Consulting

I was going to start a thread on consulting.
What is consulting?

Can anyone with a STEM or business degree and some internships or undergrad research become a consultant?

For instance are there chemistry/chemical engineering consultants or (insert random field here) consultants?

Or is it only for MBAs?

Is it hard to get an entry-level job? Or is it easy because it requires a lot of time and travel?

This sounds like a field for me since I like travel and probably won't have a family soon. I want to study STEM (statistics specifically, I will also take some business and actuary courses), but don't want to get a masters. So is there demand for people with only a 4 year stem degree in consulting.

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>>985727
This guy used to work for McKinsey before joining Enron.

>>985733
>>985727
I am a consultant at accenture. It is really easy.
You will never use your background skills and they only take from accredited programs because 1) they can and 2) no one will hire them if you went to midwestern tech college of sciences and managing a team.

You can become a consultant if you prove to a recruiter you are smart.

I was lucky, went to the right school and wore the right suit during a career fair. People I work with are Uchicago art majors, northwestern psych majors and a few Michigan business school kids.

You can only get in right from undergrad or right from MBA school. The reason being they want to underpay you and you don't know your worth at those points.

Also, the turnover is incredibly high because of the brand name these companies carry. I'm only here for 2 years because I am getting too many job offers to run departments of companies.

"Oh you were a strategy consultant at accenture?? Do you want to run our chicago expansion office?"

Consulting will burn you out. You will do bullshit for companies that shouldn't have the leadership staff they have. There is always someone above you leading the team and delegating jobs to you.

Basically, it is someone hiring you to tell them how to run their business because it has been a mom and pop family run tire factory for 30 years and they are not succeeding anymore since supply chains made a north dakota pretreloum factory easier to access and cheaper.

Then your director says "give me a week" and assigns you to interview the supply chain people to find redundancies. Then you report back and your director says "Well you are spending too much on having 5 people manage your warehouse. This is the technology we can set you up with that makes that job automated."

By the way, that cost the business 220k a year. Which is cheaper than having 5 people on staff to do that job, but we don't make it easy.

>>985750
Another case I worked on was a hopsital conglomerate in midwest. Their real problem was that the cheif of staff overstaffed to cover federal regulations and his main buyers were paying too much for generics.

But the core of the problem was they were not making money and had to reduce hours on very profitable wings.

Our solution was to once again automate how the doctors and nurses checked in, thus freeing up cushy jobs. Then I crunched the numbers on their parternship suppliers for basics like needles and shit and found a cheaper company in a different state. This money together freed up enough capital to hire a specialist that can manage a full team in a unique wing of the hospital making each hospital under this conglomerate the only ones in a huge area that can treat these patients.

That means they can up the price more and gouge insurance companies.

We charged them $1.5m for this and they pay a residual for the automation software of 120k a year.

>>985757
More pls

Got hired into Big 4 advisory to start next summer. Would love to hear more stories.

>>985757
>>985750
My, that does sound easy.

>>986317

I feel for you my man.

>>986318
The hardest part of my job was getting hired.

Do not let anyone tell you they are overworked or stressed consulting. Unless you are a programmer, you are a face person. It is why recruiters only pull from top universities, these kids need to command the stupid idea that "I am from yale, so I am obviously smarter than you, retail chain market manager with 30 years experience selling clothes."

If you are still in college and want to get into "business" take two years of consulting. A friend of mine is now at google on their fiber optics expansion only because he was a "strategy consultant". Do you know what we worked on together? A womens clothing company that had issues regarding their shipping. That was his 6 month project, I was only on it for 2. Why is he at google? Because he knows "strategy".

So I should tell you my background. I went to a big business school that is heavily scouted. While at school I studied physics and marketing, but I didn't want to get into anything science related. Junior year, a teacher tells us something I will remember forever, "Every good manager at any company had 3 years in consulting. Tonight look at the linkedin profile of any csuite exec at a startup."

I went through 8 different execs from companies I respected in Chicago. All were consultants at some point. I realized that if I wanted to make a change in my life I had to do it too.

>>986351
>not sure if pitch

Interesting story though. How translatable do you think this all is to someone in a relatively large Australian city?

>>986351

But let's cover another case. This women's clothing company is big nationally. They are not big box, but they have off the rack supplies too. Their largest issue was that with the explosion in ecommorce shopping, there was a major issue in stocking stores correctly and tracking inventory. People go to stores now try things on and then buy at home.
So your first solution is to stock stores with less. That is fine and dandy except when some mother buys her girls clothes and then the smalls are missing from the store.
Then the store has to order more and in that time period, 3 days of shoppers wanting women's small pass the store up. 3 days of missed sales is close to 10k at this chain.

So they called accenture because our sales team is aggressive and they couldn't take the time to find a way to keep stores stocked, keep orders shipped regularly and all inventory is kept in order.

You have heard two of my team's solutions, and you can probably guess this one: we made them rent our inventory program.

That is the other thing about consultancies now. They buy up great b2b programming shops and then implement them uniquely to each client.

What my team did was put in learning algos at every store to know what the regular level of product is for every type of product. Then the stores every 3 days will rotate shipments in from the main supply facilities nationally to keep up. When there is an order, we get a store that usually does not sell a certain product to fulfill the online order and mail it out. Then they will get restocked after the next 3 days.

So stores in chicago never filled orders, but stores in central illinois learned fast how to mail packages.

>>986368

How much did this cost? There were 15 people on this job for 6 months. The store paid over 2 million including the cost of the inventory program. I have no idea how many programmers implement the system. I have to guess 2-4.
That's right. I am worth around $300 an hour to companies to prove empirically that they suck at business. My director is probably worth 500.

My paycheck this year including overtime bonuses is 96,000. I also get a rent subsidy to live close to the office in Chicago ($1000 a month) and can expense all dinners/cabs during the week to accenture.

401k is 5% matching. I get 75% health insurance at $500 deductible. My taxes are done by in house people and I am expected to drink with big wigs every week.

Groupon is the worst company in the world but their recruiters will literally have sex with you to come work for them. I say literally because a friend of mine had sex with a recruiter as he was on his way out of accenture.

Don't get me wrong. The hours are awful. I am on call all the time and they have unrealistic expectations for when powerpoints are due. But to make 90ish thousand a year, have almost no living expenses and a serious network of connections set up going forward, I am happy.

Everyone here reading this in college right now. If you want to move from a middle to upper management lifestyle, this is how you do it without connections. Just ask your career office which consultancies recruit from your school and start sucking their dicks now. Idiots get jobs here and the turnover is so high that these places just need above average sociopaths who can drink the koolaid for 2-4 years.

My words of advice are drink the koolaid. Sure you are making your director rich, but he sold his soul years ago. The only people who look down on me because I am "the man" are the same people who think 100k paycheck is unreasonable.

Ask me any other questions. Pretty much I told you my three biggest accomplishments now.

>>986367
There is blackrock, pwc, deloitte, bain and mckinsey in sydney.
Funny story, I studied abroad for a semester at UNSW and the business school were all asians. Do people in oz like business?

Relatively large is what? Adelaide? Perth? I really have no idea but anywhere in the world there is a business district, there are groups of people willing to overcharge company dollar to fix small problems.

As you as you get those heych dees (HD), then I don't see why you couldn't do it. Kids seemed happy barely passing so I bet the competition is lower for people with motivation and a want to make money.

>>986369
>Groupon is the worst company in the world
can you expand on that?

>>986380
Read this business model and then look at their stock.

Groupon was started in 2008 but started taking off in Chicago in 2009 with partnerships with service based groups to get more people in the doors at a discounted rate. They promote, they sell the coupons, they collect a small portion of the profits. It does well.

In late 2010, they launch an email program to reengage people who only buy a few groupons a year. They send out so many unrelated groupons because honestly how many times do you need to get nails done a month?
This becomes spam and people stop using groupon.

On a relentless need for sales, groupon becomes a sales floor, turnover rate by 2011 becomes 7 months as you either get your book or you don't. That means taking on really shitty deals like $45 for $60 monday through thursday.
People become more annoyed as these deals suck. Groupon tries to expand further into travel and products (like woot.com).

All of this relentless growth ignored the groupon fan. The person who thought niche deals were great and the small business that really did see a benefit from groupon. Instead, those small businesses couldn't do the great deals constantly at a margin so the sales people ditched them.
And the fans who loved the deals lost out because the deals new sales people could get were shitty.

Groupon fired over 1000 people this year. And they fired 500 last year. They also gutted the entire executive board twice. Why? Because the business was all about where the next dollar is coming from, not creating a sustainable business.

So they are hiring anyone to try to save the company as it looks to get bought by priceline or some other type of group. This was a real case of over inflated valuations and a company that thought too short term.

>>986397
very interesting. thank you.

what's your take on priceline? i happened to run a stock screener a few weeks ago and all i saw was $1300 a share. like wtf matey.

>>986375
>Funny story, I studied abroad for a semester at UNSW and the business school were all asians. Do people in oz like business?
Sydney is very dense with asians, also the unis like to bring them over because they can charge more and they have to pay upfront.

>Relatively large is what?
Melbourne

>As you as you get those heych dees (HD), then I don't see why you couldn't do it. Kids seemed happy barely passing so I bet the competition is lower for people with motivation and a want to make money.
Very interesting. What would be the most relevant degree/major?

>>986404
I love their company. Would I buy their stock at 1300? Probably not.
1300 isn't a resistance level, but it sure seems like everyone is comfortable with pcln at 1300. If there was a market crash after the fed announcement, I would pick up a share or two.
My major issue with hyper expensive stocks is how wide the bid ask goes. And I am already so deep on internet products (twtr, atvi, qqq, yelp).

Check out their holdings and ask yourself if you use other names to do your travel searching -www.pricelinegroup.com/

Also, while you are there, look up some of the careers at their companies. You'll see a lot of them ask for strategy and consulting experience.

Coincidence?

>>986411
I see a deloitte office, bain and BCG in melbourne. That means there are smaller shops around as well.

Well the two most relevant are Business Administration and Supply Chain Management/logistics.

But, you can swing it with finance, statistics, psychology and even some hard sciences.

Honestly it is more along the lines of proving you are better than just a degree title and can jump when you are told. I suggest reaching out to your university career center or the consulting offices themselves and ask what type of people they are looking for.
These offices seem pretty small in melbourne so you could swing an internship pretty easy I'm betting.

>>986423
>if you use other names to do your travel searching
well, i make not even close to 100k a year so i don't do a whole lot of discretionary spending. saving my money atm and learning about the stock markets now. funded my brokerage account, we'll have to see how it goes.

i'm canadian and it looks like pcln has very little market penetration here. i don't watch TV so no ads right there. i use adblock, etc. i've talked to a few other canadians and they haven't heard of pcln either.

I'm not a consultant, but a) my peer group is almost entirely consultants, b) I've done a lot of consulting-type work but focus more now on the analytics side of things, c) I know how the whole shtick works (more or less), and d) I think it's great for getting your feet under you. In much the same way that being in the marines was great for maturing me as a person and getting my priorities straight, while providing me a top tier MBA for free, being a consultant is a GREAT way for undergrads to get their head right. From what I've seen out of undergrad you're an analyst doing bullshit monkey work. The environment you're in is the real plus though, in that if you compare a well-paying job as, say, a civil engineer for some utility doing design work with being an analyst, in one situation you're surrounded by a bunch of lifers who don't want to excel, and in the other you're a small fish in a big pond.

You'll also burn out and probably hate your life. "Travel" is not a draw and is a fucking scam -- everyone wants international experience but no one has international perspective. You probably won't save any money and will be convinced that a profligate lifestyle centered around socializing passes for 'networking', as though people who waste their time and money on booze have their shit straight.

>>986428
So do you only have your undergrad? MBA? Hoping to start my MBA next year and go into management consulting. Accenture is one of the companies in looking at as I already know people at the company

>>986445
You nailed it, except you probably don't see how many companies want "strategy" and consulting experience. Analyst life is terrible and I spend 60% of my year in the middle of nowhere kentucky living out of a hotel and a reasonable suitcase.
That drinking networking is powerful though. Not many times in your life do you get to drink with management partners who also are partial investors in companies like avant credit. The tight knit circle you can throw your resume into gets you far.

>>986467
I only have an undergrad and I am a strategy associate. My plan to the higher ups it get my mba at 26 (i'm 25). But I am probably just going to leave and join some other firm.
Are you getting your MBA in a city where there are firms? I highly suggest you do that so you can be an MBA intern while you are going to school.

If you know people at the company, start talking to them now so they can learn the tricks to internal referrals. There is the dumb route, using our internal hiring portal, and then there is the business route, getting to know a recruiter and having them personally introduce you to the recruiter after already talking you up.

Like I said, consulting is a face job. If you can get someone to talk you up, you will get that interview.

>>986369
>drink the koolaid.[ ] The only people who look down on me because I am "the man"
What do you mean by this?

>>986491
i'm a junior studying bio trying to get a summer internship at accenture.
any tips to land the internship? also on the application page they're asking me for location preferences, do those matter? i would obviously want to go somewhere important, not bumfuck kentucky but i would rather have an offer than no offer

>>986351
this man knows

> Do not let anyone tell you they are overworked or stressed consulting
i always kek when i hear this shit.

>>986491
I've found a lot more benefit from doing the bare minimum on social shit, to show I'm not a weirdo, and spending time that I otherwise would have spent not sleeping and burning money on getting better at my data stuff, but to each his own. For me, I'd rather be better at my job, let my work speak for itself, and make my connections outside of a diluted drinking pool in a competition to see who can out loser each other. That came out harsher than I meant, but since I'm trying to start my own analytics consultancy in 5 years since I do it on the side, and since I'm not in consulting right now, I live a different life.

>>986467
If you're getting an MBA for management consulting, you'll need to be in a school that has an existing relationship with recruiters. Some firms exclusively recruit at specific schools. For example, Ross is great for consultants, because no one knows anything and all they do is bullshit. Which is great for consultants, because you don't want confident specialists, you want generalists who can bullshit. That's not so great for partners, though, and I fully expect all my friends to leave after 2 years for some other generalist job.

>>986569
When I'm working for a company I try and be the best damn person at my job that I can possibly be, based off the company's mission statement and goals. The corporate culture is an outgrowth of that -- or rather, it should be, and if it isn't the company doesn't have a future anyway. Or the team you're working with is a dead end. It's all the same -- gtfo. I think he means 'realize that you're only working to make someone else rich.' If I wanted a shit ton more money right the hell now, I'd start something on my own right now and keep all the equity for myself. And regarding 'the man' comment, haters gonna hate and losers gonna lose. I imagine.

>>986907
>When I'm working for a company I try and be the best damn person at my job that I can possibly be, based off the company's mission statement and goals. The corporate culture is an outgrowth of that -- or rather, it should be, and if it isn't the company doesn't have a future anyway. Or the team you're working with is a dead end. It's all the same -- gtfo. I think he means 'realize that you're only working to make someone else rich.' If I wanted a shit ton more money right the hell now, I'd start something on my own right now and keep all the equity for myself. And regarding 'the man' comment, haters gonna hate and losers gonna lose. I imagine.
Interesting.
I actually read into it that he was implying one should convince themselves they aren't ripping people off despite knowing the opposite to be true (the koolaid part)
And by "the man" I thought he was referring to being the guy that comes in and tells someone's boss to fire them and have a computer program do their job instead.

>>986911
But people only use references to the Man in laughing self-deprecation, or as an private insult to management. If you're hating on someone who makes more money than you, is more attractive and more successful and smarter and harder working and nicer and all around just a better guy, you're a loser. The sad part is, there are a lot of valid complaints about management and executive ranks, but just like the racial narrative avoids socioeconomic factors that actually affect quality of life for people in the struggle, complaints about management are just that: self-victimizing complaints. And yeah, if you're selling something, you need to convince people that the money they have is of less value than what you're giving them for it. So what you're saying is part of it, too. What's the point of a company, and for working in general? To make money. I'm not going to work for charity, for god's sake, I have real plans and real things I need to do before I kick the bucket.

>>986941
Of course business exists to make money, it's just that he indicated he thought that some of the changes he's suggested to people were really quite simple, not really necessitating the millions paid for them. In the case of the hospital I'd probably agree. The clothing chain with the learning algo for handling supply is arguably a fairly complex solution, and I dare say worthwhile if it worked out well.

You're right though that people would do well not to hate their betters simply for being better. And the valid complaints about management/executive, but they're basically just operating within the framework they're given. Guess you could look at their legal obligations (interests of the company vs interests of shareholders [i.e. share price]).

>>986569
>The Man
Unless you are a math teacher, you probably have never been hated by hundreds of people everyday as you come into work. My job is to essentially fire people and humiliate them by pointing out their inefficiencies.
In 4 weeks without knowing the industry or company, my team comes in, says "here is why you are failing" and I tell 10-20 year workers that they suck. Then I demand half a million dollars and leave.
My life is "business" and everyone who works for passion looks at me as the nameless corporate guy. My friends are in advertising/product developement/programming and they can talk about the fun things they do everyday and how they make something happen.

What do I do? I make businesses make more money. Very supplementary. That's why you're "the man".
Then I look at my career potential and that stuff really rolls off my back.

>>986803
Bio means you will work in healthcare, bioinformatics, and biotech. Ask your school tomorrow to let you know which accenture recruiters talk to their career center. Then call each of those recruiters to ask which locations deal with biology and "life sciences" say you are passionate about healthcare.

Yes the location matters. Accenture has a giant proprietary program that filters you out immediately in the talent pool. But if you click everything, you get filtered out too.
Remember, consulting is a person to person business. Get to know your recruiters. If your school does not have any, then find some who went to your school off linkedin, or even your hometown. Reach to them, offer to buy them coffee or take a call with you. Someone knows someone who can answer your question and having a good impression with a name will get you out of the online portal.

Also, don't you dare wear a tie. Ties exist for formal events and trading floors. Read GQ on business attire these days.
If interviews make you nervous (you're in college, they should) go check out two books.
60 seconds and you're hired.
Case and Point.

>>986981
thanks man i really appreciate it
i'm about to have my case interview soon. any protips? i've never done a case before, it's all been behavioral

>>985750
i have an absolute shit tier bachelors, about to start a masters in accounting from an okay but non-target school with the goal of working in big 4 audit for a while. how can i transition from audit to management consulting without doing a top MBA?

>>986989
You are going to be intimated. The goal is to make you enter flight or fight and then get the answer wrong.

The secret trick that no one tells you is that they want the people who can ask questions.

So let's say your case was "a client is launching a new driverless car in october 2016. What should they price it at"

You need to calm down and before you jump into saying "well I don't know" you need to ask:
What is the cost of production?
What is the current market climate?
What is the cost of shipping?
Who is competing with them, what are they selling for?
Is going to dealership?
Has there been marketing already?
Has there been any research on consumer demand?

Get all your ducks in a row so you can draw the stupid supply/demand cruve and then put a fixed edge on marketing.

They want to see you have a good foundation.

if you really want to wow them, then you add in a bonus after thought like "if we are the first to market, I would actually aim for a lower margin so we over-saturate it and drive tesla/google out of the running for a few years."

Because business never follows the theory.

>>986491

I tried applying for graduate roles at all of the management consulting firms that recruit through my uni (I'm in AUS and my uni is well respected), they all asked you to go through their internal portal. I didn't get past the initial screening on any (not offered an interview, etc.).

I have a masters in engineering with a 2:1, but my undergrad was so bad that I didn't get honours.

>>987004
Well 3 of the big 4 have management consulting departments. Good ol EY really just loves their tax.

Honestly going from audit to management is not straightforward unless you worked with clients on strategic initiatives (I hate that buzzword). It means you used your specialty to solve wider problems. Like when I use supply chain knowledge to figure out they don't need a second warehouse and can automate stores.

What you should look at is doing financial consulting and get your CPA. Finance goes to management/strategy easily. And if you take on a side gig or two, you will have a huge case list to pull out of your ass when you get your associate/manager title.

I have a connection at PWC who does corporate tax, he is about to be manager then is going to jump to Aon Hewitt for strategy. The difference is that he works on presentations and knows how businesses make money while strategy is working out how to make more money.

Honestly it comes down to how you interview and what you can prove you did on cases.

Once you're in the system, you can move around. These things are always in demand.

>>986981
>Unless you are a math teacher, you probably have never been hated by hundreds of people everyday as you come into work. My job is to essentially fire people and humiliate them by pointing out their inefficiencies.
>In 4 weeks without knowing the industry or company, my team comes in, says "here is why you are failing" and I tell 10-20 year workers that they suck. Then I demand half a million dollars and leave.
Ayyyyy my guess was spot on.

>>987011
If anyone tells you to go through their online portal, they are dead connections. There always is a second way.

If anyone says "sorry we really only accept through online portals" they are saying 1) I really don't want to go out of my way to help you or 2) I am not sure how this works and networking confuses me.

Find someone who is doing what you want to be doing and buy them a kebab (see, I know oz terms) then talk to them about how you want to get there.
They will suggest that they will either introduce you to someone, or they will pass your resume on.
Rinse and repeat. If that doesn't work, then you need to start volunteering your consulting and build up some cases to prove yourself.

Everyone in this world does probono for charities. It makes you feel more human and recruiters (who have never thought strategically in their lives) will respect it more.

Also the hiring manager will respect the fuck out of it.

I consult for a local wildlife rescue and rehabilitation center, last year I helped set up an voip line so they can take emergency calls, in 2016 I am helping them organize an instagram and automate it with all the animals they help. Check them out, they do great work that the city won't care about. http://www.flintcreekwildlife.org/

See, now that you know I care about birds and raccoons I seem like a nicer guy. Well the voip line got them 30% more donations last year since they were more responsive and the instagram page is estimated by my social associate to raise their awareness by 100% with sharing partnerships in Chicago.
Boom, case studies and a real human being.

>>987007
thanks again. this thread has been really helpful
one more question - how varied are the types of cases i can be given? i figured there's a chance i get something math/stats heavy in which i case i should probably start brushing up
i know it's probably up to the interviewer but any input from you helps.
also, do you have a throwaway email i could contact you at? i'm following in your footsteps in transitioning from science into business and would love to have you as a contact

What would you say is the intellectual cutoff point to get into Consulting? When I look at these people's profiles on Linkedin a lot of them seem unreachable or intimidatingly good

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Any other Deloitte Toronto peeps here? I do quant research and a lot of practice development for us.

>>987316
They have a rather close relationship with my university's CS department. I sometimes wonder how my career might have progressed if I'd applied there.

>>987321
I always hear a lot about our technological consulting. I'm in management consulting personally. The good thing with Deloitte is that we offer such a wide range of consulting services, us in management consulting can compile a much more specialized solution, utilizing multiple branches. This also allows us to bill insanely so that is nice.

>>986351

Thanks for your contributions.

Do you think I'd have a good opportunity in getting a job offer if I utilize fraternity connections within consulting companies along with having experience of running my own business.

>>985750

are you gaining worthwhile skills? or learning things that can be applied elsewhere?

>>987316
>Any other Deloitte Toronto peeps here? I do quant research and a lot of practice development for us.

Nah but I work at Barometer Capital.

Who /hedge fund/ in Toronto here?

>>987206
Management and strategy consulting cases are everything under the sun. Their goal is to prove you can think on your feet about any situation.
I had 5 interview cases. The most interesting one was. "You are programming a chess game. Give me the abstract on how you would have the game function"
If you are specialized you are are going to get grilled literally all day to see if you can take the pressure of doing the same shit all day.

>>987263
For every achiever you see on linkedin, you are going to see a basic jock from state U who knew to go down the normal path. If you ever found yourself thinking abstractly about a problem and then also going ahead to solve it, then you probably have what it takes to consult. It is very "no safety net" and you will get fired for fucking up.

>>987424
The small business is what you use to sell yourself and the fraternity are guys who hopefully will give you the time of day. Look back at my earlier posts on how there are two types of internal referrals. Make sure the frat guys put you on track 2.
You probably can be on a small business team. That is where I started and it is rewarding.

>>987499
When I read skills, I think of hard skills. I have never been better at simplifying issues and putting them into a 10 slide powerpoint in my life.
What I have learned is how the business world really works. I am completely jaded now because I see how execution matters more than everything else. So many companies at the top are run by just normal people. They just took the risk and went for it.

Of course, when I start my company, I am going to fuck up like them too and have to hire a consultant to solve my problems. Funny how the world works like that.

The strongest thing consulting will ever give you is 1) confidence and 2) the resume fodder to blow a venture capitalist or recruiter out of the fucking water.
You'll be aware of it now when you look at job boards. Consulants/IBankers preferred.

>>987512

thanks for answering my question.

If the work can be done by anyone, and everyone works a lot of hours, how does anyone even differntiate themselves? It's not like the work quality is sensitive to intellect is it? I have this same question for all white collar corporate environments desu.

How important is relationship building with coworkers or bosses? Both in order to get promoted / a good bonus or if you need a good reference later? The thought of having to socialise outside of work with coworkers makes me vomit

Are women hired solely as decoration? I went to an IBM office once and it seemed that way. They dress more promiscuously than the girls at university.

And one final thing: These sorts of jobs (consulting / banking) seem to love taking kids who are captain of the X team, president of the X club, marathon running go getters etc.... and then making them work for 90 hours so they do nothing but work. Is this lifestyle shit jarring for these guys, or is everything just a way to get ahead and a sacrifice?

>>987506
WHO BAROMETER CAPITAL HERE?

WHO MAKING BIG BUCKS

>>987520
>How do I stand out if the work is the same?
There are 600 ways to solve a business problem. And on a team of 7, you are going to actually be asked to solve a problem. If your solutions are more elegant, you can take on the harder work and still provide good results, then you will get put on harder jobs. Your rewards are better accounts. Better accounts get you noticed more and then you jump ship by saying you helped IBM instead of saying you helped middle of nowhere hospital.

>I hate the idea of socializing.
You aren't going to like consulting. I have said this many times, consulting is a face industry. Everyone here is either a savant at something or incredibly personable. Frat stars you hated in college are management consultants. Pickup artists are consultants. And those really funny sarcastic guys you want to hate are consultants.
If you are on a team of 7 and are working 50 hour weeks in middle of ohio, you are going to live with them. And then you go out with your clients. Then you give your manager your resume and say you want to go to google.
You can be a genuinely good guy, or a sociopath. But at the end of the day, you are telling a business owner why he should trust you.

>Are women for decoration?
/pol/ plz go. Any woman who gets off her associate level team knows something about business. For every woman that sucks at her job, there are 4 meatheads who are 27 and still associates too.

>Is the lifestyle jarring?
When your rent, clothes, and food are paid for by these companies, it is your life, not a lifestyle. Banking, startups, engineering and consulting are the only places I know of that are willing to pay 23 year olds 80k and the company always expects to make it back.

Those captains and club presidents are demonstrating to recruiters they handle long hours and grinds well. Consulting is a grind, ask that toronto guy. But it isn't a hard grind. Consulting is the only group I can think of that pays for me to drink with millionaires

This entire industry is a den of sociopaths climbing over and exploiting other sociopaths. You all deserve death.

Not even a leftist.

>>987539

Just a little harsh maybe?

>>987539
Someone is mad they aren't making money?

Lmao. I only do whatever earns most money senpai.

Btw who /Barometer Capital/?

>>985727
I'm going in for a trial day at a boutique place today after 4 months of unemployment :)

>>985733
All I've got is a Bachelors in comsci (majoring in Information Systems), but I have found MBAs going for the same kind of jobs (business analyst, software/business/technical consultant, etc)

I have a bit of a negative view on them since apparently my school (large state school near DC+NYC) is a huge target for them. Everyone freaks out about applying to the firms, but only the most bland, dreary, people who need everything in class written out in lego instruction form get hired. I think they manipulate students into thinking they're the best absolute job for graduates.

>>987512

Mind sharing some small business cases? Are they harder to help because they face higher failure rates?

Wow this thread just makes me want to become a Consultant so badly now.

I wasn't able to pick between the two, but this does it, I'm very sociable, love going out, and having fun while spending money. Consulting seems perfect.

Thank you to the guys who talked about it, going to save this thread, some really interesting and fun stuff here.

>>987794
>very sociable, love going out, and having fun while spending money

Yeah that's a very special case you have there

I don't think grades have been mentioned in this thread yet. My understanding is that you have to be a high academic performer to be considered for many of the top consulting firms. That means, not only a high GPA in college, but also a high SAT score, and high High School grades. You have to show consistent high performance up to the point that you apply to the companies.

>mfw I'm not in consulting but in an easy industry that makes me look like a fucking superhero for what I do & earning big bucks at the same time

Though I'm actually good. I have recruiters occasionally trying to poach me on LinkedIn. I'm not saying which industry because I don't want fags here to saturate my market.

I don't suppose consulting is something you can get into if you aren't just graduating? I've been working business intelligence for nearly 4 years now without even a college degree. I've worked with some consultants and everything I read about it really just makes me want to be one but I have a feeling that boat has sailed for my ass.

>>987802

What do you mean by special case?

>>987539
this desu consultants are worse than HRM but that mula doe

>>987819
There's a big market shortage in people who like spending money and having fun

>>987825
I once knew someone like that. Pretty cool guy. Eh likes spending money and doesn't afraid of anything.

>>987825

:o Are you being sarcastic or what, cuz I literally do do that, but I also make money doing it right now, I find clients for Law Firms and I do Social Media Consulting for my friends and peer group, earn around $5k a month right now and I'm 19!

But if you weren't being sarcastic, then, well, ok

>>987814
Of darn we were waiting for your party so we could steal your job. Just wait - next time you're sure to slip up!

>>987810
also 90% of MBB undergrad/grad consultants are hired out of ivy schools

what you actually study in undergrad on the other hand doesn't really matter at all
you can get into McKinsey with an arts degree and it wouldn't even be weird

but yes, grades are EXTREMELY important
also impotant:
previous internships (banking & consulting is best, F100-500 is also great anything else is nice but might not be enough)
extra-curriculars (anything that shows you are the best at something, a good leader, love to socialize and are generally a well-rounded person)
international experience (internships in another country / studied abroad for a semester etc)

>>987817
no consultancy will hire you without at least an undergrad degree, sorry

also: for anyone interested in strategy consulting google Victor Cheng

>>985727
Holy shit, it's 4am in my country and I need to sleep, but this thread is gold. I'm bumping just to sleep now and read it later.

To give my story, I'm a first year maths undergrad and I'm looking at the more obscure parts of finance, particularly actuary. Can anyone fill me in on their experience there?

I dropped looking at the Big 4 a while ago - have you fucking seen their intern turnover rate? Yeah, you're not getting that job without the internship and the internships are impossible to get... and then you realise that they're advertising at the campus of any above average uni, so all the STEM undergrads are looking at mainstream finance - yeah, fuck that.

I suppose I'll trade stories for stories, fill me in on the actuarial profession or some obscure part of finance and I'll be back with my stories on careers prospects (I sware, I don't even know the names of all the non-Investment banking roles, or any of the shit statistics can get you in, who the fuck is even employing 'analysts'?).

Look at that, haters. Classic.

>>987772
They are harder to help because they cannot afford the solutions. Small business makes you think agile. Large business I can just tell a person to get x program, hire y people and give me a z check.

>>987750
Bland people get the job done can be given orders, they go into lots of important and meaningful consulting. Strategy/management people are type A and very personable. Strategy and management is not meaningful, it helps businesses grow larger, faster.

>>987810
If anyone has ever asked you for a highschool GPA, then leave. They didn't want to hire you anyway.

>>987817
You are more qualified than every analyst I work with. Now that silicon valley made homeless people 300k salaried programmers, you can show skills that beat out Wharton School of parents overpaying for business connections. It just matters who you talk to. You wouldn't be a management consultant though.

>>985727
You don't need an MBA or even college time for consulting. There are at least a dozen two or four week certification programs out there that will have you consulting if they are in your resume. My nephew was consulting at 19 with no college and a two week course making 14K a month and I've been at it for over ten years with the oil and gas industry.

You have to graduate from a top 10 school. These companies are assholes about it. Consultant just means you can bullshit. Companies hire these consulting firms to blame them if something goes wrong. Everyone knows not to trust them. There is a book on Mckinsley I believe. They literally said back in the 90s that Cell Phone won't be a profitable market.

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182KB, 853x1203px

>>985727
bain?

>>989640

Like Sigma Six, Agile? Can you throw me a bone on this one? Thanks.

>>989664
Accenture, Deloitte and IBM don't care about the school as much

>>989713

I can confirm PwC doesn't either. My gf just signed with pwc's personal tax division and she only has a professional bachelor (not university) and a postgraduate in finance & insurance. There were people with a masters in law who competed with her and lost. She does however speak 4 languages fluently and is quite pretty. Shes currently finishing her postgraduate but her contract states that if she fails to complete it, she will still be hired but with slightly reduced salary.

Being a law graduate myself, the places where academia is valued most are the higher-end law firms. Most of them will laugh in your face if you show up with a resume that shows you didnt get cum-laude results in ecery single year of law school

>>989713
>>989739

for those firms only a small part of the company is actually involved in strategy consulting

and those divisions have much higher barriers to entry than their accounting / tax / tech divisions

still they are much much easier to get into compared to MBB

>>989713
This. My brother became a partner at Deloitte after 5 years consulting with them. He's a college dropout.

I haven't had a job since I graduated college. So its safe to say I won't be working in any of these companies.

>>986981
>Unless you are a math teacher, you probably have never been hated by hundreds of people everyday as you come into work. My job is to essentially fire people and humiliate them by pointing out their inefficiencies.
>In 4 weeks without knowing the industry or company, my team comes in, says "here is why you are failing" and I tell 10-20 year workers that they suck. Then I demand half a million dollars and leave.
>My life is "business" and everyone who works for passion looks at me as the nameless corporate guy. My friends are in advertising/product developement/programming and they can talk about the fun things they do everyday and how they make something happen.
Fucking gold.

>>989640

What kind of certs are you referring to that could possibly fast track a non grad into Consulting just like that?

I have a Masters myself I'm just genuinely curious how legit it really is that some kid could blow past me with a cert or two.

>>990797
Well a NACE level I & II certification will do it all by itself but throw in some NDE (non destructive examination) and an OSHA 30 and pipeline/oilfield can use you for a Q/C consultant immediately. Any dinky cert for project management with that will throw you had and shoulders above most of the other consultants in that field so you can look to pick up offers for projects on the regular. I'm currently doing material coordination/consultation on a project and pulling in 6K every two weeks guaranteed and more if I work any on Sunday. Don't get me wrong, I certainly wish I'd have stayed in college because nothing can replace a good education, but I couldn't have landed in a better field $ wise. It's more bang for your buck/time than most average students will be able to pull out of a four year degree.