Why You Should Consider a Job in Management Consulting

A career in management consulting can be very rewarding, both personally and financially. At the beginning of your career, it’s a lot of long hours, and collecting data. At the same time, you learn about a variety of industries and develop a host of transferable skills. Management consulting experience also puts you in a great position to transition other careers in the future.

Priority Candidates has a dedicated program to coach college students and recent graduates seeking jobs in the fiercely competitive management consulting industry. Our management consulting expert, Matt, prepares clients for the technical casing interviews.

Standing out in a sea of applications can be a daunting task. What are management consulting firms looking for? What relevant experience should you showcase? Who should you network with? What can you expect out of a career in management consulting? Matt and the other career coaches at Priority Candidates have the strategies to prepare you for your future.

What Is Management Consulting?

“At the highest level, management consulting is helping a business fix a problem, or assess an opportunity,” says Matt. “A management consulting firm might be hired by a company looking to expand their business, fix a revenue issue, move into a new product space, merge two offices, or something else completely. Management consulting can be any number of things, but broadly it’s to have an additional strategic lens to deploy against a problem.”

Top management consulting firms such as McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Bain & Company, Deloitte, EY, KPMG, Accenture, LEK, Oliver Wyman, and Booz Allen Hamilton are where businesses turn when they need specialized help researching options, getting knowledgeable recommendations, optimizing operations, or exploring and devising new strategies.

What Should You Expect As a New Management Consultant?

While there are some smaller management consulting firms, most recent graduates end up working at one of the larger companies. Management consulting firms are located throughout the country, typically in major cities. If you want a job in consulting you should be prepared to work anywhere, and to travel when required. It’s important to be flexible.

You might find it helpful to think of management consulting as a team sport. If this is your career direction, you’ll be part of a team of consultants. Some will be recent college graduates like yourself, some will be mid-career professionals, and some will be experienced consultants.

While the management consulting industry is able to address a broad range of business needs, the people within the industry are a mix of generalists and specialists. Starting out, new consultants lack experience but they quickly start to learn. “There’s plenty of grunt work involved in getting an answer to a question. Be prepared to pitch in and do your share of the work.”

• General Research
• Interviewing People
• Performing Surveys
• Data Analysis
• Cost Analysis

You and the rest of the team will constantly be developing new skills as you pursue answers to the client’s problem. Sometimes you’ll be working very closely with the client, possibly even embedded and acting as a part of their team. Other times you’ll be on the outside looking in.

Matt says, “The best management consultants are dynamic people who love solving problems and amiable working with others.”

What Skills Are Required to Succeed in Management Consulting?

“Excellent people & communication skills are an absolute must,” says Matt. “You’ve got to be good at thinking logically, analytically, looking at problems in a structured way.” You also need to be good at multitasking, doing math in your head, and making presentations.

Management consultants deal with complex problems. This means you need to be able to organize information and apply order to the process.

“You must be a strategic thinker.” You will be working with people who attack problems from different perspectives, bringing different backgrounds to the task, but are united by one overarching task.

How Do You Get a Job in Management Consulting?

“You’re going to go through a lot of interviews.” Consulting firms interview a lot of people. Out of 60+ interviewees only 10 might get job offers. These are coveted positions.

“Consulting firms have a very structured recruiting process” that target specific schools. “Firms are very public about this. The firms will say ‘Here are the schools we recruit at. Here’s when we will be coming to your school. Please come to the event.’ They want to find smart people to hire.” It’s imperative to be present at these events.

If you’re a college student thinking about a career in management consulting you need to find out if firms are recruiting on your campus. If they are not coming to your campus it’s going to be more difficult to get into the hiring pipeline. You’ll have to network and find a way into a firm’s hiring process.

Management consulting firms come to campus in the fall. You’ll want to start meeting with them in your sophomore year, and hopefully you will be able to get into an internship with a firm. Things are happening earlier and earlier, but consulting firms have a structured process so you’ll need to inquire to learn more about timelines and opportunities.

What Is Casing and How Does Priority Candidates Help You Prepare?

Casing, or a case interview, is a special interview format particular to the management consulting industry where you are given a hypothetical problem and then you discuss how you would approach it. The prompts are purposefully vague to start and force the interviewee to immediately bring structure to the problem and demonstrate how they would tackle real-life scenarios.

Consulting firms are interested in recruiting high-quality candidates. If you are interested in a management consulting job you will benefit greatly from the Priority Candidates team’s knowledge, guidance, and preparation process. Matt will work with you to prepare for your casing interviews, as well as giving you insider insights into the management consulting recruiting structure. You’ll also be coached for your coffee chats and behavioral interviews.

The Priority Candidates team will prepare your resumé, LinkedIn profile, help you source job opportunities, help you with networking, and a great deal more. Learn more about our career coaching services and our management consulting speciality track.

How Much Does a Management Consultant Make?

Management consultants are among the highest compensated new hires coming out of college and graduate school. There’s a good deal of structure, making the path for pay advancement clear and straightforward.

Is Management Consulting a High Stress Job?

It’s a tough job. There is a lot of stress, and it never lets up. It’s common to work long hours, week after week. Some consultants report working 9am to midnight, 50-60 hours a week, for years. The stakes are usually high, possibly with millions of dollars on the line. Management consultants learn to manage the stress of the job or they move on after a few years. Consulting firms recognize this is the nature of the job. They make real efforts to be supportive, knowing some people thrive in this environment, while others will work hard for a few years and then use management consulting as a launch pad for another career.

Life After Management Consulting

“You can go almost anywhere after management consulting,” Matt says. “Management consulting looks great on your resumé and opens a lot of doors for future roles.”

The structured, analytical approach, ability to bring order to chaos, broad experience dealing with a range of business challenges, ability to do research, experience with data and cost analysis, and the willingness to do hard work make a former consultant a very attractive hire.

Many college graduates work as consultants for 2-5 years before they go to work in another industry.

Closing Thoughts

When asked what advice Matt would give a college student interested in a management consulting career, Matt replied, “Do your homework and go in with your eyes wide open. Lean in. This is a great industry to get into.”

Let’s talk about how you can find career success