London MBB/tier2 consulting

Hey,

1. Ideally yes, if they plan well you should be staffed on roles suited to your skills. But this could change due to shift in client requirements, budget changes & other priorities etc. Be prepared to be staffed on other projects. Dont be fussed and show lot of flexibility to learn. Keep visibility high with senior people, network well, do a good job and the cool roles will come your way eventually
2. Best check with your future team members. This will depend on the project, client/industry and most importantly whats happening with COVID. UK is under pretty strict restrictions at the moment. Full on travel to clients is not going to happen any time soon. If situation improves in next few months do expect some travel in line with health and safety within UK, to Europe or where the projects take you
3. I hope you have done your homework on making the decision to quit :). This by no means should be an indicator of your future performance. Consulting will be tough but rewarding, provided you have the right mindset. If you show strong likes & dislikes for projects early on, there is chance you could feel bored again..haha. Sounds like you are in your very early career days, so embrace the challenge, give yourself enough time to settle and grow from there. If you slack , am afraid your days will be numbered

All the best!

1. You will start off as a generalist being exposed to different sectors and will not need to specialise until Manager level, although you may have a preference to do so earlier. Keeping an open learning mindset is super important as you navigate different sectors and business functions as a consultant. Having said that, there will always be sectors that will not interest you (for me that was financial serivces and healthcare) and that's also ok too

2. Destinations and travel frequency really depends on the firm, including post COVID. For example, McKinsey has always had a strong belief in the team being co-located which would mean weekly travel but COVID has proved that doesn't necessarily need to be the case and so my guess would be that travel would be driven purely by the need to meet physically with clients, which also should be much less. In terms of location, regional travel within Europe will be typical and for global firms (i.e., not tier 2) you will find yourself with opportunities to work across the globe. I found myself working in every continent within my first two years and spent 90% outside the UK, partly due to choice

3. Considering the variety in consulting, especially at a large global MBB, I would be suprised if you got bored within the first two years. After that, it really comes down to whether you find advisory work interesting and exciting or not. Many don't which is why they leave after 2-3 years in addition to many other facts (e.g., lifestyle, ownership, etc.)

Hi,

Very interesting question.

1. It depends. You have the chance to express your preferences during and after your interviews.

2. It also depends. The main variables are: the project, the practice, what will happen after COVID, etc.

3. This is totally up to you. You must love consulting, otherwise it's going to be hard to be excited to go to work everyday and to thrive in the company.

Hope this helps.

Best,

Antonello

Hello!

Let me answer for MBB, that is the area that I know about:

1. At the beggining, to all sorts of engagements, precisley to make u an all-road
2. Usually Mon-Thus in Europe
3. Hahahahah BIG NO

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

Hi there,

1. At MBB you don’t specialize until you reach manager level. The only exception is if you join a specific division (eg Digital)
2. Consultants usually travel Mon to Thu to the client. COVID clearly changed this. It is very difficult to predict which will be the situation when you join. Hopefully will be back to normal, which means you may have to travel with that frequency unless staffed on a project in London
3. It is unlikely you will find it boring. Still, consulting is related to very specific skills and activities which may or may not be of interest to you. To me, working as an entrepreneur turned out to be a lot more interesting

Best,
Francesco

Hi,

1) Not necessarily, but when interviwing you should commit to continue your specialization. At the end of the day they are buying your expertise

2) London / EU in general. But expect this to change with Covid / Brexit

3) Depends on the project. Consulting can be extremely boring, so get ready

Best

Hi there,

Congratulations on getting into LBS...you're going to love it!

1) Not at all. For the first few years you will very much be a generalist...getting assigned to a range of projects/industries/functions

2) Travel is generally at about 70% (i.e. 70% of projects at not in the home city). When you do travel, it will be Mon-Thurs. (i.e. leave early Monday, arrive late-ish Thursday)

3) Depends on what you enjoy...you're going to be pushed extremely hard on very challenging questions/topics. That being said, you'll also be working a lot in powerpoint and iterating through the same content multiple times. Some love strategy consulting, some find it incredibly tedious.

The best way to find out? Have calls with people!

(edited)

Hi,

To quickly answer your question:

1. At the beginning you are expected to explore all type of projects so you can get a feel which one you like better
2. Usually Monday-Thursday is at client site. However, this might be less post Covid as it is proven that remote project execution worked well
3. Most likely No

Best,
iman

1) Will I be assigned to deals only within my area of specialization? if not, what do you suggest I learn to be better in consulting for other sectors?

Possibly at the start, but not exclusively so unless you state a preference for this. More likely, you'll gradually build an internal brand for being at X type of work and will field frequent staffing calls on similar projects. Therefore at the outset, try to work across sector teams and build different partnership relationships to find your preferred sector/type of work

2) What's the travel frequency and what are the typical destinations? (in the aftermath of COVID)

Heavily dependent on the sector e.g. FS is London vs Defence across the UK vs Retail/TMT may be international. Either way, expect it to be some time before you will be fully on client site again.

3) I am exiting my job pretty early because it's incredibly boring :|| how likely is it that I'll face the same issue in consulting?

I'd imagine you should have a sense of this by now given you have an offer! Bear in mind no given year is representative of the consulting experience and you're job will change each year you progress so in short low.