MBA Crystal Ball

Update: Amit has become busy with his professional commitments and will not be able to respond here to any new queries.

If you are interested in management consulting, pick up a copy of Business Doctors. A fun and crazy story set in the world of management consulting and crime.

This thread is for anyone interested in management consulting jobs. It'll be managed by Amit (find out why he's called - MBADropout), a management consultant.

Amit has been sharing insights about the consulting industry in our blog series. Here's a list of the recent posts:

Management Consulting 101
1. What is management consulting?
2. Types of management consulting jobs
3. Top 10 strategy consulting firms
4. Top 10 technology, HR, financial consulting firms

For your reference, here's a list of the best management consulting books.

Also read this: Is consulting the right career for me?

The focus of this thread is two-fold:

- Profile evaluation for consulting jobs
- Wondering if you can manage a career transition from IT to management consulting without MBA?
- Curious to know about the pre-requisites to get consulting jobs?
- Keen on knowing about consulting salaries? Amit is your man.

Share your details as suggested by Amit (in the post below) and he'd be able to share his thoughts.

- Polishing your consulting skills.
If there is interest, Amit can share mini problems (hypothetical business cases, guesstimation problems, general brain-teasers). We'd like to see if you can come up with answers that'll make the partner of a consulting firm proud. But we'll take this up only if you request us for it.

Even if you have no exposure to the field or fear that your analytical abilities are limited, give them a shot. Practice makes perfect.

We come across a good number of consulting prospects that are unsure of whether their profiles are suitable for this line of work. They don’t know if the skills they possess align with what recruiters at consulting firms are looking for, and what they can do to improve their chances.

The primary intent of this thread is to provide a forum to consulting prospects that might want to get their profiles evaluated. As a consultant and member of the recruiting team at a boutique consulting firm, I will make an attempt to evaluate profiles and provide straight, raw and honest feedback so that such prospects are able to take appropriate steps to increase their chances. I will also post caselets, etc. that might assist such prospects to hone their consulting skills, as well as give them a feel of the types of problems that consultants are hired to solve.

The feedback, thoughts and opinions I am going to provide are my own, and there lies the risk of them being biased. I would highly appreciate if others with differing opinions also express their thoughts and opinions in this forum – that would lead to a richer and more fruitful discussion.

To give this process of profile evaluations some sort of a structure, it would be great if those that wish to get their profiles evaluated provide a short summary of their resume/CV (educational qualifications, work experience, professional goals, etc.) to start with. We will then take the discussion further as appropriate.

Thanks, Sameer, for starting this thread.

Hi Amit,

Thanks for starting this thread. I have few questions for you -

1) If some one is interested in transitioning his/her career to consulting after a experience of 7-8 years in other field, will he/she have to start at entry level ?

2) What is the pay structure in consulting ? General thumb rule in IT industry is 2x salary in services and 3x in products. Here x is the number of years of experience.

3) What other perks like job profile, travel opportunities, commission, etc do consulting companies provide which are not norm in IT industry?

Looking forward to your reply.

Regards,

Hi Amit,

First of all thanks for your initiative.
What your are doing is really appreciable.

First of all thanks for your initiative.
What your are doing is really useful.

I am 25 yr Indian IT Male looking for a change in career
oriented more towards consulting or marketing.
But I am not sure if I would "fit in" for these two jobs.
Pl help.

My profile;

Work ex:3 yrs 9 months.
Industry:IT

Achievements:Led a 22 member team for one year to achieve the team
objective of 36 customer centric issues.

Co-ordinator for most cultural events in college especially marketing events.

Project co-ordinator for Final year students.

if you feel there is any other information that you need to conduct your assessment please ask.

Thanks in advance.

Regards,
shreenath

Inquizzitive,

Thanks for your questions. Here we go:

// 1) If some one is interested in transitioning his/her career to consulting after a experience of 7-8 years in other field, will he/she have to start at entry level ? //

No, you won't have to start at the entry level. If, for instance, you have 7-8 years of IT experience, you can join the IT consulting group of a consulting firm as a subject matter expert, though you might have to join at a level lower than where you are at your current firm.

// 2) What is the pay structure in consulting ? General thumb rule in IT industry is 2x salary in services and 3x in products. Here x is the number of years of experience. //

I am not aware of any such thumb rule in consulting. Like any other field, salaries in consulting are dependent on a large number of factors (past experience, gold/star dust, educational background, international experience, type of role, etc.).

Since your salary would usually have a sizable variable component, calculations would be more complex than a generic "nx" type of function.

// 3) What other perks like job profile, travel opportunities, commission, etc do consulting companies provide which are not norm in IT industry? //

Depends on the consulting firm. I am not sure I would call them "perks", but this is a highly depreciated list that I can think of at the moment - travel, networking, face time with CXOs and high officials (mostly when pitching), exposure to a multitude of industries/firms/problems, etc.

Only at senior positions (Partner, Principal, etc), you will receive commissions.

All the best.

-Amit.

Shreenag,

A good way for IT professionals to get into the consulting industry is to join the IT consulting group at a consulting firm. With ~4 years of experience, you will likely not qualify for an SME-type of role.

Though recruiters at consulting firms would look at involvement in extracurricular activities in college and leading a large technical team at work very favorably, they are going to be looking for prior experience and/or knowledge that would help you solve real world (unstructured) business problems (please take a look at my second article on types of management consulting jobs for some examples) and/or serve as a human encyclopedia on a particular subject (which is an SME-type role).

If you are unable to position yourself as falling into one of these two buckets, unless you are fine with starting at the entry level, getting into this line of work is likely going to be an uphill task.

By the way, have you given a thought to doing an MBA (assuming that you already don't have one)? An MBA would enable you to execute a career change more smoothly and easily. With ~4 years of work experience, you would be right at the sweet spot (in terms of age/experience) in the applicant pools of most business schools. Most consulting companies, including mine, hire large numbers of freshly minted MBAs that were IT professionals in an earlier life.

Let us know if you have any other queries.

-Amit.

Amit,

Thanks for the answers. I would request you to evaluate my profile for consulting though I am not sure if I will qualify :-)

• Total experience 7 years.
  Engineering from one of the IITs. Raised funds for the cultural fest.
  Worked 3 years in a large IT captive unit
  Bootstrapped a IT services & products company for 3 years. Did everything a founder is supposed to do :-)
  Worked 1 year as delivery manager in a for profit social enterprise

I guess I will not qualify as SME. I am not sure about other bucket.

Regards,

Inquizzitive,

Here we go:

//Bootstrapped a IT services & products company for 3 years. Did everything a founder is supposed to do :-)//

Because of the nature of this line of work, recruiters at consulting firms have a fetish for people that are bitten by the entrepreneurial bug. They are continually on the lookout for people that are innovative, creative, and can work independently. Apart from pedigree and solid experience (which you already have), imparting the right spin on your "did everything a founder is supposed to do" story to showcase these qualities should make your case stronger.

Building a tight and crisp resume is key; ensure that the story flows smoothly (IIT -> IT job -> effectively played the role of founder, grew team from zero to x, and business from $ to $$$ in 3 yrs -> now want to get into IT consulting, etc.). Managers/principals/partners at consulting firms spend maybe a few seconds in skimming through each resume (HR usually hands them sheafs of resumes - they don't time to give each of them a hard look). Make sure you cover these facets of your profile in the first few sections (objective, summary, etc.) of your resume.

All the best.

-Amit.

Hi Amit,

I am interested in pursuing management/strategic consulting. My profile is as under;

Qualification: CA, CIMA
Work ex - 8 years
Field of working : audits, credit and relationship management
Sectors worked for: Accounting, Banking

I am keen on pursuing MBA from US universities and making a move to consulting thereafter. I would be grateful if you can guide me through my choice specifically on the likelihood of getting a like opportunity given my past experience and the corresponding monetary benefits (will I be considered an entry level).

Thanks & Regards.

Alwaysmbaaspirant,

The good thing about consulting firms is that they hire people from almost all fields/domains/sectors, though fewer people with "non-consulting profiles" (IT professionals, physicians, etc.) are hired since they are required mostly for SME-type roles across their many divisions/practices.

A few thoughts:
1. Consulting companies are looking for people with the right skills (quant, problem solving, etc.) and experience (client management, BD, etc.). If you show that you have such skills and experience, things should work out for you.
2. Today's consulting behemoths (McKinsey et al) have a Corporate Finance (or similar) practice where accountants with the right skills and experience are in demand. You could target these roles - proper planning, positioning and execution would be key though.
3. With 8 years of experience, you will probably fall at the far end of the age distribution curve at US bschools. At European MBA programs, average age is higher and more senior roles are available - have you considered such programs?

Though your designation/level would depend on a great many factors (story/positioning, bschool, practice/division at firm, etc.), it is very unlikely that someone with 8 years of experience will be offered an entry-level role.

Your compensation would also depend on quite a few variables. Since the range of compensations across firms and the roles they offer is huge, it would be difficult to quote a figure. To get some idea of ranges of salaries at consulting firms, please take a look at glassdoor.com.

If I were you, with 8 years of experience, I would look at European MBA programs as well. I would target practices/divisions (such as Corporate Finance) at consulting majors that hire accountants, and tailor my MBA and plan next steps accordingly.

-Amit.