| Topic Name: |
Career Change to Consulting |
| Message Name: |
Tough, but options |
| Date Posted: |
01/12/2002 |
| In Reply To: |
I have 18 years of corporate experience working in aerospace & defense, possess a Top Secret clearance, and just recently finished my MBA from a med-sized university in Orange County California (Chapman University AACSB accredited). I am currently in my late 30's and looking at Strategy Consulting and changing my current career path. What are my chances of success in this weak economy and the fact that my Chapman MBA though respected here in the greater Los Angeles basin is not that well known in other areas outside LA. In other words how attractive do I look to a major firm
What are your thoughts?
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| Message: |
Moving from 18 years corporate experience to strategy consulting is tough (without a top-tier MBA).
You may have options to do so, if you look at firms which have large government / military practices, however. Moreso, if your corporate work was in "strategic" areas like marketing, product development, corporate development / M&A, etc.
If that is your background, even though strategy consulting is a **really** tough market right now, you might find a sympathetic ear at one of the reasonably well placed firms which does government / mil work as a non-trivial part of their business.
e.g., the "strategy" groups targeted at govt / mil sector at CSC, EDS/AT Kearney, Accenture, maybe the Aero group in Booz-Allen's commercial division (WCB).
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Another path, would be to leverage your clearance to get into a consulting firm which is specifically govt/mil focused, albeit not considered a "strategy" shop. Such firms are much more likely to be hiring right now, and will attribute specific value to the fact that you currenely hold a clearance.
Could even be the same firms as above, but targeting the govt/mil vertical, as opposed to the strategy group. e.g. EDS, as opposed to AT Kearney; Booz-Allen's WTB, as opposed to WCB. Also, new firms start to appear on the list under this approach, like SAIC and MITRE.
The plus side, is that this gets you into professional services.
The down side, is that these divisions or boutiques are not considered "strategy" consulting, and the pay is lower (both because of the clients they serve, and the students they recruit). Another downside, is that it is typically hard to move from the govt/mil side of these firms, to the stratgey sides ... e.g. moving from Booz WTB to Booz WCB is rare ... for many reasons.
However, the fact that these are not "stratgey firms" does not mean that you would not do strategic work.
And, the fact that it is hard to move from, say Booz WTB to Booz WCB, does not mean that it is equally hard to move from Booz WTB to AT Kearney or Accenture's strategy group after you have had 2-3 years professional services work and once the job market takes off again. Indeed, after 2-3 years in *some* professional services capacity, and with a decent job market, your biggest constraint may be age or career life cycle ... you would be entering strategy consulting at a point 10-15 years further into your career than most new entrants. Being a non-traditional candidate is always tough, especially if you are non-traditional in multiple ways (in your case, age, different MBA pedigree, high industry specificity in your background).
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There is also at least one more, third, path.
In particular, understand that most MBAs entering strategy consulting do not stay for a full career. In normal economic times, strategy firms' attrition rates are 15-25% annually, making the half-life of a strategy consulting career at the consultant's first firm about 3 years. Most leave to accept positions in marketing, corporate strategy, corporate development, (etc.) jobs at the Director - VP level.
With 18 years of experience and a new MBA and a TS clearance, these jobs *might* be available to you right now. That's a little iffy, and depends on whether your 18 years is in areas like marketing, strategy, pdt dev and corp dev.
However, your chances for such roles would increase significantly after at least 2-3-4 years of *some* professional services experience ... in particular, 2-4 years at the govt/mil side of Booz or EDS, along with your existing experience, might qualify you for the same jobs you'd likely be looking at after 2-4 years in "strategy" consulting *if* you could get in.
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Bottom line ... certainly *try* to get into stratgey consulting if that is wahat you want ... but, given the economy & the unique platform you have, I would recommend looking more at "brand name" consulting firms in the govt/mil sector.
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