management consulting

Originally Posted by joelmthw

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i still have 4 more semesters to bring it up, so maybe somewhere in the 3.4 range hopefully. what other factors can help my m.consulting resume? can good couple of years work experience in the industry outweigh a bad gpa? maybe my topic should be what other jobs can i do without going into grad school with my ME degree since i want to avoid the engineer corporate life.

Relevant work experience is great. If going into risk/quanty consulting any kind of quanty-risk based job experience is huge. For the softer consultancies I'm not sure what looks good. I did banking and that showed I could "cut it" as a corporate tool that works hard.

As an engineer your quant qualifications are taken care of. Try to demonstrate via activities and other interests that you are not just a computer.

Do you think internships would be enough? I have worked mainly in product design as a mechE intern with NASA, Motorola, and Samsung. Can this "boost" up my gpa to a point to get an interview? What companies should I look to for the risk/quanty consulting? I am not too familiar with all the terminology. I am pretty sure I can express that I am not just a computer through my interview if I can even get that far. Thanks for the great advice so far;

Originally Posted by joelmthw

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Do you think internships would be enough? I have worked mainly in product design as a mechE intern with NASA, Motorola, and Samsung. Can this "boost" up my gpa to a point to get an interview? What companies should I look to for the risk/quanty consulting? I am not too familiar with all the terminology. I am pretty sure I can express that I am not just a computer through my interview if I can even get that far. Thanks for the great advice so far;

What exactly are you interested in consulting on?

I was in the same boat (engineering background, not looking to work engineering corporate life), and I found that key to getting interviews/offers at MBB is having an MC internship junior summer. Obviously at MBB is good, but anywhere will do...even somewhere like Mercer, Deloitte, etc.

My only suggestion, though, is that MC is a waste of time. Not going to use the typical MC's are useless human beings with superiority complexes arguement, but finance has much greener pastures. Turned down offers at top 5 consulting firms [aside: just to *****, but at M, they said the interview was business casual...but as Admiral Ackbar said, it was a trap. I was the only one not wearing a suit/tie to their 2nd round interviews. I got dinged] to work in finance. All my friends who did end up in consulting hate their lives and aren't making nearly as much as I was/am and my lifestyle is much better than theirs.

I'd suggest trying to find a middle-market bank or PE firm in ATL, or any 2ndary city for that matter. Work two years and jump to NYC/SF as an associate. They appreciate engineers.

i wouldnt mind the technology sector, silicon valley type of stuff..

also been looking into ibanking. i thrive under high pressure environments but sitting at a desk and doing heat simulations does not excite me.

nvm

Originally Posted by dhc905

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My only suggestion, though, is that MC is a waste of time. Not going to use the typical MC's are useless human beings with superiority complexes arguement, but finance has much greener pastures. Turned down offers at top 5 consulting firms [aside: just to *****, but at M, they said the interview was business casual...but as Admiral Ackbar said, it was a trap. I was the only one not wearing a suit/tie to their 2nd round interviews. I got dinged] to work in finance. All my friends who did end up in consulting hate their lives and aren't making nearly as much as I was/am and my lifestyle is much better than theirs.

No ******* ****. Always, ALWAYS wear a suit and tie to an interview, round 1 or round 20.

Anything is better than working as an engineer at a big company

Originally Posted by imageWIS

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No ******* ****. Always, ALWAYS wear a suit and tie to an interview, round 1 or round 20.

Not true. If they say business casual, wearing a suit and tie could have easily worked the opposite way. Many companies play dumb mind tricks to see how you handle them. Anecdotally, a colleague was interviewing with 4 guys who took him out to lunch. At lunch they all ordered a beer, at which point my colleague did the same. They all then changed their orders to diet cokes. At that point he got up, said, thanks for your time...

Not analugous, but I'm not going to spend my time working for a company that does stupid **** like that.

great advice, this is what i was mainly looking for. im guessing PE firm means private equity firm? where do u work now in finance?

PM me

Originally Posted by dhc905

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Not true. If they say business casual, wearing a suit and tie could have easily worked the opposite way. Many companies play dumb mind tricks to see how you handle them. Anecdotally, a colleague was interviewing with 4 guys who took him out to lunch. At lunch they all ordered a beer, at which point my colleague did the same. They all then changed their orders to diet cokes. At that point he got up, said, thanks for your time...

Not analugous, but I'm not going to spend my time working for a company that does stupid **** like that.

As a standard I wear a suit, and order what I want to order.

Originally Posted by dhc905

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Anecdotally, a colleague was interviewing with 4 guys who took him out to lunch. At lunch they all ordered a beer, at which point my colleague did the same. They all then changed their orders to diet cokes. At that point he got up, said, thanks for your time...


The proper response is to flag down the waitress and order a double of whatever nice scotch they have. Have the beer too. Shortly after eating and drinking, excuse yourself to go to the bathroom and then just leave.

I do econ consulting (expert witness for litigation type ****) at a top firm....

Pay isn't as high but I like my lifestyle way more and get paid a decent amount more per hour than the management consulting/banking friends I graduated with (mostly because my OT is paid at time and a half and theirs is paid at zero...if I worked their hours, I would surely make more).

Good luck doing it without somethign resembling an econ degree though (but honestly its the kind of thing where being smart is enough and people will teach you the rest)...and it requires a very specific tolerance to really boring mindless **** between chunks of interesting stuff.

Originally Posted by Milpool

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The proper response is to flag down the waitress and order a double of whatever nice scotch they have. Have the beer too. Shortly after eating and drinking, excuse yourself to go to the bathroom and then just leave.

Agreed to the fullest.