You’ve done your time in consulting: built models, led client calls, mastered the slide deck, and maybe even picked up a travel pillow that lives in your carry-on.
But what comes next?
What are you most passionate about?
After solving everyone’s problems, what really drives you?
If you’re at a career crossroads, you’re not alone. Many consultants reach a point where they want to get off the project treadmill and explore new ways to grow. This isn’t about picking a “forever job”, it’s about trying on roles that stretch you in different ways. Think of it as your career bucket list: experiences to check off before you commit long-term.
There are three career tracks that consultants, especially those wired for impact, owe it to themselves to try (or at least deeply consider) before deciding what fits: entrepreneurship, high growth startups, and big corporations.
If you were put on the planet to be an entrepreneur, go build
Maybe you thrived on ambiguity within consulting, but wanted to overdeliver in a way that the statement of work didn’t allow.
Maybe you enjoyed working with people, but wanted more ownership of the strategic vision.
Maybe you enjoyed structured problem-solving, but quickly tired of solving other people’s problems.
Maybe you’re an entrepreneur!
Entrepreneurship is the highest-risk, highest-reward career move you can make, and also the hardest to fake. As Dave Boyce writes, “true entrepreneurs don’t choose the path, the path chooses them”. If the thought of clocking in at a cubicle makes your skin crawl, that may be a signal. Founding something is incredibly demanding, but it offers full creative control and unmatched learning. The catch? There’s no safety net. You should try it when you have a problem you absolutely have to solve, a financial cushion, and a consultant’s appetite for ambiguity.
To reduce the odds of failure, successful entrepreneurs start not with a product idea, but with a pain point. Rather than simply developing an idea, perfecting a product, and pushing it into the market, great founders start with customer pain. In Nail it then Scale it, we learn that entrepreneurship isn’t about building cool things. It’s about solving real problems in ways people will pay for. Great founders don’t just build, they test, listen, validate, and iterate. To be a successful entrepreneur, you have to be totally customer centric, and learn to change and adapt as fast as the market.
Fortunately, consultants are trained to understand client pain points before recommending solutions. This mirrors the entrepreneurial principle of “nail the pain before you nail the product”.
Management consultants are rarely handed a product, but are taught how to find the right problem and build the right team, model, and strategy to solve it, which translates directly into entrepreneurship.
If you were made to help companies scale, get in the trenches
You don’t need to be a founder to feel ownership or make an impact.
High-growth companies, startups that have found product-market fit and are scaling fast, can be some of the best training grounds for future leaders. While the target is always moving in consulting, growth-stage companies let you actually build something. You’ll wear multiple hats, see your work make a real difference, likely gain equity from the startup, and often find yourself in rooms you wouldn’t be able to enter in more mature organizations. The pace is intense, the learning curve is vertical, and the outcomes can be career-defining.
For many former consultants, these companies strike a powerful balance. They’ve established product-market fit but are still rapidly evolving. For MBAs and early-career professionals, they offer a rare mix of autonomy, visibility, and impact without requiring founder-level risk. Unlike large corporations, you’re not boxed into a lane. Unlike seed-stage startups, you’re not betting on survival. Instead, you’re building something that’s already working, and making it better, faster, and more scalable.
This is a place where consulting experience can really shine. You’ve learned to navigate ambiguity, work cross-functionally, and deliver results under pressure. At a growth-stage company, those skills translate directly into real-world impact. You’re not just advising, you’re executing.
One common observation in business is that courage is scarce in large corporations, and security is scarce in startups. At a high growth startup, you are attaching yourself to people with courage, allowing you to benefit from their ascendency. This is what makes this stage so powerful. A high-growth startup is not just a place to work, but a place to build and transform.
If you were born to rise through a corporation, climb with intention
Corporate roles, especially in Fortune 500 companies such as PepsiCo and Procter & Gamble, often get a bad rap amongst ambitious early career professionals. But, they tend to be underrated.
For those who thrive in structured environments and value consistency, a corporate career offers clarity, stability, and long-term compounding growth. Unlike consulting, you’re incentivized to build something that lasts, not just something that works for the quarter.
And climbing doesn’t have to mean selling out. Big companies increasingly value entrepreneurial mindsets and are looking for changemakers who can navigate internal systems while driving innovation. If you enjoy process optimization, strategic planning, and leading large teams, this could be your sweet spot.
There’s obviously less flexibility and more specialization here than in an early-stage or growth-stage startup, but there’s also more predictability and mobility. You get structured onboarding programs, formal mentorship, and company-wide paid time off. Typically, lots of information is published about these companies, including annual reports that present their financial information. Anyone who wants a clear advancement path, lateral mobility, a known brand, expansive network, and long-term skill development should consider this option.
The level of risk is low, but the potential for deep learning is real, especially in global roles or innovation-focused teams. For example, a Strategy Manager at Nike overseeing the Asia Pacific and Latin America regions is constantly evaluating synergies across countries to shape the company’s strategic direction. Management consultants often fast-track into corporate leadership roles thanks to the strategic and analytical skills they build quickly.
If you need a reset before deciding what’s next, take the graduate school pause
Sometimes, the next step isn’t a job, it’s a pause. People go to graduate school to figure out what they want to do, gain connections, pivot their career path, or boost their salaries after graduating. Going into graduate school intentionally is important, because the people who don’t often end up spinning their wheels.
Whether it’s an MBA, MPP, JD, or something niche, graduate programs let you step away from the client treadmill and reflect deeply on what you want. It’s also a powerful rebranding move. You’re not just building new skills, you’re repositioning yourself in a new ecosystem of peers, recruiters, and ideas.
Some management consultants are sponsored by their firms to obtain an MBA with the promise that they’ll return for 2-3 years. Some consultants end up re-hiring into another firm, often under the guise that they’ll get reimbursed for their tuition. Other consultants pay for graduate school out of pocket because they know they want to try something new.
Graduate school is often a great return on your investment. The level of risk is low to moderate, because although it requires time and financial investment, it can open doors and accelerate career growth. It allows you to reset post management consulting, opening up a lot of doors in corporate strategy, brand or product management, private equity or venture capital, rotational leadership programs, and beyond, especially if you’re not sure yet which of the above paths is right for you.
The bottom line
Many high achieving students are attracted to management consulting because it opens up opportunities, and young professionals are still early enough in their career to try new things.
It’s worth asking yourself: what kind of person am I?
- The founder?
- The early joiner?
- The corporate climber?
You don’t need to pick your forever path, but you owe it to yourself to explore a path that is most suitable for you.
Your consulting toolkit can take you a long way. Now it’s time to decide what kind of impact you want to make, and where you want to make it.
Elle Cheney holds a BA in Communications and Research with a Minor in Business from Brigham Young University. With professional experience in management consulting, marketing, and communications, Elle is curious about creative problem solving, thrives in environments that are highly collaborative, and values opportunities for mentorship. She aspires to create memorable experiences for customers as part of her long-term career.
Image: DALL-E
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