Choosing a career path to dedicate years of your life to is never an easy decision, and this applies whether you are an undergraduate seeking a first job fresh out of university, or someone looking to make a career switch. After all, faced with the tantalising possibility of all the possible paths you could take, […]
Category: Career Advice
Individuals looking to fast-track their careers frequently find themselves lured by the exciting world of consulting in today’s fast-paced and constantly evolving business environment. Beyond the veneer of prestige and a lucrative 6-figure salary, however, lies a highly intense and competitive industry, leading naturally to a high turnover rate as many choose to exit this […]
Traditionally, consultants come from backgrounds in finance, strategy, economics, or business management. Top firms tend to recruit graduates from target business schools, and the industry is notoriously quantitative and analytical. Fortunately, there’s growing recognition that individuals from different backgrounds can offer a unique perspective coupled with logical thinking. In this blog post, we’ll explore how […]
Business operations teams play a critical role in the success and growth of both big companies and small startups. While the specific responsibilities may vary based on the organization’s size, industry, and structure, these teams are generally responsible for various functions aimed at optimizing operations, driving efficiency, and supporting strategic goals. Let’s explore the role […]
Imagine this: you are three months away from graduating, and you have five job offers printed out and sitting in front of you on the table. Which one do you pick? If all else is equal, you pick the highest paying one, right? Or, do you pick the one that moves you to your dream […]
Marketing consultants advise companies on marketing strategies and campaigns. To do this, they should possess a keen understanding of the client’s target market and existing customer base, as well as the ability to recommend clear and actionable strategies to increase sales, expand the customer base, and develop new product offerings that will appeal to customers. […]
Have you ever questioned whether you are on the right career path? Have you ever wondered if you would have been better off choosing to pursue a different industry, role, or company? For most people, uncertainty is uncomfortable and is to be avoided at all costs. Many people spend their entire lives changing from company […]
I previously wrote a similar article for those in consulting coming from undergrad. Now I want to highlight the outlook for those who joined consulting from grad school. Although there are extensive parallels, the grad school pool is decently different because they tend to be older (ballpark around 28 or so when they started their […]
One of my biggest fears when I first gained an interest in consulting was that I was simply ineligible as a non-business student. Fortunately, this is not the case. Breaking into the consulting industry with a non-business degree can be challenging as a sizeable portion of hires are from top business schools, but non-business hires […]
Are you considering a career in people advisory consulting? If so, you’ve chosen a field that can be both rewarding and challenging. In this blog post, I’ll provide an overview of what people advisory consulting is, what people advisory consultants do, and how to break into the industry. What is People Advisory? People advisory consulting […]
Product design is more creative than engineering, more practical than art, and more hands-on than graphic design Product design is a field that involves the creation and development of new products or product improvements. Product designers work with a team of engineers and other professionals to design and create products that are functional, aesthetically pleasing, […]
“Your resume is the single most important element in setting you apart from the competition”. As a job seeker, you’ll hear these words or a variation of them throughout your job search. Your resume is the first point of contact between you and your potential employer. In consulting, recruiters and hiring managers will filter through […]
Consulting is one of the most prestigious careers you can pursue upon graduation. Every year thousands flock to apply to top consulting firms such as McKinsey and Company, Bain and Company, and Boston Consulting Group (BCG). Without a doubt, a career in the management consulting industry comes with many short- and long-term benefits. However, many […]
You did it! You successfully interviewed for a position at your dream consulting firm, and you have received and accepted an offer. However, you have multiple months before you begin. Maybe you received this offer after a summer internship and must return to school for a final year. Maybe you interviewed in the fall but […]
As a young professional, fresh out of university I was certain I knew which career path I wanted to take. I had done extensive research into the consulting industry and was a member of the consulting club at my university. I knew then without any doubt that consulting was the great career choice for me, […]
When asked what consulting firms do, consultants often simplify the industry by describing it as a “one-stop shop” for formulating and implementing strategies that lead to solutions for their clients. Working for a multinational consulting firm such as McKinsey, Deloitte, or Accenture exposes an individual to various industries, companies, and well-known brand names. The value […]
When applying to consulting companies, you will encounter a questionnaire that asks you to select your office(s) of interest. This process is unique to consulting, compared to some other industries. For example, if you are an engineer or a scientist, you might be limited to a specific location that performs the work you are trained […]
Categories
Investigating Career Journeys
A career is as unique as the individual. Most people I talk to, regardless of what stage they are at in their career, can connect the dots as to how they arrived at their current position. However, if you asked them to predict their current job 5 years ago, most of them wouldn’t have been […]
Each industry, company, and project team consists of people doing specific types of work. As you join a new firm or a new group within that firm you will need to leverage what you already know and be prepared to learn new things. You will have some time prior to accepting a new position when […]
LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with nearly 800 million members in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide. It is also the oldest of the major social media networks, being launched in May 2003, nine months before Facebook. LinkedIn is a crucial tool for finding and posting jobs. Around 45 million people use the platform […]
Career paths which are dominated by knowledge workers all have one thing in common. The personal interests of the individual drives their career. I have heard about and personally experienced the “choose your own path” phenomena of consulting. Wherein you can express interest in a certain type of work and network with managers and principals […]
So, you recently graduated high school, got into a top school, and now suddenly you are bombarded with talk about internships, clubs, top firms, consulting interviews, and more. It can feel overwhelming at times, especially so as a freshman, but as interview cycles are pushed further up the calendar, and slots become more competitive, thinking […]
Experienced hire recruitment can be a puzzling, confusing environment. Compared to on-campus recruits (undergraduates and MBA students), experienced hires confront much more irregular processes, prolonged timelines, and unclear standards. As the number of experienced hires have increased during the pandemic and I personally made this transition twice during my career, below I’ll share my thoughts […]
Categories
Early Career Tips for Success
Starting out in any profession is difficult. Starting out and standing out simultaneously is even harder. In this article, we will look at some of the things I learned from my experience interning at a range of consulting firms this summer. 1. The power of networking Although networking is a widely cited element of success […]
Let’s say you get into a great MBA program. You go in with a clear post-MBA goal. Going through the motions of the program you get talking with your peers. Everyone has different goals and different reasons for pursuing them. Most of them are aiming to get into consulting, some want to launch enterprises, others […]
Being a business consultant is one of the most challenging and rewarding jobs you can have. Each and every day you are setting out to help other businesses succeed. The path to becoming a successful business consultant is not going to be the same for everyone. Some people know that they want to be a […]
In recent years, the Big 4 accounting firms have placed an increasing emphasis on emerging technology. This can be seen from their graduate recruitment process. Recruitment screening assessments increasingly ask how candidates, as newly appointed auditors, would use emerging technologies. The audit process has been vastly altered by emerging technologies. The improvement in technology has […]
Receiving an offer from a top consulting firm is an exciting experience. It is a breakthrough for many and a fantastic journey to begin. The first step starts with training, the learning of technical skills, soft skills, and time management skills. In consulting, your training, adapting, and professional growth actually never stop. You will frequently […]
At about the 3-year mark after entering consulting most consultants who matriculated directly from undergrad begin to seriously consider their next steps. For prospective and current consultants alike, I want to highlight the reflections and career pathways taken by such consultants. 1. Stay in Consulting and Maybe Shoot for the Partner Track In consulting, it […]
When I talk to my friends in consulting (across all firms and types of consulting), it amuses me that the early career mistakes we have made and witnessed are eerily similar across the board. I want to share four of them to help you avoid the most common mistakes and possibly course correct if you […]
As someone currently in management consulting who has previously done tech sales for a major software company, I was amused by Martin Keller’s article championing tech sales (sometimes known as consultative or customer success driven sales) over management consulting. Both are great career options and anyone starting their career or doing a career pivot would […]
Although a majority of people start their consulting career straight from undergraduate or graduate studies as their first full time profession, there is a substantial number of consultants who are experienced hires, coming from a prior career. For experienced hires, the dynamics of pivoting into consulting can be jarring, especially for the uninitiated. To better […]
For many ambitious university students, management consulting can seem like the ideal industry to start a successful and fulfilling career. But what happens when you realize it’s not the perfect fit for you? After completing several internships in strategy consulting and receiving multiple attractive offers, I became increasingly skeptical whether the job would match my […]
When you apply for consulting roles, your CV will be the first thing that the recruiters see. According to a 2018 study conducted by Ladders, recruiters spend an average of 7.4 seconds looking at the CV that might have taken you weeks to perfect. You need to make each of those 7 seconds count by […]
In nearly every consulting firm, sooner or later you’ll have to prioritize a specialty to formally begin establishing a focus area for your consulting career. Just to be clear, by specialty, I mean a specifically defined industry (e.g. industrials, pharma, etc.) or functional area (e.g. cost cutting, organizations, etc.) that the firm has built a […]
The greatest accomplishments will follow a focused person. Our society rewards specialists more than generalists, and the way to become a specialist is to remain focused on one area for a prolonged period. At all stages of our life there are times to explore and times to focus. When playing sports as a child exploring […]
There is no denying that the Corona pandemic has fundamentally changed the way we work. Home office and video conferences have become the norm, and some say they are here to stay. While the “new normal” can be convenient in many ways, it also presents an unprecedented challenge for new starters. Six months ago, I […]
Often, individuals rush to study degrees with the hope that after graduating, they can transfer that knowledge to the respective fields they will be working in. This isn’t entirely false, but it isn’t entirely true either. The wealth of knowledge one gains while studying a three or four-year degree cannot automatically be transferred within an […]
Launching a management consulting career is a daunting task due to the competitive nature of the profession. Applying for a job entails completing online questionnaires, writing cover letters, and undergoing psychometric assessments before you are even invited for an interview. There is also a large pool of applicants for managing consulting jobs in the developing […]
Categories
Consulting: Blazing your own trail
Apart from the rigorous selection process that consulting firms use to assess their potential candidates, securing a job and thriving within the consulting industry is not easy. The most frequently asked questions that consultants are asked by students include: “what is consulting”, “what do consultants do” and “what are the minimum requirements needed to get […]
Many management consultants hardly complete two or three years in their jobs before they realize that there’s more to life than consulting. Consultants are called upon to do problem-solving on behalf of their clients, but they are forced to move on and find solutions to the next client’s difficulties before being able to see what […]
The question of when to leave your first or second job is intimate and messy. Especially if your first job is management consulting as you will be presented with many opportunities to jump into industry. But no matter what the circumstance is, it requires you to consider an endless number of factors, ride through a […]
One of the most mentioned career paths after graduating from Harvard is consulting. It is one of the few industries, apart from investment banking, that is a stereotype for every graduating class, and people start preparing for it from freshman year through joining multiple consulting clubs on campus. But what is it about consulting that […]
Categories
3 Types of Consulting Work
Consulting is an exciting career opportunity that offers graduates the chance to use their critical thinking skills, creativity, and past knowledge. It is demanding, but immensely rewarding. When looking at consulting as a potential career, it is worth exploring the specific types of consulting available. While working as a consultant means that you will be […]
This is a question that you will inevitably receive when interviewing with a consulting firm. It provides you with an excellent way to demonstrate your interest in the firm, how it fits with your goals, and show that you’ve done your homework. Your goal should be to stand out from other applicants – this is […]
If you get rejected from a job application, you may question why you got declined. Have you ever thought that a lack of self-awareness could be the reason? Recruiters want to hire candidates with strong self-awareness because people who understand their own strengths and weaknesses are likely to cause less trouble in a team environment. […]
For all those seeking a career in the consultancy sector, the obscenely competitive nature of MBB applications is hardly news. Candidates are highly aware of the acceptance rates which never exceed a few percent, yet still try their fortunes with consulting, often not despite, but because of this. Nevertheless, these ambitious careerists are exactly the […]
Finding a job as a young professional is a challenging task in any climate, however, by following these four tips you can increase your chances of kickstarting your career. 1. Do something you’re passionate about An individual is likely to spend significantly more time and energy on tasks they’re passionate about relative to other tasks. […]
In graduate school, I had a classmate who had previously worked at a boutique firm. She enthusiastically advocated that everyone interested in consulting should only go for boutique firms. Today, having acquired more perspectives from friends and colleagues with boutique firm experience, I have a greater appreciation of what it means to start a consulting […]
Employers think ex-consultants are the bees-knees. There are lots of reasons for this. Here are four of the best. 1. The Experience In principle, consulting provides an incredible grounding in business. A consultant who does two or three years is likely to be exposed to all sorts of industries and commercial situations. A consultant might […]