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Re: Management Consultant Jobs on your mind?

Posted: August 25th, 2014, 7:10 am
by mbadropout
Hello all,

I am back after a hiatus and will be posting regularly. I will try to respond to as many older posts as I possibly can. If I have not responded to your earlier post(s), please do repost and I will surely respond.

Thanks for hanging in there, and please keep the questions coming.

-Amit

Re: Management Consultant Jobs on your mind?

Posted: August 25th, 2014, 7:23 am
by mbadropout
Mallika,

First, I am assuming that your query is around switching to a pure management consulting role. In general, it takes quite some effort to make such a switch, from core IT to pure management consulting. To give you very specific advice, I will need some more information -

1. Is MBA an option (considering all the usual factors - finances, time, etc.)?

2. Is an IT consulting (vs. management consulting) profile an option?


An MBA might make it easier for you to switch, and given that you have tons of SAP and other IT experience, you could make the transition to an IT-consulting type role easily.

Please let us know of the above (and other relevant) details, which will help us in giving you more specific advice.

-Amit

Re: Management Consultant Jobs on your mind?

Posted: August 25th, 2014, 7:34 am
by mbadropout
Dakshimanshu,

To give you specific advice, we will need more details along the lines of:

1. Which institute/school did you graduate with your mechanical engineering degree from? Specifics are not needed - general info is fine (one of the IITs, one of the RECs/NITs, private engineering colleges, etc.).
2. Which construction firm are you currently working for? Once again, no specifics needed - general info will do.
3. What are your key responsibilities at your current firm?
4. Other details along the lines of the above would be great to have.

In general, depending on how much "design" you have done in your current role, there is a possibility of adding a "creativity & innovativeness" flavor to your your profile, which might help move things in the right direction. With 4+ years of work experience, an MBA might also help. Bottom line - there are lots of possibilities and options, but to be more specific, we will need more details.

-Amit

Re: Management Consultant Jobs on your mind?

Posted: August 25th, 2014, 8:25 am
by mbadropout
Nero,

Thank you for the detailed info.

To respond to your specific asks:

1. A profile evaluation and fitment for the nature of work I wish to do.

You are no doubt qualified and experienced enough to take up this new role. Switching from a conventional "transactional" role to one that is project-based would prove to be difficult for most, but shouldn't be too much of a challenge for you. In summary, I think you have the right credentials for what you want to pursue.


2. Feedback on what skills I may need to acquire.

Something I have realized over time is that it is one thing to execute a project, while it is a totally different ballgame to convince a prospective client to trust you with an assignment (HR project). Pitching, selling and negotiation - in a word BD - is key to succeeding in the type of role you have in mind. Picking up these skills - pitching (giving presentations) and negotiations (pricing, contracts, legal, etc.) - would be very important. I don't usually recommend books on this forum, but I'll make an exception - take a look at 3D Negotiation by David A Lax and James K Sebenius. I have found the book very helpful, and though it is more about negotiation in general, it should go a long way in helping you pick up a very specific set of skills that they don't seem to teach elsewhere.

There are no other skill-gaps that come to my mind at this time, though I will give it some more thought.


3. Advice on how to get a break in the consulting space.

I am going to take a risk by repeating what others have stated a million times - networking. I would recommend having a safety net in place. For instance, before you jump into full-time HR consulting, it wouldn't hurt to approach a few of your past clients and have a friendly conversation on what projects they currently have on the docket, ready to be handed over for execution. Better to not take up something overly complex - 5 simple projects are better than 1 overly complex assignment. You could also attend certain IT conferences that focus on HR solutions (for instance, I know that SAP organizes conferences/meets regularly). Talk to other small shops that specialize in this space. They might have a few projects lying around that they would be happy to hand off (for lack of experience/expertise, or because they have too few hands on deck, etc.).

If possible, find (a) trusted partner(s) you can team up with. It is important to know what you don't know, and there's nothing better than partnering with people that would be able to plug the holes.

These are my quick thoughts. If you have any other questions or followups, please let us know.

-Amit.

Management Consultant Jobs on your mind?

Posted: September 1st, 2014, 6:45 pm
by koolkat
Hi Amit,

Hope you doing good, appreciate if you can give me pointers.

2000-2005 BE-ECT <unknown college, 1 yr gap>
2005-2007 odd stuff here and there, cat, gre.
2007-2009 MS in Finance, Chicago, Illinois institute of tech, Chicago <focussed towards risk management, and quant stuff>
2009-2011 USA - started as ground executive in a marketign company as executive and later was heading 40 people team across east and midwest. (no proper papers as i was a contractual employee)
2012-2013 INDIA - joined a startup/small company (animation) (planning & strategy support) which was transitioning business model from services to original IP & other value added products.
2013-2014 part time only in above company as my motivation went too weak and no great action at company front. almost shutdown case now. its my relatives only so can get experience letter.

my confidence has completely shaken up in many areas, so trying to build up.

skillset
1. Theortical knowledge - Risk management, Quant understanding (derivatives), Investements and portfolio.
2. Marketing - MStrategy, Branding, Promotions, on-ground activity. (leadership, crisis management, planning)
3. Startup - Operations costing, business model transition, support on strategy/business plan/client servicing.


Que.
1. Is this profile ok/good/bad for mid tier consulting ?
2. Can u give me names of some mid/boutique companies that i should try for ?
3. The above skillset seems a good hodgepodge to me, does it make any sense to you from senior consultant point of view.
4. I just want to understand the area where i can take best shot with the background i have. ()

thankyou

Re: Management Consultant Jobs on your mind?

Posted: September 6th, 2014, 3:03 pm
by Akshay Ahuja
I am in dire need
for help.I wish to build a career in
management consulting (operations/­
strategy/scm).
I am a b.tech (manufacturing) from
nifft Ranchi.I have two job
opportunities-
1. as design/product engineer at
Cummins India ltd,Pune
2. As production /maintenance
engineer at SAIL IISCO,burnpur.
which job experience well help me
most in future career aim.
Please do help.

Re: Management Consultant Jobs on your mind?

Posted: September 6th, 2014, 3:34 pm
by Akshay Ahuja
I am in dire need
for help.I wish to build a career in
management consulting (operations/­
strategy/scm).
I am a b.tech (manufacturing) from
nifft Ranchi.I have two job
opportunities-
1. as design/product engineer at
Cummins India ltd,Pune
2. As production /maintenance
engineer at SAIL IISCO,burnpur.
which job experience well help me
most in future career aim.
Please do help.

Re: Management Consultant Jobs on your mind?

Posted: September 7th, 2014, 5:48 pm
by mbadropout
Koolkat,

I will not mince words - with your current profile, an immediate shift to some flavor of consulting looks very difficult. To understand your situation a little better, you have switched career paths quite a few times - ECT, GRE/CAT, finance, marketing company and finally animation. Discounting things like confidence, "almost shutdown case," etc., what is it that you really like doing? Even if you could give me a very high-level idea of what you want to do in your professional life, something along the lines of - assisting people/organizations in making better business decisions, something to do with the stock market, something to do with manufacturing, cars, research, etc. - it would provide a good starting point.

My intent is to make sure that a couple of years from now, consulting does not end up being one of the elements of the hodgepodge. With some idea of what drives you, we can work out a plan that would hopefully lead you to success and satisfaction.

-Amit

Re: Management Consultant Jobs on your mind?

Posted: September 7th, 2014, 5:58 pm
by mbadropout
Akshay Ahuja,

Both of those offers are great. A job in design would force you to think out of the box, and be innovative and creative. A production/maintenance job at SAIL would expose you to the best manufacturing/production processes and systems in the country - a dream for any manufacturing/production engineer.

Choosing one over the other is a difficult decision. From a consulting standpoint, recruiters value people that can think out of the box, be innovative and creative, and can work with things that are vague and unstructured. If I were you, all other things (compensation, position/designation, location, etc.) being equal, I would opt for the design job at Cummins.

-Amit

Re: Management Consultant Jobs on your mind?

Posted: September 7th, 2014, 7:40 pm
by Akshay Ahuja
Thanks Amit for your valuable advice
Regarding parameters you mentioned
1. SAIL is paying nearly double of what Cummins does
2.Cummins locations is Pune and its far better than burnpur, west Bengal.

Yet I hope Cummins job would do me better even though I have to sacrifice on salary issue for at least 2-3 years.hope sacrifice pays off.