Quantitative Analytics to Strategy Consulting

Question

My goal is to become a strategy consultant and I am trying to build my resume to do this. I have recently graduated and have consulting experience. Potentially, I could be offered a QA position at a leading strategy firm.

Can a QA consultant later transfer to a strategy consulting role?
Are there overlaps or fundamental skills that will aid me in my pursuit of becoming a strategy consultant?

I am aware of the growing importance Quantitative Analytics in business and that some firms require some experience in this from their hires. Would this be beneficial for the future prospects of the management consulting industry?

Are there better alternatives to reaching my goal?

Answer 1

Hi,
yes, QA in McK and BCG are gaining a crucial role and are really appreciated by clients. However, I confirm that switching to a strategic role internally is not easy.

Best,
Antonello

Answer 2

Hi,

Switching internally is usually extremely hard since you need to have a buy-in from multiple partners / teams. In addition - QA will be valued much more than a generalist (simply because it's much easier to hire generalists), thus they will want you to keep the current role.

However, QA roles at MBB companies also have a track to the partner nowadays.

Overall I would recommend applying directly for a generalist role - it will be the fastest way to achieve your goal

Best

Answer 3

Hi,

As mentioned by other experts, I confirm that it is challenging to switch to a strategy consulting role from a QA role. In fact, I have several trainees who are offered a QA track even they did not have a specific background on this topic and applied for a generalist role (which confirms your statement regarding the growing importance of QA in consulting companies).

While there will be certain overlaps, you may have less experience when it comes to client engagement and deliverables production in a QA role vs. a generalist consultant role.

However, if you are interested in the QA space and wanted to specialize in this, this could be a good role for you to consider which will open doors for you in the consulting companies (with a QA track).

Best,

Deniz

Answer 4

Hello!

Have you considered McK Advanced Analytics of BCG Gamma? They would be a perfect transition.

In their process, you will hace specific assesments (coding, etc.) + business cases with a strong analytics component in them.

For getting better at analytic cases, on top of lots of practice, I would recommend you GMAT exercises.

There are free exams in the internet that you can use for practice (the one of LBS MBA page, Verits prep, as well as some free trials for courses such as the one of The Economist (https://gmat.economist.com/)

Hope it helps!

Cheers,