Pursuing consulting as my career path.

Business consultant
Recent activity on Apr 22, 2019
4 Answers
1.7 k Views
Mohamed asked on Apr 05, 2019

Hello everyone,

For the past couple of months i've been doing my best and researching about the management consultancy field.

I'm very interested in pursuing this career path, but i don't have any previous experience in the field, i've worked at a translation company as a project coordinator for a year and a half and right now i'm studying to get my PMP certificate.

Could you guys please give me advice on how and what to do to to be more knowledgable in this field and how to improve myself.

Thank you!!

Overview of answers

Upvotes
  • Upvotes
  • Date ascending
  • Date descending
Best answer
Serhat
Expert
replied on Apr 22, 2019
BCG | Kellogg MBA |82% Success rate| 450+ case interview| 5+ year consulting | 30+ projects in ~10 countries

Hi Mohamed,

Here are my suggestions:

1-Understand consulting more to decide whether you really want it or not. You can start by reading the book by Victor Cheng: Secrets of Case Interviews. It will provide you information about consulting and interviews you will face with. Also, I recommend you to arrange calls with consultants. Simply you can ask them what are they doing in their daily life to better understand is it something you want.

2-Getting Interview invitation. As your background is related to translation, you may want to do an MBA to increase your chance. Although it not must have, it can increase your chance significantly.

3- Getting an offer: You can expect to spend around 100 hours preparing for interviews. This part is detailed. Once you come to this point, happy to help you.

Best
Serhat

Was this answer helpful?
6
Francesco
Expert
Content Creator
replied on Apr 05, 2019
#1 Coach for Sessions (4.000+) | 1.500+ 5-Star Reviews | Proven Success (➡ InterviewOffers.com) | Ex BCG | 10Y+ Coaching

Hi Mohamed,

in terms of moving into consulting, from your description the most natural path to follow seems to be an MBA. After graduation and before an MBA, consulting companies normally hire people coming from investment banking, other consulting firms or strategy roles, and it seems you are not fitting these profiles. After an MBA, companies are significantly less interested in your previous experience, thus this will increase your chances to be invited for interviews.

In terms of understanding more about consulting, you can search in the PrepLounge forum the topics interesting for you or open a new thread with the questions you have, someone in the community can then address them.

Hope this helps,

Francesco

Was this answer helpful?
Vlad
Expert
replied on Apr 05, 2019
McKinsey / Accenture Alum / Got all BIG3 offers / Harvard Business School

Hi Mohamed,

I know a person who was literally selling watermelons on the farmers market but became a consultant. Persistence can make incredible things.

Regarding your question - it's too broad. Pls try to narrow it down. Are you talking about preparation for interviews? Improving your resume? Anything else?

Best

Was this answer helpful?
Anonymous replied on Apr 05, 2019

Hi Mohamed,

let me be direct with you: if you are looking for MBB, it won't be easy, but with some hard work you can make it!

I think that you have 2 main points to work on:

  1. your toolkit: I do not have any information regarding your academic background so this advice may be worthless. The point is that to join consulting it is required (i) a solid analytic power (ii) a structured approach to problem-solving and (iii) a good understanding of most common economic concepts (e.g., revenues, costs, break-even). An engineering background would help for sure;
  2. your motivation: whenever the candidate is someone coming from a different industry other than consulting (and not directly from University or Business School), the recruiting process will focus strongly on your fit and motivation.

I think you have 2 main options to work out a way to consulting:

  1. get an MBA from a top-school: it's not easy, fast or cheap, but it will help you to build the toolkit and to get (much) closer to consulting. Almost all firms do recruit on campuses. Moreover, a fair share of your classmates will be a consultant: this is good both to practice and to have referrals;
  2. get the support of an expert and design a tailored development path.

Obviously, this is a general answer: your tenure, geography and previous experiences could make a lot of difference.

Good luck, and feel free to reach out if you need any support!

Was this answer helpful?
1
How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or fellow student?
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
0 = Not likely
10 = Very likely