Hi, y'all!
thank you in advance for always posting helpful answers! This Q&A is a great opportunity to get a picture of management consulting as a job in general :-)
Would it be possible to receive some personal insights after you have left consulting? What were your exit opportunities? Did the head hunter reach out to you and offer you a bunch of different jobs? What did you end up doing and why did you make that decision/How did you know it was the right one?
Thank you all!
I spent 10 years in consulting (BCG) and I've been contacted countless times by head hunters during my stint, the opportunities became even more frequent after my MBA experience. Most of the recruiting opportunities came from big corporations and I think I declined 90% of them because none of them could match the career trajectory (i.e. learning curve and salary) I was having at BCG.
I actually did a couple of interviews at Project Leader and Principal level and I received a couple of job offers that were matching the salary I was making in consulting but still, I decided to hold on a little longer in BCG because I genuinely liked it.
I eventually left 1 year after my promotion to Principal to fund my own company and I have never looked back with regrets. In retrospect, I always wanted to be an entrepreneur, to have the freedom to make decisions without the burden to report and ask for consent from anybody.
I now manage my retail business with more than 50 employees (and still growing) and I love every second of it.
If you are curious about the switch from consulting to start-up / entrepreneurship feel free to contact me via direct message. I could talk about it for hours. :-)
(edited)
There are a plethora of exit opportunities after MBB. From what I have seen these vary a lot by your tenure. Below are the ones for the 3 junior tenures
BA
As a BA you have the most exit opportunities open to you as you are still very new into your career and MBB opens up many doors. These include PE, VC, Hedge Funds, startups, Fortune 500 roles and of course the freedom to be an entrepreneur with access to investors
Associate (Post MBA role)
As an associate the opportunity set is not as high - you are limited to some extent by past work experience (so if you specialized in finance you get more offers from financial institutions) and typically PE, VC, Hedge Funds are not very accessible at this stage unless you work on due diligences a lot etc. Associate is not the best time to leave
EM/Manager
Lots of opportunities here as the EM skillset is highly valued by a lot of companies. Again the options are more tailored to your expertize but you do get a wide variety of industries to choose from. All the large companies and many smaller ones that have strategy or Biz Ops teams will be excited to have you. Again, PE/VC/Early stage startups are less of an option for many reasons unless you work exclusively in areas that excite them. Remember as you get senior you get very expensive (high salary, bonus etc) so not many people can match your pay and expectations which is why many exits are to larger companies vs smaller ones typically. You are usually not restricted by sector but you are restricted to largely strategic/biz ops type roles.
Of course there are many other sectors as well (social, public etc) where you will be desirable with your skillset.
Hi there,
Happy to share my personal experience :)
Immediate Exit
While looking to leave BCG, I pretty much got any interview I wanted. I interviewed at DoorDash, Deliveroo, Quantium, and was scoping out other opportunities.
Quantium was my #1 target which I selected. It was essentially data consulting/analytics (intersect of strategy consulting and data analytics)
Charting my own path
After leaving Quantium, I've been able to do pretty much what I want. I coach on a number of platforms, teach for various academies/schools, and am working on a startup.
I also take on contracting work when I like the project (part-time, short term)
LinkedIn Messages
I get a number of messages (probably 1 a week?) with work opportunities. Various recruiters saying they need ex-strategy consultants. About half specify the need for MBB-only.
Most of these roles are supporting CEOs and other senior level executives in strategic planning. Some are for boutique consultancies.
As you can see, there are lots of opportunities :)
Very interesting!
Hey there,
Exit opportunities are plenty (McKinsey). For me, the calls and emails from headhunters started around the 1-year mark and continued until I left. The industries were either finance and investment (PE, sovereign wealth fund of a ME country,...) or topics related to my industry focus within the firm (airlines, travel,...) and even BCG reached out for their aviation practice. I never followed up with any though...
Once you leave a lot of doors are open. There are two aspects here:
In the end, my long-term exit opportunity was/ is to run my own business and start a few more along the way. Nothing more rewarding than this and still benefiting from the contacts, network, and trust that business partners place on you.
Cheers,
Florian
Thank you Florian!
Hey there!
There are actually quite a lot of exit opportunities for ex-consultants, starting from PE and VC and finishing with freelancing and entrepreneurship.
Considering your experience, you are free to move in almost every direction, or, for example, join MBA if you are not sure what your next steps should be.
If you want to know something else - feel free to write to me!
GB
Hello!
I went to tech, in particular to Amazon, and then did an MBA.
Feel free to reach out via PM if you want to know more.
Cheers,
Clara
Exit opportunities are plentiful upon leaving consulting. The door is really open to you depending on your interests. I was reached out to for jobs in:
The more important question would be to figure out what you are interested in (and good at) which you will hopefully discover through your consulting experience in order to sift through all these exit opps
Hi, I confirm opportunities can be multiple and for the whole spectrum of business, from corporates to startups, from private equity to small consulting firms
Best,
Antonello
what a great insight! Thanks for sharing Franco!