Anyone here working in management consulting?

anyone here working in management consulting?

Used to. What do you want to know?

To answer the first question:
It's worth it as a stepping stone (1-3 years.) It's not worth it to spend a decade trying to make partner.

I'm a non-business Masters graduate at a top university in central Europe. Hoping for an internship at MBB, then after some years of work perhabs get a MBA (which I heard they support you for) and then do what the fuck ever opens up as an opportunity in my network.
I'm not really interested in climbing the ranks super high, but why do you think it's not worth it?

You can get paid more with 2 years of experience at a consulting firm, than you can staying at that firm. Partners make good money, but so do VP's at any company, and most VPs aren't expected to sell $20M worth of work a year.

80% travel also ruins lives and relationships.

I think it's worth it. Nice salary, good experience, and you will be very valued by other companies in the future. However if you are thinking about exit opps, 1-3 years is definetly not enough to change significantly your career path.

I would 3-5 year is the ideal (if you want to change your career path). Because then you'll have enough experience, to make a difference. With 1-2 you haven't gotten that much experience and it looks like you got fired.

I'll join an IB this summer and my plan is to stay at least 3-4 years in IB and then decice if I like it there and want to pursue my whole career there or change to consulting or another industry.

Heard Partners make at least $500k and MBB pays even $1M. When it comes to money these companies are the winners.

The reason why most ppl leave is due to the working hours and their now different life goals. When you reach Partner or Executive Director you have a certain age and very probable have children you want to raise and most importantly to SEE how they grow.

Being stuck with client meetings, group projects every day until late night and taking 3 or 4 times a week a flight doesnt help.

Thanks for the comments. I heard at a campus presentation from Bain&C that they offer 'education track' options after ~2 years of work with them; I'm looking at ~4-5 years (granted they probably want you to work for them for at least 2-3 years after you they help you with your MBA).

My plan also isn't to get as rich as possible (realized this will never make me happy), which is why I'm fond of gaining translatable skills, experiences and contacts through consulting.

However, I have no idea whether I'm acutally a desired canditate. I'll likely graduate with a high GPA but haven't really "demonstrated leadership" (which is reiterated everywhere) in extracurricular activities.

Is it correct that my main objective should just be to get an interview? I signed up for some aperos & dinners with company representatives through my university career network. Not sure how I'll do this but I'm hoping to get some internal contacts there so my application will be processed more directly. Any tips regarding networking at such occasions would also be highly appreciated.

a) experience accumulates very fast when you are on projects that last about 3 months each. 2 years out of college is plenty to alter your career trajectory.
b) Nobody will think you were fired, just make connections and get recommendations from your old engagement managers (who have probably all left anyway)
c) Salaries are not that high (1M+) except if you are the account lead for an engagement with 1000's of consultants. 300-400K is more typical. IB is actually about 50% higher in terms of total compensation.
d) The travel turns some people off, but was never a problem for me.

What oppurtunities are there for lib arts grads at a consultancy? I see a lot of them moving into Brand reputation and using the buzzwords like "Storytelling" and "respectability" and of course as a lib arts major the only skill I actually have is pulling apart why a work of communication functions the way it does. I can see that as being a meme but lucrative career step.

Opinion?

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Can I go into consulting with Econ & Stats

It depends more on where you went to school than what your major was, in terms of getting your foot in the door.

However, it's certainly possible to get a consulting job with a liberal arts degree. The most important thing in consulting is being able to sell new work. If you have a well-presented resume, strong communication skills, and good responses during the HR interview, you will probably make it.

Yes I am now a fully trained management consultant, my company is called consultio/consultius.

>It depends more on where you went to school than what your major was, in terms of getting your foot in the door.

this. However you can do it from any student, but if you're not from a target one you'll have higher requirements.

According to a friend who will join BCG they have different tiers for candidates depending on certain factors. Each tier has more (less) strict requirements for the selection process to continue.

>It depends more on where you went to school than what your major was, in terms of getting your foot in the door.
hmmm... That's good news for me

>According to a friend who will join BCG they have different tiers for candidates depending on certain factors. Each tier has more (less) strict requirements for the selection process to continue.
Good insight. May look into this if my small business idea goes belly up... and, ya know, if I can indeed sell myself as an asset to the company

I've already people in finance (IRL) and they said I will be fine, but, I may as well ask another.

Mid tier uni, doing E Engineering and bscience in math, average mark/GPA is strong. How can I end up in finance, more specifically quantitative finance or trading (not necessarily quant trading)?

>80% travel

I have no fuckin idea how any human bean can live like this. You basically don't have a home. So you don't have a life.

Consulting is pretty different than quantitative finance. I do have several friends who work/worked for prop trading firms. The quants I know all have PhD's in Physics, Math or Engineering and have experience programming Monte Carlo simulations in compiled languages (C,C++,
Java, Scala) presumably knowledge of stochastic calculus would be a plus as well. I honestly think of quantitative finance more as an off-ramp from an academic track than something to seek out. Why would you spend 7 years after graduating with a Bachelors getting the prerequisites for a job which starts out at $100K and requires 14 hr days?

It's pretty comfy, actually. You stay in a really nice hotel (recommend the Embassy Suites for amenities or Westin I guess if you are in love with points systems) get $40-50 a day to to buy food with. 80% travel is just M-Th anyway.

>I honestly think of quantitative finance more as an off-ramp from an academic track

I'm thinking about aiming for the academic track because I love teaching math, which basically requires a PhD anyway. So it's not like if I can down this route and don't be successful in quant world I will have nowhere I want to be.
Do you think it will matter that I go to a mid tier uni, it's middle of the road in terms of math and engineering?

I asked people in finance (not quant finance though) and they said the HR people will just take it in to consideration and will expect a higher GPA/Average mark than their top tiers, but, considering how competitive these quant places are I'm a bit worried.

Unfortunately.

I worked at two of the Big4 firms, specifically in the Corporate Finance departments. I don't anymore. Ask me anything.

Yes, you mother works at managing my nuts.

So why don't you work at the big4's anymore?

Truth is that I got fired because I got into an argument with an executive director. The guy is unable to get anyone to sign mandates, so this was impacting in both the team's workload (twiddling thumbs 3 days a week) and budget (no bonus/minimal bonus at the end of the fiscal year).

Now I work for myself (online business) while I try to find another job. I'd say it was 100% worth it.

You're in undergrad now, right? It's fairly common to go from a mid-tier undergrad to a top-flight gradschool. I went to a 4th tier undergrad and went to UIUC for grad school (top 10 in my field) most of the other grad students I knew were the same.