Getting a Consulting Offer From a Non-Traditional Background

Hi Yasmin,

Glad that you find the community helpful - you can certainly find a ton of useful advice (that I wish I had access to a long time ago when I was applying).

Firstly - it's great that you are taking initiative and showing drive towards your goal of breaking into consulting. 

I think first of all it would be helpful if you clarified your end-goal, i.e. MBB or T2 or boutique firm. While generally a CV that is good enough for MBB will make the cut for the others, the inverse is typically not true.

For now, I'll assume that you'd like to join MBB. I'll share a couple of observations on your approach based on my experience as an interviewer/CV reviewer at BCG, with reference to your supporting points:

Point #1 (your academics)

• Consulting firms are looking for academic excellence, and ideally from target schools
• If you are coming from a non-target school, then having a top-grade (i.e. summa) is critical to ‘compensating’ for the non-target nature
• Scholarships are good points to highlight but only if they demonstrate you are special (i.e. it is a high quantum and/or highly exclusive)
• Publication of a poster at a conference, this is unfortunately not as prestigious as publishing something in an academic journal
• Suggested tips/things you can do:
  • You cant go back and change the past - but consider if there are other ways you can show you have the intellectual horsepower - i.e. getting a very high score on GMAT

Point #2 (your consulting related internship)

• It's great that you are proactive on this. A strategy consulting internship definitely shows 1) intent & motivation and 2) relevant skills
• Suggested tips/things you can do:
  • I would try and land another opportunity like this, just so that it strengthens or strengthens the # of relevant experiences in your CV
  • It is also important to make sure this is written out in an impactful way in your CV

Point #3 your case prep

• Practicing alone is probably one of the biggest pitfalls of candidates, and it is pretty obvious when I am interviewing candidates which ones of them did not have enough effective practice
• In addition, it is very hard to build up the right problem solving skills just by self review. This is how it works on the job itself, and why consulting is an apprentice-based learning kind of job → case leadership are the ones who will help hone your problem solving skills by pointing out your errors and showing you what good looks like
• Suggested tips/things you can do:
  • 2 very important things for you to do
    • Please start practicing with a partner - the experience of doing a case with someone else is totally different from reading cases by yourself
    • Please ensure you get good quality feedback from your practice partners, regardless of who they are

Point #4 (your other internships & demonstrating business interest)

• It is true that internship experience with reputable companies are valued, but that is only half the story. What you did / your specific role is also weighed and assessed as part of this equation
  • e.g., working at an Investment Bank but in a back-office role, or an admin role will never be as highly viewed as working in front-office/M&A
• Most of the time - the strongest/most impressive internships or work experiences are the ones where you are the top-dog in a reputable company
  • i.e. M&A/front-office in Investment Banking
  • i.e. Brand in Consumer Goods
  • i.e. Product Management/Software Engineering in Tech
  • i.e. Consultant (and not support staff) in Consulting
• If I were reviewing your CV, this Global Business Services is not a strong experience point because 
  • GBS is support services / shared services, and this is something that is secondary to the core of the business and functions that help to build the business
• Thus, here I think you are slightly confused and conflating interest in business with the term ‘business services’
• Suggested tips/things you can do:
  • Make the most out of the internship
  • Identify what relevant skills consulting firms are looking for, and try and push for opportunities to develop that during your internship
  • Make sure that the way it is phrased in your CV shows that

On other general tips like how to practice cases better, and networking (actually very important), I'm sure that other coaches will share good points on those.

All the best!