ex-consultants, often with an industry focus; (2) people with no consulting background but have been in a particular industry for quite a few years. You can fin into the 2nd bucket. 

On your second question, the difference is the recruiting timeline and the duration of the process. Campus recruiting happens at certain times of the year and the whole process would finish in a few weeks. The general experience hire timeline is more fluid, depending on the supply/demand situation when you apply. 

Best

Emily

Hello,

If you have MBA and you have significant work experience, you are absolutely eligible for an associate/consultant position (the step before the manager role).
I suggest to apply through campus channel because the application process would be faster.

Best,
Luca

Hello!

First of all, have a look at this post, it will be helpful > https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/mckinsey-expert-hire-vs-experienced-hire-5966. 

To your question, totally!  MBB companies accept industry background candidates who do not have consulting experience -in your case, on top, the MBA is an extra assset-. 

Good luck!

Cheers,

Clara

Hi, 
industry experience + MBA is totally fine (and I would say pretty standard) to apply for experienced hire positions (associate in McK, consultant in Bain and BCG).
The on-campus application is usually more direct and can accelerate the process, but the website is fine as well.

Best,
Antonello

Hi,

For MBBs MBA is also considered as an experienced hire, so you can apply for that role

Best

Correct. No consulting industry is fine. In my senior/experienced roles consultants tend to hire applicants with a lot of industry or functional expertise. Usually, there is a separate practice for this.