All questions tagged MBA - Consulting Q&A - PrepLounge.com

Hello Calvin!

Sharing some toughts:

• Since you talk about Jan 22, I imagine you speak of INSEAD. In this case -or other top MBAs-, I think it´s an overkill to also do an Msc before. Once the MBA title is there, none is going to care for the one before.
• Furthermore, INSEAD or similar will greatly increase your chances at MBB: the brand, recruiting, network, etc.
• Money-wise, it will be a total waste. An MBA is a huge investment, enaugh headache by itself
• Finally, online programs are not really that well regarded... hence, another argument not to

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

Hi there,

Given your engineering background, it would be better if you can find a role that involve more business related work.

• Business Analyst sounds good (regardless of IT or not); otherwise a role with project management skills could be good too
• I don't recommend QA role as it would still be very much technical; international experience wouldn't help you as much as business exposure, and you already had international internship anyway
• I don't recommend tier 3 consulting either. Get a tier 2 or just leave it. Between an MBA with a tier 3 experience and an MBA with a business role in a well recognised corporate, the latter might be more preferred actually.

Best,

Emily

Hey,

As long as you get a top MBA, you should just go ahead in my opinion. No need to wait for 1 more year before doing your MBA.

I knew someone with a short working experience but a top MBA, who joined BCG as Senior Associate. Usually after MBA you join as consultant in BCG, but because her prior working experiene is shorter than usual, she starts as Senior Associate (1 year junior than consultant). In this case, instead of spending the 1 year waiting before MBA, she spend the 1 year post MBA in BCG. I'd say this is probably better since she managed to get her foot in earlier.

Best,

Emily

I think Guennael covered everything well, so won't repeat the various differences in expectation.

However, as an important side note: generally PhDs Don't enter at the same level as MBAs - PhDs will usually join as a "Junior Associate" (Mck) / "Junior Consultant" (BCG), and at Bain may even enter as a normal Associate Consultant but with opportunity for fast track promotion.

I just say this to stress the fact that expectations are invariably different, as you will be entering at a different level in the firm.

Hi there,

If you are following the US timeline, the typical full time recruiting interview would start from late Sep. By late Oct many of the big consulting firms would have been done with the interviews and send out offers. So you need to be ready by mid to late Sep. If your intern is during the July-Aug timeline, then starting after the summer intern would be a bit late in my opinion.

Summer internship could actually be a good time to prep. But if you expect your summer time to be very busy, then wouldn't it be better to start earlier if you have time now? Don't leave things to last minute.

Best,

Emily

Hello there!

Some toughts:

• Language: in Europe the local language is required, unless you are an expert in a field. However, hace you considered London? English will be enaugh.
• MBA: for sure an MBA from a target school would position your profile better. However, if the target is Europe, you will have the same language issue -unless you also use the MBA to learn a new language, which seems not very likely-.
• O&G: if this is the industry that passionates you, why not applying directly instead of consulting?

Hope it helps.

Cheers,

Clara

Hello!

I don´t agree with you, at least for the case of Mckinsey. Actually most poeple who come back from MBAs make it to manager - EM, Engagement Manager- and then they leave.

You must differenciate between:

• Returning MBAs: BAs who were sponsored and come back. They start operating as JEMs -Junior EMs- very soon (between 6 months and 1 year). They need to stay at least 2 years to pay their MBA debt with McK, and then they leave.
• Non-returning MBAs: people who were not BAs before. They take longer to be JEMs and EMs but don´t have a time threshold for any debt, so they leave whenever.

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

Hi Pedro,

if you manage to spend some time in MBB before your MBA application, this will increase the chances to be accepted in a top MBA. Your options are not mutual exclusive though, you may try 1 (apply to MBB) and if doesn’t work go for 2 (stick to SK).

In terms of timing: recruiting is slowing down globally, including in the Middle East – I would try to connect with someone in MBB in your target geographies to understand the status there and if it makes sense to apply now or to wait few months.

As a side note: an MBA is not the best path to entrepreneurship – you would learn far more saving 1-2 years and 100k-150k required for the MBA unless sponsored and investing them in a new company. Even if you fail you will learn a lot more for your following venture.

Best,

Francesco

Hi Anonymous.

That’s an interesting question. Since it is not clear whether you are referring to consulting work experience or not, I would assume you have three options:

Option 1: Go for a Master and then consulting (and potentially an MBA later)

Option 2: Go for a consulting work experience and then do an MBA and continue consulting

Option 3: Go for a non-consulting work experience and then do an MBA to join consulting

I would consider four variables to take a decision, in order of importance:

1. What would you enjoy most right now between studying or going to work
2. Degree of interest in consulting
3. Possible limitations of a choice on future opportunities in consulting
4. MBA cost coverage

Let's see them in details.

Step 1: Studying vs working

If you have clear what you would like to do more between studying or working for a specific company, I would go of course for the option representing that. If you are neutral I would move to Step 2

Step 2: Degree of interest in consulting

If you are 100% sure about consulting, I would take Option 2 – there are no real reason to delay you career in consulting and spending money and time in a Master or doing an unrelated job; if you are still unsure whether consulting is the right thing for you, you may consider doing an internship to understand it. If that’s not an option, you may consider Option 1, 2 or 3, taking into account the following steps.

Step 3: Limitations for future career in consulting

Option 1 does not give you any limitation (you may still do an MBA if you want and if you don't want so your internal career may be similar substituting the MBA with 1 or 2 years in the firm) neither of course Option 2. Option 3 though makes more difficult for you to join a consulting firm, as there are less openings for post MBAs compared to new graduates, and only for top selected MBAs.

Step 4: MBA cost

Here Options 1 and 2 are the winners as well. For top performers, indeed, a firm may pay for your MBA. That’s far more difficult in Option 3, and if that happens, the non-consulting firm will ask you to stay with the firm for some time after the MBA, making more difficult your transition to consulting.

As for your question on MBAs and careers:

• An MBA would usually allow you to join a company at a position equivalent to someone without an MBA and more years of experience, so yes, it has value
• If you are already in the firm and decide not to go for one, as mentioned, you may subsitute that with one or two years in the firm and have the same career progression. However, everything equal, as mentioned by Guennael, the MBA may allow you to have more options for career path and promotions compared to one or two additional years in the firm in case of career change, and for sure a broader network to benefit from.

Best,

Francesco

Hello there,

The short answer is yes, absolutely. They hire industry candidates without prior consulting background.

There are typically 2 types of experienced hires coming into a consulting firm:

• Industry expert: have been working in industry for quite sometime and develop domain-specific knowledge. Usually will get allocated mostly in specific industry / function.
• Experienced consultants: this refers to consultants who made a move from another firm.

There is no rigid rule regarding the exact position given for the two. For example, industry expert can be designated in Expert Path or can be part of primary Consulting Vertical, but dedicated to specific practices (industry / function).

This works the same for experienced consultants as well, with the Expert Path almost exclusively rare unless the consultants also have been working in industry before coming back.

Typically, MBA hires would be put mostly in generalist consulting vertical vs. the tendency to put industry recruits immediately into expert path, but that is subject to the result of the case interviews.

Hope it helps.

Kind regards,
Nathan

Hello,

Since I am new at PrepLounge I have just come across your question. There are certainly good opportunities for experienced hires in Brazil. The entry level would depend on your experience and the firm, but my personal experience is that you can usually skip the first level subject to your performance during the interviews.

I had 3 years of professional experience when I decided to move to consulting (firstly Accenture, then Stratey& and BCG). In case you are still interested, please reach out and we can set some time (free of charge) to discuss your questions and opportunities.

Best regards,

James

Hi Saba,

I would recommend the following steps to organize your preparation:

1. Identify the companies interesting for you. Many people are interested mainly in MBB, you can start defining the exact list of companies interesting for you for the internship
2. Define a calendar for your preparation. Check if there is any deadline for the internship applications. Then identify how many hours you have before that and allocate a time slot for preparation in your calendar for each day, working on the points below. Many people need 100+ hours to be ready before the interview so you can keep that as a benchmark
3. Read Case In Point or Case Interview Secrets for a general understanding of what a consulting interview is. Don’t focus on the structures proposed in the books though, as they are not good enough nowadays.
4. Start reading good MBA Consulting Handbooks – you can find several for free online (Insead is a good one to start). Read the cases and try to apply your structure to solve them. Whenever you see there is something missing, upgrade your structure with the new insides. PrepLounge also has a Case Library that you can use. Handbooks usually don’t have a good initial structure, but are useful to develop creativity. Try to read at least a new case per day – in this way you will absorb better the information with constant learning.
5. After the first 5-10 cases in books/handbooks and basic theory, start to practice live. PrepLounge can be helpful to connect with other candidates for that. There is a relevant part of the interview score that is based on your communication, which you cannot practice at all if you read cases only. Keep track of your mistakes and see if you repeat them. If so, try to identify the source of the mistake (feedback of experienced partners would be particularly useful for this). Be sure to focus on both the behavioural part and the case part. The case part should also cover market sizing, mental math and graph analysis.
6. Before your application, be sure to review your CV and Cover, so that they are in the required format for a consulting application
7. At least three weeks before the application deadline, start networking to find referrals for your target companies. You can find some tips on how to do that here: https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/hey-everyonehope-all-is-well-3176
8. Once you feel you are not improving anymore, if you have a tight time constraint or if you want a realistic assessment of your level, consider using support from experts to strengthen your performance
9. Before the interview, be sure to prepare your questions for the interviewer –great way to show you prepared in advance and to connect with the interviewer for a good final impression.

In terms of the application: given what you mentioned you will probably have to apply for a post-MBA position (Associate at McK/ Consultant at BCG), unless you have experience that you can leverage for a specific practice.

Best,

Francesco

Hello!

1. Yes, indeed, on campus. Maybe you can contact your school and try to join those, since you only graduated last year.

2. If it´s for MBB, you would be in the same pool of MBA grads (e.g., for McKinsey, associate)

3. You should work very well on the story of "why are you changing after little months only?"

4. See point 2. You would be paid as a MBA hire

Cheers,

Clara

Hello!

I would, but I am biased since it was my choice -which fitted my personal circumstances, restrictions and aspirations-. I would ask myself the following:

• Will it be financed? If so, by Mck? (Since this compromises you 2 years after)
• If not financed, where are your planning to do it? For how long? (e.g., INSEAD is 1 year and IVY LEAGUE in USA is 2, etc.) Where do you plan to stay after? (since it´s not the same to pay that loan from USA or Singapore than Spain)
• How similar is it to the studies you have done before?
• Do you want to change industry? If so, couldn´t you do it via your current clients?
• etc

Feel free to PM if you want more details, since I was in the same position not long ago.

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

Hello there,

Getting a sponsorship will require one to achieve Tracking rating based on the latest 2 reviews. Although some office might require higher rating above Tracking.

The rating system are normalized, meaning your performance is being compared to the performance of your cohort in the Firm. With the Firm filled with highly-driven professionals, these could indeed prove challenging at times for some, although for tracking, it should be very doable.

Most of the people who stayed typically gets an opportunity to propose for and receive the scholarship (since getting Tracking means you are not counseled to leave in this case), although it is indeed to offer to jump straight to Associate for high performing ones are quite enticing and preferred by the Firm.

One can apply for the funding once yo have ticked all the boxes, hence you have somewhat of a control in getting it.

Hope it helps.

Kind regards,
Nathan

Hello!

I think it´s a very personal option, and it highly depends on your personal circumpstances as well (e.g., whether you have any debts already, if you can get it financed, etc.). However:

• It´s an amazing personal growing experiece -not everything needs to be measured in terms that you can monetize-.
• Network is strong, international and much wider and richer than the one you get in your local MBB office
• Great for the CV -if you can get in a good school, of course-.

I would talk to people who returned from MBAs in your office and ask them about it. In McKinsey Madrid, it was a no-brainer for (almost) all BAs.

Also feel free to reach out since I´m starting in no time my MBA in MIT

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

Hi,

The NW school is a good source but it depends on how much you want to deep dive into the subject. If your aim is just to "speak the same language" and understand what is happening, it is fine. If your aim is to handle the accounting part on your own, you should definetly do a face-to-face course or an intership to put your hands on the financial statements ina safe enviroment.

Where are you going to start your company? Every country has his own detailed rules about accounting, you should consider it before buying a course.

Hope it helps,
Luca

Hi,

Based on what I've seen at Harvard, the programs are completely different:

• MBA usually has a required curriculum (finance, marketing, accounting, etc) and elective classes
• EMBA usually has multiple programs (e.g. for entrepreneurs, for corporates, etc). They don't have the required These courses are usually standardized and are less about technical skills and more about soft skills (leadership, negotiations) but are more advanced than traditional MBA courses. There can be specific EMBA programs that cover a particular topic - e.g. venture entrepreneurship

The major difference is networking. At EMBA the people around you will be more qualified. However, you will spend less time together (that will limit your opportunities for networking)

Best

Hello,

That program seems to be good and ESCP is a good business school, but studying those topics is something far from being able to build a start up alone. I would rather read something on my own and ask for someone's help at least in the first period.

Hope it helps,
Luca