| Topic Name: |
confused undergrad |
| Message Name: |
well... |
| Date Posted: |
01/12/2000 |
| In Reply To: |
Going to a firm for the pretige factor is a huge mistake. Yes, if you have a choice between McK and local co X, go to McK. But picking MMG, Monitor, Bain and BCG over McK will nto hurt you.
There are a few important things to remember about consulting.
1) You spend a ridiculous moaunt of time with these people and often travel with your co-workers. If you are not happy with corporate culture, your screwed.
2) You learn a lot from your co-workers. They can have a large impact on your career in many ways from helping you get ona good case, writing letters of recommendation. You had better like the people.
3) Different firms give different levels of reposnibility. McK is said to give little repsonisibility to anaylysts, a place like Monitor is completely meritocratic and you will have a great deal of responsibility.
4) All of the internationally recpognized firms have good clients. Certain firms (no names mentioned) willt ell you that Firm X has s terrible reputatio and bad client list. It is not true just a selling tactic. All these firms have pretty good client lists. They are confidential though becuase the nature of thw ork is sensitive.
5) My general view on firms that out down other firms in order to sell you on their firm is dim. If they are such a great place, tell you about their firm and repscect that you ahve the intelligemnce to compare the firms you see. You go to an interview to hear about the firm they are interviewing with and what makes them good for you not a trash talk session on competitors.
6) You are right to be confused. Get the book the Fast Track by Miriam Naficy. it will help you think about things that are important to you and questions to help you find out. Don't be afraid to ask the quetions you want... you are also a consumer!
Suffice to say that you will be miserable if youi pick a firm that is no eight for you. If you want a good culture an dlittle politics, as long as you pick amongst the good firms (Monitor, McK, BCG< Bain etc...) you will be fine.
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| Message: |
I agree with the previous poster. You will be spending a great deal of time at work (more or less, depending on which firm you end up working for). Of course, your choices may be more limited by where you get offers, unless you're one of those Wunderkinde who get offers wherever they apply.
First round is a little early to be getting choosy -- I would apply to a good cross-section of firms. Like college applications, you'll want your 'reaches,' '50-50's' and your 'safeties.' But when you do get to the time when you have to make a decision, the best source of information is friends of yours who currently work in the firm, if you have any. Anyone who is involved in recruiting will feed you the same old crap: "Yes, you will gets lots of responsibility, yes you will get client exposure, yes we have a good work-life balance, and the biggest reason I came to work here was the people, blah blah blah." The last one may actually be true, because similar types of people seem to go to the same firms (i.e. all the tools go to one firm or another).
Think about the lifestyle you want. Would you be happy working 60 hours a week? Hours vary a lot at consulting firms, so if 60 hours is average it means that you'll be doing 80 or more once in a while. Definitely ask what the hours are like, and GET THEIR OPINIONS ON THE HOURS. When I talked to th McKinsey folks, they said "we work 60 hours a week and lead a very balanced lifestyle." Now to me, working 60 hours a week is NOT a balanced life, although I know others feel differently, but helped me to understand that I would not fit into the McKinsey culture.
You may also want to consider some of the non-strategy firms. If you're not set on strategy but you still want to do business-stuff and not something like IT consulting, you may want to think about an HR consulting firm. While strategy firms are externally focused, attacking the marketplace, and that sort of thing, HR consulting firms are focused on getting things working on the inside, anything from systems, processes, compensation to a lot of really intersting organizational effectiveness and strategy alignment stuff. One of my friends works at the Hay Group and likes it a lot. I understand that PWC has a smaller HR consulting practice that they're growing, so that may be an opportunity to help build something up. The other players in HR consulting are Towers Perrin, Hewitt, and William M. Mercer. You may want to consider them as well.
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