Management Consulting as a Career
Description of the Job
Management consultants are responsible for helping organizations solve issues, create value, maximize growth and improve business performance. They are deeply skilled in business and provide objective advice and expertise and help an organization develop any specialist skills that it may be lacking. Management consultants understand situational interpretations and analyze data to identify and understand challenges.
Entry levels generally come in as “generalists,” which mean they can work on a large variety of projects and in various industries. This means that there is a lot of ambiguity in the exact type of work a management consultant will do, but it also creates a large variety of projects they can do.
Fast Facts
- Number of hours per week50-60 hours, with spikes of 70-80 during peaks
- Average starting pay$76k Nationally, $82k in the Bay Area
- Amount of travel requiredDepends on client, between 0 travel and 80% travel
Roles & Responsibilities
- Interviewing team members on the client site to gather data and understand the client’s situation
- Creating Powerpoint slides for client presentations, proposals, and more
- Researching various tasks that the client may need, which may include comparisons of various softwares, details on an industry, data to support various arguments, and much more
- Analyzing data and creating visualizations of the data to display your analysis
- Train employees on the client side on new procedures or steps that were implemented on the project, such as a new software or process
Skills Needed
- Data analysis: Consultants must often analyze data to make decisions and drive insights for their client
- Personable: a large portion of consultants’ days is with their clients, so they must be able to leave a good impression and be professional with them
- Problem-solving: consultants main job is to solve problems, and often the problems are new to the consultant and aren’t given proper training. In these cases, consultants must be adaptive and find solutions to the problems
- Time management: consultants work long hours and have a large amount of pressing priorities, which include their external client, internal projects, continuous personal training, and more.
- Curiosity: consultants are not expected to know everything about the client or industry before starting the project, so they must be curious throughout the project to know enough in order to provide value to the client
Steps to Enter The Field
- A bachelor’s degree is required to enter the field. Technically any major can enter management consulting, as the main responsibility is to analyze problems and solve problems. However, generally business degrees/majors or technical majors are best to enter the field. Master’s degrees (non-MBA) can improve the chances of entering the field
- Most consulting firms will hire from 2 levels: undergraduate and MBA programs. Undergraduates usually enter as an analyst or associate role, while MBA programs generally enter in the “consultant” role
- Internships in business-related fields are strongly recommended to enter consulting, and consulting internships are especially helpful
- Many colleges/universities have consulting clubs on campus, and they can be a great way to develop consulting experience and prove one’s abilities to consult
- Almost all consulting firms require a case interview for their application process (along with behavioral interviews). It’s critical to learn how to do these and to prepare for them (resources are shown below)
- Networking is a large part of the application process, as referrals can greatly help to get an interview. For example, some top programs (ex: Deloitte), will require referrals from the top-level people (Partners, Principals, and Managing Directors) to even just get an interview if you’re from a non-target school.
Landscape of the Field & Companies in the Field
- The top 3 firms in the consulting industry are McKinsey, Bain, and Boston Consulting Group (often called MBB). They mostly do strategy consulting work.
- The next set of firms, often called “Tier 2”, include Strategy& (strategy arm of PwC), EY-Parthenon (strategy arm of EY), Kearney, Oliver Wyman, and LEK
- The Big 4 accounting firms also have consulting businesses, which includes Deloitte, PwC, EY, KPMG. Accenture is often grouped in with the Big 4 firms in consulting.
- There are also many boutique firms. Some notable ones include ZS Associates (primarily focused in healthcare), Alvarez & Marsal, AlixPartners, Booz Allen Hamilton, Roland Berger, Simon-Kucher, among many others
External Resources to Learn More & Develop Skills
- Books to prepare for case prep interviews: Case in Point (free pdf), 20 Days to Ace the Case, Cracking Case Interviews
- Library of practice case books: contains over 30 practice case books to prepare for case interviews. Seek recommends to start with these case books for case prep: Wharton 2010, Wharton 2006, Darden 2019, Ross 2010, and Duke 2016-2017
- IGotAnOffer: contains many resources on consulting preparation, including practice interview courses, information on companies, blogs, and more.
- ManagementConsulted: Provides interview case preparation. It is quite pricey with about $200 for 1 hour of coaching, but they have many free resources, including a Youtube page with practice videos. Here is a link to their extensive list on what the entry-level salaries are at top firms
- Career Coaching Company: Their team offers 1:1, live tailored coaching from recent grads at leading companies to help you land your dream job. Get your first package session free by saying that you heard about CCC from Seek!
- The Final Round Podcast: AJ Eckstein (recorded videos for strategy consulting) speaks with recruiters at top companies in multiple industries to learn the secrets why certain applicants get "knocked-out" and others are still standing after the final round. Here are 3 specific to management/strategy consulting:
- McKinsey: North American Affinity Recruiter, Erika Love
- Boston Consulting Group (BCG): Talent Acquisition Senior Specialist, Bruce Smolen
- Ernst & Young (EY): Campus Recruiter, Greg Share
- Marc Cosentino: Case in Point Author (the most “go-to” case interview prep book)
- Consulting Industry report: contains a plethora of information on the consulting industry, from salary information on specific companies, company reviews, diversity stats, etc.
Related Careers
- Related careers include other consulting careers (Technology Consulting, Strategy Consulting, Financial Consulting, Economic Consulting, etc.), project management, Investment Banking, Strategy, and more.
- Some exit options for consulting include going to corporations, which may include Product/Project Management, Corporate Strategy, Operations, etc. Other plausible next steps include Private Equity, Venture Capital, or startups
Informational Interviews
Ross Urbina
Company Name: PwC
Title: Management Consulting Associate
Years of Experience: 1
Biography
Ross Urbina is a Management Consulting Associate at PwC. He graduated from Santa Clara University in 2021 with a major in Finance and minors in Business Analytics and Management Information Systems. Ross is passionate about education and created Seek during his senior year of college with an amazing team. Ross has also written a book, Take Advantage of Your Youth, and has given two TedX Talks related to education and careers.
Overview
Steps took to enter field
Challenges & Favorite Parts
Advice
Bella Zhang
Company Name: Accenture
Title: Strategy & Consulting Senior Analyst
Years of Experience: 2
Biography
Bella Zhang is a Strategy & Consulting Senior Analyst at Accenture. She graduated from Santa Clara University in December 2018 with a degree in Accounting. She is also an Advisor to the Soapbox Project, a platform that makes social impact easy for busy people across the globe.
Overview
Steps took to enter field
Challenges & Favorite Parts
Advice
Eric Wang
Company Name: ZS Associates
Title: Decision Analytics Associate
Years of Experience: 3
Biography
Eric Wang is a Decision Analytics Associate at ZS Associates, a management consulting firm that focuses mostly on healthcare projects. Eric graduated from Santa Clara University in 2018 with a degree in Finance. Prior to ZS, Eric was a Business Banking Analyst at Wells Fargo.