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Management Consulting Discussion - Page 27

post #391 of 419
8/7/12 at 9:17pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Joffrey View Post

RTC831 if you're in the U.S., I think you'd be interested in Management Information Systems (MIS). When I was considering majors I understood that to be an intersection of business and technology. Personally I pursued Economics and International Studies (but i knew I wanted mixture of business and intl' affairs plus I hated math so no Finance major for me).

I am in the US. I actually looked into MIS, but some of the colleges I'm looking at don't offer a major in the area. At the most they have engineering or computer science degrees.

Quote:
Originally Posted by gettoasty View Post

People always say I do not like math then go into economics
Economics is essentially math though ... abstract as well

I actually hear economics gets into some really difficult math as you go on. I don't mind math, I'm just not too great at it. Ha ha.

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post #392 of 419
8/7/12 at 9:53pm
dude if you ain't in college yet... just explore a bit. take some local community college classes to see if you think this might be right for you.

don't do it to chase the almighty dollar.
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post #393 of 419
8/7/12 at 10:02pm

If you look up the answer in a book AND IT HELPS THE CLIENT, then yeah, you need to charge a fee based on the value of that help. It's how medicine works, kids. You think your GP doesn't look up your symptoms on a proprietary database? Thing is, she knows where to look and what the problem probably is. You have lung cancer and she catches it and saves your butt, yeah, that's worth $150,000 even if she just heard you cough. 

 

The thing is, you need to learn to listen. And to understand where the client's problem actually is. And how to tie that to making money...which is often, BUT NOT ALWAYS, what the client's problem is.

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post #394 of 419
8/7/12 at 10:06pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by rtc831 View Post

I am in the US. I actually looked into MIS, but some of the colleges I'm looking at don't offer a major in the area. At the most they have engineering or computer science degrees.

I actually hear economics gets into some really difficult math as you go on. I don't mind math, I'm just not too great at it. Ha ha.

Also, I'm a user experience person. MIS is old-school and an increasingly bad fit for the next 20-30 years. Why? Because modern IT is increasingly about whether people use (understand, approve of, enjoy) the systems that work throws at them. Any halfwit can engineer a giant payroll management system (say). It's like history...one damn thing after another...just figure out what you need to include and bolt it on. But will people use it? Almost certainly not. That's a whole different skill set, and a much more important one after increasingly powerful automation, AI, and years of successful design patterns.

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post #395 of 419
8/7/12 at 10:19pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by yjeezle View Post

dude if you ain't in college yet... just explore a bit. take some local community college classes to see if you think this might be right for you.
don't do it to chase the almighty dollar.

Oh yeah. I'm not looking to stress myself out to the breaking point. It's just that I'm a rising senior and I'm trying to get a feel for my options.

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post #396 of 419
8/8/12 at 2:12am
Quote:
Originally Posted by VanVeen View Post

Also, I'm a user experience person. MIS is old-school and an increasingly bad fit for the next 20-30 years. Why? Because modern IT is increasingly about whether people use (understand, approve of, enjoy) the systems that work throws at them. Any halfwit can engineer a giant payroll management system (say). It's like history...one damn thing after another...just figure out what you need to include and bolt it on. But will people use it? Almost certainly not. That's a whole different skill set, and a much more important one after increasingly powerful automation, AI, and years of successful design patterns.

Someone still needs to build the stuff your nice shiny interfaces bolt onto. Writing off infrastructure or "giant systems" is a bit silly as I routinely encounter baffling systems that are far older than I am. Knowing that organisations are big old belchy machines = the key to then making then understand how your nice shiny automated machine will interface with it (or replace it!)
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post #397 of 419
8/8/12 at 5:12am
Quote:
Originally Posted by VanVeen View Post

Also, I'm a user experience person. MIS is old-school and an increasingly bad fit for the next 20-30 years. Why? Because modern IT is increasingly about whether people use (understand, approve of, enjoy) the systems that work throws at them. Any halfwit can engineer a giant payroll management system (say). It's like history...one damn thing after another...just figure out what you need to include and bolt it on. But will people use it? Almost certainly not. That's a whole different skill set, and a much more important one after increasingly powerful automation, AI, and years of successful design patterns.
My dad's started work at a new job where they have automated systems for orders because the computer is a) faster than them and b) more accurate than them, but for some reason they carry on doing it manually. If it were my company I'd tell them twice and if they still did it by hand and were still costing me money to pay them to do it and fix their mistakes I'd fire them.
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post #398 of 419
8/8/12 at 6:04am
Quote:
Originally Posted by rtc831 View Post

What did you guys major in to go into the field? Or, what would you recommend? I'm entering college next year and I was thinking of an Economics or Economics and Math major. But I've heard that engineering/computer science majors are really useful nowadays. 
I wish I'd done stats and computer science/business now. I did maths but enough of that was stats that it was essentially a stats degree, and I'm now having to learn VBA on the job when an in depth knowledge of it would be so much better.
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post #399 of 419
8/8/12 at 9:38am
Now, MIS was a suggestion. If there are other majors that combine business and computers/technology/engineering/programming feel free to suggest them.
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post #400 of 419
8/9/12 at 1:13pm
Not going to do the whole post, but I disagree with a lot of what was said.
Quote:
Entry level consultants aren't doing any breakthrough analyses and driving recommendations

Depends on where you are - I have seen fresh out of undergrad children tell CEOs what to do, but they were right, had the data, and had the ability to push their recommendation.
Quote:
- Expect to re-work a single slide at least 4-5 times as it gets passed around various levels of seniority, all of whom have their own respective input (read: opinions) on how the slide should look; the way a slide looks at the end is dictated by how senior the last person to have reviewed it is

Maybe, but it all depends on whether you can justify your slide decisions or not. If you aren't the type of person who spends a lot of time thinking about the format of the slide, how it conveys a message, etc.; well then you have no ground to push back.

Firm culture really plays a huge role.
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post #401 of 419
10/1/12 at 4:08am
I decided I want to go to healthcare consulting for about two three years before going to get a md Mha degree. I want to eventually own a hospital group or help manage a hospital group but maintain a practice a day or two a week. I want to enter a midsize or small company that specializes in healthcare consulting. One reason I don't want to go to a large company is that I hear you get staffed as they need and you have less control over which industries you get assigned to and I am specifically interested in healthcare. I also am not a fan of template consulting but I am planning on working my ass off for two years (actually more like 9 to 10, but who's counting)

I'm a senior bio major from a lower tier ivy with a gpa above a three but lower than average with research experience and a minor publication but no work experience. I have a good story to tell and I'm hoping I raise my gpa this year but it's really tough at this school. A lot of work for mediocre grades.

Deloitte, Accenture, and Pricewaterhousecooper recruits heavily from us. BCG and McKinsey and Bain and Booz are not attainable for me I think. I'm not interested in such large companies but the small midsized ones don't really recruit from us actively

What are some good case interview books to buy? What companies should I be looking at? I've heard of companies that start from scratch every time. There were two or three companies that were interesting in the vault guide.

Anybody have any tips? What should I be doing?

Ive been talking to friends in finance and marketing and med school(a morgan stanley dude, a Mba grad, md and md phd students) who know a lot and this is what they helped me focus on. I've been thinking of doing many informational interviews with actual consultants on the weekends and I've been having regular career counselor meetings. I feel like im not a great candidate and will need something to stand out. Im not even sure on how to find said companies.

If you help a lot I'll send an extra secret Santa package your way for christmas

Help a young fellow sfer please? I would really appreciate it
Edited by indesertum - 10/1/12 at 5:52am
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post #402 of 419
10/1/12 at 4:27pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by rtc831 View Post

What did you guys major in to go into the field? Or, what would you recommend? I'm entering college next year and I was thinking of an Economics or Economics and Math major. But I've heard that engineering/computer science majors are really useful nowadays. 
I think you're thinking about it wrong.
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post #403 of 419
10/2/12 at 7:54pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by indesertum View Post

I decided I want to go to healthcare consulting for about two three years before going to get a md Mha degree. I want to eventually own a hospital group or help manage a hospital group but maintain a practice a day or two a week. I want to enter a midsize or small company that specializes in healthcare consulting. One reason I don't want to go to a large company is that I hear you get staffed as they need and you have less control over which industries you get assigned to and I am specifically interested in healthcare. I also am not a fan of template consulting but I am planning on working my ass off for two years (actually more like 9 to 10, but who's counting)
I'm a senior bio major from a lower tier ivy with a gpa above a three but lower than average with research experience and a minor publication but no work experience. I have a good story to tell and I'm hoping I raise my gpa this year but it's really tough at this school. A lot of work for mediocre grades.
Deloitte, Accenture, and Pricewaterhousecooper recruits heavily from us. BCG and McKinsey and Bain and Booz are not attainable for me I think. I'm not interested in such large companies but the small midsized ones don't really recruit from us actively
What are some good case interview books to buy? What companies should I be looking at? I've heard of companies that start from scratch every time. There were two or three companies that were interesting in the vault guide.
Anybody have any tips? What should I be doing?
Ive been talking to friends in finance and marketing and med school(a morgan stanley dude, a Mba grad, md and md phd students) who know a lot and this is what they helped me focus on. I've been thinking of doing many informational interviews with actual consultants on the weekends and I've been having regular career counselor meetings. I feel like im not a great candidate and will need something to stand out. Im not even sure on how to find said companies.
If you help a lot I'll send an extra secret Santa package your way for christmas
Help a young fellow sfer please? I would really appreciate it

anyone?
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post #404 of 419
10/2/12 at 8:10pm

If you're currently a senior, you will need to act fast since most full-time recruiting starts now. You might have a decent shot at healthcare consulting if you have prior healthcare experience that gives some insight into healthcare consulting. That said, nothing is guaranteed. Most consultants I know have a good story to tell about why they want to be in the consulting business. That should be a top priority to work on for both informational and actual interviews.

 

I do know that ZS Associates has a lot of work in the pharma industry, so you might want to consider looking into them as well.

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post #405 of 419
10/28/12 at 10:14am
I am currently finishing up my MBA and have reached final rounds with a mgmt consultant firm. I never even considered working in this capacity before coming into this year, but one thing led to another and I am 3 rounds in.

My question is: what are the exit opportunities after about 3-4 years from the associate/sr associate roles?

Thanks
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