Switching to management consulting after an engineering consulting experience

Question

Hello,

I am interested to get feedback on the following:

1. How likely would you recommend joining a management consultancy after 6-8 years of experience in the engineering consulting industry, noting that I have a PMP and a master's in engineering management.

2. What are the comapnies where I could somehow leverage my experience? I would be looking for places where I can start at a mid-senior level, rather than starting from zero.

Appreciate your advice.

Answer 1

Hi,

Feedback on #1

Nothing stopping you from getting into consulting. You will be considered an experienced hire. Demonstrate your skills and value in the interview process and start at the right level. You will most certainly work in the Aerospace, Product/Platform Engineering, Industy X.0 functions of strategy or operations consulting. Happy to discss this in detail with you if need more clarity on this

Feedback on #2

Accenture, BIG4, McK are all strong in this space. Plenty of smaller consulting firms as well. Really depends on what you are after and what career plans you have. Hard to give pointed advice based on the details you have given

Answer 2

Hi there,

In general, I highly recommend you network a fair bit and get a good understanding of what generalist management/strategy consulting will be like in the day-to-day. Consider your move carefully!

If you're happy where you are, then stay! If you're not, think hard about what's missing and figure out if management consulting will fill that.

Here are some great prior Q&As:

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/engineering-graduate-moving-into-consulting-7350

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/mbb-as-an-experienced-hire-10-years-7644

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/what-is-your-experience-as-a-civil-engineering-background-to-consulting-8133

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/how-to-move-from-being-a-software-engineer-in-a-big-hedge-fund-to-mbb-8121

Hope this helps and good luck with the journey!

Answer 3

Hello!

My thoughts:

Totally depends on what you want to do with your life! If shifting to management is your next goal, then consulting is a very very good match, particularly givne that you have some background on it also.
I would aim at MBB tbh, but all consulting firms could do

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

Answer 4

Hi,

1) I would strongly recommend if you want to get on a business track. There is no better school of managmeent than McK. But of course depends on your objective

2) Depends on your engineering specialization. Could be construction, Ops, Manufacturing, Consulting

Best

Answer 5

Hi,

Given your background and experience, i believe you could probably be working in core engineering areas like maintenance & reliability, quality, operations, capital projects etc. Most of the consulting firms do operate in this space or have service offerings in this space. Hence you would find acceptance and your experience would have strong relevance.

The catch is here do you want to keep doing the stuff even after moving to consulting or build your consulting skills as well and broaden your horizon. Example , if you have to do a lean transformation project then your background will definitely help but you can play a propoer consultant role if you build your consulting skills around business transformation, operating model, org design, process etc.

So do some research on which company is a good fit, prepare for case studies but the most important is build your consulting skills so you gel well with the mass when you step into the consulting firm. If you need help to do that please contact me as I help middle management level candidates to get into consulting firms through my : Advanced Consulting Readiness" program which will not only help you to get into the consulting firm but also operate at an Enagement Manager level. It is a fully refundable program if i am not able to place you in a target consulting firm.

Thanks

Answer 6

That sounds like a good idea. In fact your profile is very similar to mine when I joined Bain (down to the PMP - which unfortunately for us is not really a differentiator with MBB ;)

I would aim for the best (MBB), but of course you an get similar experience at any larger mgmt consulting firm.

During your application process, you should try to highlight business skills from managing teams, developing products and brining them to market, etc. (or by doing an MBA) Given that you have quite a long professional experience in a non-business environment, this will be a key area for them to test.

Answer 7

Hi there,

It depends on your goals. Consulting companies open several doors you may not have access to now. If you are targeting one of those options switching is a good idea
It depends on what you have done exactly – possibly companies targeting operations or industrial goods, assuming that’s what you covered

Best,
Francesco

Answer 8

Hello there!

1. It's totally fine to join a management consultancy being an experienced hire, you have much experience which you can use to present yourself in a good way.
Dig deeper into it, there are many useful things for you here, like this forum, articles, Case Library and so on

2. As for the companies, you should better do some research yourself, Glassdoor and LinkedIn would suit here, maybe on LI you will manage to find a referral for the future.

Do you need any further help?

GB