| Topic Name: |
Will this experience matter? |
| Message Name: |
Will this experience matter? |
| Date Posted: |
08/15/2008 |
| Message: |
Like many other aspiring consultants around here, I too am attempting to break into the ranks of the largely exclusive consulting community. I believe I have excellent related work experience and am well-informed about the field via personal research. The case studies don't concern me in the least bit, as I've reviewed them and they're geared directly towards my way of thinking. So everything seems to click, right?
Unfortunately, my academic pedigree isn't very impressive. I'm not going to hide behind excuses, but suffice to say my 3.1/4.0 in political science from the University of Florida could have been much higher. So I need to know if there is any way to get around being automatically screened out because of that marginal gpa. Can my strong experience compensate?
My background:
As I said, I graduated with a 3.1gpa in political science from the University of Florida (Fall 2006). During college, I worked 3 summers with an image management company in Chicago. As an associate consultant there, I gathered, prioritized, and interpreted data within target consumer sectors, brainstormed and applied initiatives to develop the image of clients, and discussed progression alternatives in a team environment. My experience with that company was invaluable, but the primary client field was entertainment and upon graduation, I felt I should look into a more steady economic sector. So I began working on the financial side of a regional hospital. To make a long story shorter, I was hired on in the refunds department to just work refunds, but once I began troubleshooting operational inefficiencies in that department, they loaned me out to other departments to do the same. Basically, I became their all-purpose on-site consultant. Eventually, the pool of problems I could fix there began to dry though and I was expected to go back to the (comparatively) menial task of working refunds again. I've learned that my true calling is to work with companies to better their business processes and increase efficiency, so I'm ready to make the jump to an industry where I can do that full-time.
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