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MBA Admissions: USC Marshall and Management Consulting

March 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Popovich Hall at USC Marshall

Popovich Hall at USC Marshall

This post about USC’s Marshall School of Business focusing on management consulting is part of a series of interviews about top MBA programs called “MBA Career Goals and the B-Schools that Support Them.” Please subscribe to our blog to ensure that you receive all the interviews exploring the elements at each school that support career goals in finance, consulting, general management, entrepreneurship, marketing and more.

Here is the interview with USC Marshall:

What kind of background and skills do you like to see in applicants expressing interest in a career in consulting?

For a career in consulting, students do need a business background. If they want to practice in a particular industry, they need industry experience. But as a baseline, they need to understand how business operates.

What aspects of your curriculum do you feel are best suited to students who want to eventually pursue a career in management consulting?

Marshall has a considerable number of classes in management, as well as courses in financial modeling—all topics from which consultants draw knowledge and learn to formulate and apply strategy.

In addition, the school provides opportunities for students to secure consulting internships.

While the above coursework provides the foundation for a career in consulting, Marshall has also changed its curriculum to allow for more flexibility and greater choice of electives. With this variety of courses, our students tend to be very well rounded—which serves our graduates well when they act as consultants across industries. In addition, since we train our students to develop a global perspective and as mandatory part of curriculum the students visit companies in different countries via experiential learning trips–Marshall students learn to appreciate the dynamics at play in different corporate cultures. This helps our students succeed as consultants.

Which school clubs and extra-curricular events are most relevant to people interested in management consulting?

The Consulting and Strategy Club includes professional development and networking and relationship building. In addition it provides case and interview preparation.  The L & O Club (Leadership and Organization Club) is for those students who are interested in management and leadership development.  The club also is a hub for students who are interested in pursuing management rotation programs, corporate HR, and human capital or HR consulting.

Also there are clubs that pertain to certain industries.

Consulting Certification Program

In addition to the support of a dedicated career services advisor, Marshall Consulting Club’s Case Certification Program prepares candidates for case interviews.  Members receive a set of around 60 practice cases and access to a library of hundreds of additional cases from major consulting firms as well as our peer business schools, two days of mock interviews and advice and guidance through the entire interview preparation process. The process culminates with candidates interviewing with top-tier professional consultants who make a final decision on awarding the case certified status to the candidates.

High Profile Events: Global Consulting Challenge

For 10 years, USC Marshall has been hosting the Marshall MBA Global Consulting Challenge, an annual case competition that challenges the problem-solving of MBA students from the world’s leading business schools. Students get to showcase their skills and connect with executives from top companies and industry executives who assess their performance—introductions which can put our students top-of-mind for job interviews and professional opportunities.

The Global Consulting Challenge has allowed students to meet with executives from companies such as Cingular, Intel, Toyota, Twentieth-Century Fox, AT &T, Electronic Arts and Hewlett Packard.

An outgrowth of this competition is an ongoing student consulting practice that operates out of the Consulting Club.

Since management consulting is a very broad term, can you break down some of the sub-categories in the field that USC Marshall excels in?

  • Information Technology
  • Management and Strategy
  • Operations and Supply Chain
  • Energy
  • Financial Services
  • Human Resources and Organizational Behavior
  • Pharmaceutical and Healthcare

Which management consulting firms recruit the most USC Marshall graduates?

  • Deloitte
  • Ernst and Young
  • IBM
  • Pricewaterhouse Coopers
  • KPMG

What kinds of positions do your graduates focused on consulting generally go into?

Normally, our students receive offers and take positions as senior consulting associates.

Thanks to Amy Blumenthal in Media Relations at the USC Marshall School of Business for granting us this interview.

Eliot SloanBy Eliot Sloan, Accepted.com editor.  Eliot is a college writing professor specializing in the personal narrative, a journalist, writing coach, and admissions counselor. She has helped applicants gain acceptance to Ivy League schools and other top programs.




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MBA Admissions: Dartmouth Tuck and Management Consulting

February 16, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Dartmouth TuckThis post about Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, focusing on management consulting, is part of a series of interviews about top MBA programs called “MBA Career Goals and the B-Schools that Support Them.” Please subscribe to our blog to ensure that you receive all the interviews exploring the elements at each school that support career goals in finance, consulting, general management, entrepreneurship, marketing and more.

Here is the interview with the Career Development Office at Tuck.

A quick glance at Tuck: The oldest graduate business school in the nation, Tuck offers only one program: a full-time MBA.  Known for its small scale (each year Tuck enrolls just 250 students in its incoming class) and personalized atmosphere, Tuck currently has the 4th highest average starting salary and bonus among the business schools ranked in US News & World Report (March 2011).  About 30% of Tuck graduates go into management consulting careers.

What kind of background and skills do you like to see in applicants expressing interest in a career in management consulting?

Many consulting companies are used to hiring people from a broad variety of backgrounds, so it is not essential to have a certain career background. If you think about the competencies required to be a good consultant, you can imagine that people who are able to show evidence of these competencies in their past experience will be well positioned. Common competencies include the ability to work well in teams, to influence other people, to work comfortably under pressure and with ambiguous information, to achieve and to have impact. Entrepreneurship is another sought-after skill. If you think about a consulting company, it is a collection of partners who bring in business. Therefore if you are somebody who has already demonstrated that you can build a business then that puts you in a good position. Finally, if you look at many of the people who work as management consultants, they possess a certain level of self-confidence that enables them to walk into a new company, pick up the basics, and then give advice. I think having that innate self-confidence (without arrogance) is a key predictor of success in getting a job in consulting.

What aspects of your curriculum do you feel are best suited to students who want to eventually pursue a career in management consulting?

Tuck does very well with management consulting recruiting for a number of reasons. Firstly, I believe it attracts the type of people who will do well (see above) – people who like to work collaboratively, who are intellectually curious, who can build trust-based relationships. Secondly, the curriculum is well-suited to this type of career. Tuck’s first year core is incredibly rigorous, so that by the time students have gone through that there really aren’t any major gaps in their skillset, so they can confidently tackle a consulting internship knowing they have the fundamentals under their belt. Then there are certain technical skills that many consultants rely on, for instance being very capable with PowerPoint and Excel, and Tuck has excellent hands-on classes in both these areas.

There are also many opportunities during the two years to do actual consulting projects, for instance the First Year Project is a capstone of the first year, and is a real project, solving a problem for a real company. Another course that springs to mind is Consulting Project Management, which is literally a 6-week simulation of a consulting project. For this we have guest lecturers who come from a variety of consulting companies, for instance we’ll have a senior partner from McKinsey come and talk about the challenges of implementation. At the end of the course, students present their findings to a panel of ‘clients’ in a very realistic setting.

Finally, we have Tuck Global Consulting – this is where a client company will pay for a student consulting group (with expert faculty oversight) to come and do a consulting project in a global setting. This is a fantastic way to get both global exposure and also real-world consulting experience.

Which school clubs and extra-curricular events are most relevant to people interested in management consulting?

There’s the Consulting Club, which is very active and which really leads the charge during the fall, when students are learning about the industry, and learning about how to succeed in consulting industries. There are more extra-curricular events available than any one student could take advantage of. Some of these might be leadership opportunities, for instance to lead a club, or a conference. There are opportunities to do a consulting project for a local company, to sit on the board of a local non-profit, to do volunteer work in the community. There are also the many recruiting events that consulting companies put together. Shortly after you arrive at Tuck, you will have many opportunities to get to know all of the major firms at company briefings, wine tastings, individual office hours, visits to their offices in Boston and so on.

Since management consulting is a very broad term, can you break down some of the sub-categories in the field that Tuck excels in?

The largest recruiters at Tuck are the traditional management consulting companies like McKinsey, Bain, BCG and their peers. We also do very well with healthcare consulting, and students who arrive with a background or passion for that area have a wealth of options in terms of who they might like to apply to. I think we also do well with ‘niche’ companies, because with a small company you want to make sure you’re getting someone who is going to be a good fit, and Tuck students tend to be very collegial.

With smaller firms I think there’s a natural focus on those who are located in the Northeast, and within that I can certainly think of good examples in telecom, energy, investment analysis (due diligence), market analytics. Finally, there are many great companies that have internal consulting groups, and these recruit strongly at Tuck. Global companies like Samsung, Siemens, British Telecom, Fidelity, as well as the global pharma companies, all have very strong internal groups that provide the intellectual stimulation and team atmosphere of traditional consulting within the ‘home’ of a parent company.

Which management consulting firms recruit the most Tuck graduates?

Tuck’s top hiring organizations include: McKinsey & Company, Amazon, Bain & Company, Citigroup, Goldman, Sachs & Co., Barclays Capital, and Boston Consulting Group.

Related Resources:

Thanks to the Tuck Career Development Office for granting us this interview.

Eliot SloanBy Eliot Sloan, Accepted.com editor.  Eliot is a college writing professor specializing in the personal narrative, journalist, writing coach, and admissions counselor. She has helped applicants gain acceptance to Ivy League schools and other top programs.




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MBA Admissions: Yale SOM and Management Consulting

August 30, 2011 By 2 Comments

  

This post about Yale SOM and management consulting is part of a series of interviews of top MBA programs called “MBA Career Goals and the B-Schools that Support Them.” Please subscribe to our blog to ensure that you receive all the interviews exploring the elements at each school that support career goals in finance, consulting, general management, entrepreneurship, marketing and more.

Here is the interview with the Admissions Office and Career Development Office at Yale SOM.

What kind of background and skills do you like to see in applicants expressing interest in a career in management consulting?

The backgrounds for prospective management consultants can vary widely from analyst positions at consulting companies to work experience as part of Teach for America.  The generalist model consulting companies are looking for the “best and brightest” regardless of industry background, so strong analytical skills and communication skills (for example, as demonstrated by high GMAT scores) are essential.  The interview process is extensive and is focused on “casing,” which requires candidates to demonstrate business acumen, problem framing and solution development while engaging in a collaborative discussion with the interviewer.

The generalist consulting companies do value to some degree prior experiences in consulting, finance, operations, or marketing; however those experiences are not essential.

More specialized firms expect undergraduate education and prior experiences in related fields.  For example, healthcare consulting companies consider more candidates that have scientific undergraduate degrees and have worked in the healthcare industry prior to Yale SOM and finance consulting companies consider more candidates with a related financial work experience.

What aspects of your curriculum are best suited to students who want to eventually pursue a career in management consulting?

The “core” course for the strategy curriculum is Competitive Strategy. Students can pursue an ‘emphasis’ in strategy; for those students or students interested in consulting/general management, the second “core” course of the strategy curriculum is Internal Competitive Strategy and the Internal Organization of the Firm. Students considering a career in strategy are also recommended to take Statistical Modeling. Other courses to consider include Technology Strategy, Behavioral Economics and Strategy, and Developing Winning Strategies.

Which school clubs and extra-curricular events are most relevant to people interested in management consulting?

Membership in the Consulting Club is essential for prospective consultants.  The club conducts a curriculum that is focused on case interviewing, enabling students to develop essential techniques and offering an environment for practicing case interviewing in groups and one-on-one.  Additionally, the Club holds case competitions in conjunction with prospective employers, which both sharpen skills and build professional contacts for networking.  Club leads and 2nd year members act as coaches to help students sharpen their resumes, prepare for interviews, and navigate employer opportunities.

Since “management consulting” is a very broad term, can you break down some of the some of the sub-categories in the field that Yale SOM excels in?

A wide variety of consulting firms recruit Yale SOM students, including strategic consulting firms, operational consulting, human capital, financial consulting, healthcare consulting, and innovation consulting.

Which management consulting firms recruit at Yale SOM? How many graduates of your 2010 class received offers from each of these firms?

Many consulting firms recruit at Yale SOM.  A sampling of them includes Bain, BCG, McKinsey, Deloitte, PwC, Booz Allen Hamilton, Arthur D. Little, Charles River Associates, PA Consulting, Casey, Quirk and Associates, CCS Fund Raising, Chartis Group, Frankel Group, The Hay Group, Innosight, Mars Consulting, The Parthenon Group, and Putnam Associates.  Additionally there are many firms that recruit Yale SOM graduates through other channels such as diversity programs.  Approximately 20% of our 2011 students have taken full-time positions at companies within the consulting sector.

Thanks to the Yale SOM Admissions Office and Career Development Office for granting us this interview. 

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MBA Admissions: Cornell Johnson and Management Consulting

May 29, 2011 By Leave a Comment

  

This post about Cornell Johnson and management consulting is part of a series of interviews of top MBA programs called “MBA Career Goals and the B-Schools that Support Them.” Please subscribe to our blog to ensure that you receive all the interviews exploring the elements at each school that support career goals in finance, consulting, general management, entrepreneurship, marketing and more.

Here is the interview with the Career Management Center team at Cornell Johnson.

What kind of background and skills do you like to see in applicants expressing interest in a career in consulting?

Specific background is of lesser importance than possessing transferrable skills and the ability to translate why consulting makes sense as a next step. With that said, prior consulting, banking, and/or strategy roles make for a less challenging transition.

What aspects of your curriculum do you feel are best suited to students who want to eventually pursue a career in consulting?

The General Management nature of Johnson is highly beneficial, since consultants will face a variety of pressing business issues across a wide spectrum of functions and industries.

More specifically, Johnson’s Consulting Passport curriculum is essential to successful transition into the consulting industry. While the Passport is technically not part of the Academic Curriculum, it is nonetheless important. The Consulting Passport is a coordinated combination of lectures, mock interviews, and small group work provided by Career Advisors, Consulting Club, Career Work Group Leaders (2nd Year MBAs) and alumni in the consulting industry.

Other courses that are strongly recommended are:

  • Management Cases
  • Cases in Business Strategy
  • Management Practicum

Which school clubs and extra-curricular events are most relevant to people interested in consulting?

Consulting Club would be most relevant. For those seeking to better understand through experiential learning, I would recommend Big Red Consulting (BRC), the student-run consulting firm. However, membership in a more social club is recommended to demonstrate that the candidate is well rounded.

Since “consulting” is a very broad term, can you break down some of the some of the sub-categories in the field that you feel the Johnson School excels in?

Johnson’s traditional strength is in Management Consulting, basically Strategy and Operations Consulting. Another strength area is in Financial Advisory, although a smaller portion of the class also seeks out roles in Boutique, Industry-specific, and Technology Consulting Firms.

Which consulting firms recruit at Cornell Johnson? How many graduates of your 2010 class received offers from each of these firms?

McKinsey, Bain, Deloitte, Accenture, PWC, Ernst & Young, PRTM, Easton Associates, and Infosys typically recruit at Cornell Johnson.  36 offers were extended to the class of 2010 from consulting firms.  An additional 8 offers were extended for internal consulting roles.

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MBA Admissions: UC Berkeley Haas and Management Consulting

May 17, 2011 By

  

This post about Haas and management consulting is part of a series of interviews of top MBA programs called “MBA Career Goals and the B-Schools that Support Them.” Please subscribe to our blog to ensure that you receive all the interviews exploring the elements at each school that support career goals in finance, consulting, general management, entrepreneurship, marketing and more.

1.  What kind of background and skills do you like to see in applicants expressing interest in a career in management consulting?

The Berkeley MBA Program is delivered from a general management perspective, and thus attracts applicants with a diverse range of backgrounds and interests.  We seek candidates who have solid professional experience and leadership potential, and who possess the Berkeley values of confidence without attitude and a willingness to look beyond the status quo.

Candidates who wish to pursue a post-MBA career in management consulting should demonstrate a breadth of experience, preferably with strong leadership, progression and impact.  Direct experience in consulting or strategy is a plus, but not required.  Candidates who are making a career-switch into management consulting should be able to clearly articulate how they intend to leverage their skill set and work experience to successfully make this transition, why they want to pursue consulting and which firms they plan to target for full-time employment.

Learn more about general admissions criteria.

2.  What aspects of your curriculum do you feel are best suited to students who want to eventually pursue a career in management consulting?

Students pursuing a career in management or strategy consulting will typically begin as an Associate, gathering data and performing analytical work.  Essential skills include: evaluating financial statements, interpreting marketing plans, understanding internal financial reports and producing succinct and coherent analyses.  Courses that help students develop a clear thought process and logical analysis, including strategic thinking, structure and prioritization, and numerical agility are good foundations for consulting.  Strong communication skills are also critical for success as a consultant.  

Many of these skills will be developed through Haas’ general management curriculum which teaches students fundamental business concepts – from accounting and finance to strategy and marketing.  Through additional elective courses students can customize their coursework towards management consulting.  Elective courses comprise over 60% of the Haas curriculum and most students start taking electives in the spring of their first year.

Some suggested elective courses towards a career in management consulting include:

  • Financial Information Analysis
  • Designing Financial Models that Work
  • Power and Politics
  • Game Theory
  • Global Strategy and Multinational Enterprise,
  • Strategic Leadership
  • Structure and Incentives
  • Marketing Research

In addition, student-initiated courses, such as Careers in Consulting and General Management and Strategy Speaker Series, bring real-life practitioners from top firms to the classroom and deliver first hand insights on critical issues in the management consulting field.  Students frequently will have an opportunity to meet with the speaker in a small group setting or over dinner.

3.  Which school clubs and extra-curricular events are most relevant to people interested in management consulting?

Providing students with hands-on exposure to real-world business situations is a key strength of the Berkeley MBA Program.  Experiential activities are required for graduation, and numerous out-of-the-classroom initiatives give students the opportunity to build on their general management skill set.  A snapshot of these experiential opportunities is highlighted below:

  • Clubs: Most students take a leadership role in the club that aligns with their career interests, such as the Haas Consulting Club (HCS) and the Berkeley Solutions Group.  The clubs aim to educate students on career paths in management consulting, provide avenues for networking and prepare them for job interviews.  HCS facilitates a Consulting Firm Night, Case Interview Groups and a Consulting Boot Camp.
  • Haas@Work:  Haas@Work sends teams of Berkeley MBA students to work with top executives at major firms, such as Visa, Virgin America, Cisco, Disney, Panasonic, Clorox, and Wells Fargo. Students research and develop solutions for a competitive challenge posed by the firm. The best ideas are then selected for student implementation by the firm’s executives.
  • Social Sector Solutions:  Social Sector Solutions partners with the international consulting firm McKinsey & Co. to engage in major consulting projects for nonprofit organizations, such as the David Brower Center, the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, and the Opportunity Fund.  Students work with senior leaders of the organizations and McKinsey consultants in offering plans, creative ideas, and solutions.
  • Business Competitions: Case competitions challenge students to apply classroom learning to real-life business problems, often simulating the tasks that a management consultant would face in his or her job.  In recent years, students have participated in case competitions with Apple, Facebook, Hewlett Packard and Intel – among others.  In 2010, Berkeley-Haas students took first place in the 8th Annual Innovation Challenge, earning them the title of “America’s Most Innovative MBA Team” from over 100 competing teams.
  • Conferences: Berkeley-Haas students host and facilitate several industry competitions annually.  Conference leadership is an excellent opportunity for students to employ their leadership, communication and project management skills.  Our largest conferences include the >play Digital Media Conference, Women in Leadership Conference and the Haas Business of Health Care Conference.
  • Career Management: The Berkeley-Haas Career Management Group was ranked #4 nationwide by recruiters in a 2008 BusinessWeek survey and received an “A+” in 2010.  Career Management plans workshops, panels, networking events, job fairs and receptions specific to all phases of the job search.  Specifically for management consulting students, Career Management helps facilitate Haas Consulting Days, mock case interviews and case prep workshops with industry experts.

Hear more about experiential learning directly from Haas students on the Berkeley MBA Student Blog.

4.  Since “management consulting” is a very broad term, can you break down some of the some of the sub-categories in the field that Haas excels in?

Most Berkeley-Haas students interested in consulting pursue management and strategic consulting positions with firms that primarily offer strategy consulting and business intelligence models across industries, such as McKinsey, The Boston Consulting Group and Bain.

To a lesser degree, students pursue boutique firms which have expertise in specific industries (such as healthcare, technology or brand management).

5.  Which five management consulting firms recruit the most Haas graduates? What kinds of positions did they go into?

Approximately 20-25% of Berkeley-Haas students gain full-time employment in management consulting after graduation.  Recently, the top management consulting employers at Haas included McKinsey, The Boston Consulting Group, Deloitte and Bain. 

Learn more about the management consulting career paths from Class of 2011 graduates:

Learn more about careers post-MBA, view an employment snapshot of recent graduates or see a list of firms that recently recruited on campus.

By Morgan Eckles, Assistant Director, Haas Full-Time MBA Admissions.

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