Careers
in Consulting
"Consulting" is a job
title currently used by many kinds of people, ranging from general
management to technology, from education to health care. Every
sector needs people to help them do their jobs better, more effectively,
more efficiently.
Do you have good analytic skills?
Able to gather facts and figures and synthesize it into useable
information? Perhaps you should consider consulting.
There are web sites out there
that will help you clear up your ideas about what kind of work
consultants do. Check out the "career" section of individual
firms' web sites. Often they have profiles of the people who
work there, the kind of skills the job entails and the working
life: McKinsey &
Company , Boston
Consulting Group, Bain
& Co, Andersen Consulting.
The CDO library also has several
books which can orient you to consulting work. Consider checking
out one of the following references: The Harvard Business
School Career Guide to Management Consulting; So, You
Want to Be a Management Consultant; and The Fast
Track: The Insider's Guide to Winning Jobs in Management Consulting,
Investment Banking & Securities Trading.
Grinnellians in Consulting:
Many Grinnellians work in the
field of consulting. A cursory search on our alumni database
revealed over 300 people in this career field. They range from
Analysts (entry-level) to Consultants, to Senior Consultants
and even Principals (one of the highest levels attainable). Management
consulting careers are not just theoretically attainable for
Grinnellians -- rather, such careers are realistically attainable
too, and some Grinnellians have been very successful at
it.
Gathering More Facts/Informational Interviews
& Research:
Once you decide that consulting
sounds interesting consider talking with alumni who have "been
there". Students who have done this are emphatic about their
experience of gathering information by talking to experts. One
student said, "Although I did not actually speak with Grinnell
alumni, I conducted some informational interviews with current
and former consultants, and I found this to be the most useful
preparatory stage for my interviews. People who are in the field
have already gone through the case interviews, and they can give
invaluable advice as to how to approach different problems. Also,
they can give you more personal information about a company that
you might not find on their web pages." Ask a Career Counselor
how you might get in touch with some alumni.
The next step is to polish your
resume and do your research on the various firms in the industry.
One reference book in the CDO library is quite comprehensive:
The Directory of Management Consultants 2000.
Still looking for more information?
Below are many links to help you.
Management Consulting (strategy consulting):
- Directory of Management Consulting Firms -
an alphabetical list of management consulting firms with links
to their web pages.
- Management Consulting Firm Directory -
in addition to the comprehensive list of consuliting firms in
the U.S., this web page has links to firms in France, Germany
and the UK.
- Yahoo's
List of Consulting Firms
- even
Yahoo has catalogued many of the firms in the industry
- Vault
Reports - helps you understand not only which
are the firms in the industry, but how to get a job in consulting
and numerous other areas of business. A great place to do research
before you apply.
- Wetfeet
- get your feet wet with this site -- with "real people"
profiles, insider tips, job listings and more.
Health Care Consulting:
- Directory of Health Care Consulting Firms - Health care consultants are interested
in managed care solutions, reengineering, IT projects, strategy
and program evaluation. This site lists some of the leading firms
specializing in this area.
Information Technology Consulting:
- Directory
of Information Technology Consulting Firms - IT/Systems consultants
are in the business of providing services to firms that involve
specialized knowledge, a fresh perspective and high expertise.
It would be hard to find an area which fits this description
better than "systems consulting", the practice of offering
advice to organizations about the optimal configuration of their
information systems, integration of information systems, introduction
of client-server computing, participating in software design
and recommending hardware purchases. This site lists prominent
players in this market.
The Case Interview:
- Interviews
in the field of management consulting frequently have a distinctive
component called a "case question." Generally you will
be asked to solve (think outloud through) the same kinds of business
problems that an actual consultant would confront on the job.
Case interviews can be tricky and intimidating if you are not
well prepared. To learn more check out our Case
Interview page.
Getting the Job:
- You've
read this far, you're obviously interested in going for a job
as a consultant. Early (like the first week) of your senior year
-- or late in your junior year you should begin a dialogue with
one of the career counselors at the CDO to help you launch your
job search.
-
- Luckily
many consulting firms want Grinnell students. Consulting firms
come to campus during the fall semester, and they participate
in our consortium recruiting events such as IPCCC
and SLAC. Keep posted
on these web sites for more details.
You should know, however, that
most of the top consulting firms are both BIG and EARLY recruiters.
This means that they often recruit heavily during the fall semester
and frequently have given out all their job offers before the
start of second semester. SLAC is a good way to gain access to
some consulting companies, but for many of these companies, they
have already completed the bulk of their recruting by our winter
break. So if you have decided you really want a job in consulting,
you will need to move quickly with your job search.
More Benefits:
- Often an entry-level job in
consulting is a sure path to getting an MBA from a top business
school a couple years down the road. And, although it's not guaranteed,
many of the top firms sponsor some of their consultants for business
school (the firm pays the tuition, etc., if the consultant pledges
to return to the firm after graduation).
