This article addresses consulting-related extracurricular activities and is aimed towards undergrads, MBAs, and other students.

So you’ve landed a spot at a pretty good college/bschool. Now, all you have to do is do well in classes, and you’ll automatically find a great consulting job, right?  Wrong.

Actively contributing to consulting-related extracurricular activities doesn’t just look good on your resume. It can help you perform better on consulting interviews and even help develop the skills to perform well after starting your consulting job.

Joining the consulting club on campus is an obvious first step. However, after serving hundreds of clients using our resume editing and interview services, we’ve noticed that many people simply stop there. Simply mentioning membership in the consulting club doesn’t help your candidacy much. You should try to get a leadership position on the club, preferably President or another position that allows you to directly contact consulting firms (e.g. External Liaison, Vice President of Employer Relations). This will give you a lot more opportunities to network with consulting firms compared to people who are simply members of consulting clubs. Make sure to mention your club activities on your resume and in your interview rather than just stating your position name. Regardless of what position you have in the consulting club, you need to be proactive. Leverage your school’s alumni network and LinkedIn to connect with more consultants and invite them to speak at your school.  If you’re lucky, some consultants might even agree to help out in running a mock case interview session for your club.

Some consulting clubs are only about networking, speakers, and interview prep, but other consulting clubs actually perform consulting services for companies and organizations (often for free). This can happen even at the undergraduate level; Stanford Consulting is one example. This may take a great amount of work reaching out to companies, marketing services, developing strategies, and coordinating classmates, but will pay off greatly in terms of experience gained, and you can talk about such consulting engagements in your interviews. You don’t necessarily have to aim at Fortune 500 clients, which would be difficult; you might provide your consulting services to local small businesses or even non-profit organizations in developing countries.

There are actually many other activities that can help you besides joining the main consulting club. There may be similar clubs such as the Operations Management Club or the General Management Club. Some schools offer courses that involve significant consulting field work in another country, such Global Consulting Practicum at Wharton or the Global Entrepreneurship Lab at MIT Sloan. You could also find a professor that engages in external consulting and offer to contribute.  Finally, even if you are not involved in consulting activities, any leadership position in a student organization is much better than not being involved in extracurriculars at all.

What if your school doesn’t have a consulting club? That’s actually great, because that means you can become the founder of your school’s consulting club and you’ll be able to talk about the great leadership accomplishments you’ve had.

Don’t underestimate the value of such extracurricular experiences for interviews, resumes, and cover letters.  Talking about how you created impact for a real client of your consulting organization is infinitely more effective than talking about how you created a great business plan for a virtual company in class and received an A on it.

If you’ve had any interesting consulting-related experiences at your school, it would be great if you could write a comment about them here.  Stay tuned for more MBA-related articles.

These strategies to obtain a consulting job are also useful for those who took online mba programs.

About the Author:

The author of this article is a long-time team member of Management Consulted and has extensive experience in consulting and at bulge-bracket investment banks, including interviewing MBA applicants. He has requested anonymity to protect his employer.

The thought has crossed the minds of almost anyone breaking into consulting:  Should I get an MBA first? Or should I do 2~3 years in consulting and then get an MBA? Is an MBA degree even necessary? If I already have an MBA, how can I leverage that? Is consulting a stepping stone to business school, or is business school a stepping stone to consulting?  We’ll cover these questions, and more, in this and upcoming articles.  (Disclaimer:this article is not meant to criticize the value of  MBA programs; rather, the focus is on evaluating fit for MBA programs given one’s goals)

Breaking into consulting with vs. without an MBA

You’re at a crossroads in your life, and you know you want to take the next step. You know that you’re interested in consulting, but you’re not sure if you can break in with your current credentials, and you think an MBA might help.  What do you do?

For 80% of job-seekers, I would offer the following advice: apply to consulting firms right now. Just as some people mistakenly think consulting/finance is usually necessary for an MBA or alternative program like an MBA online, some people mistakenly assume that a top ten MBA is usually necessary for consulting. Most people with a few years of work experience can find some way to explain how their past accomplishments relate in some way to business or consulting.

Get started by doing the following things:

• Update and perfect your resume and cover letter.
• Create a list of 20-25 consultancies that you’d love to work for, with notes on each one. You can start with a ranking such as the Vault Top 50 Consulting Firms and researching each firm; but keep in mind that rankings aren’t everything.
• Create a 3-column table in Word or Excel for brainstorming.  In the left column of the table, create a list of traits that make good consultants (e.g. leadership, teamwork, analytical skill) Then, in the middle column, write out in specific detail 1-3 accomplishments or experiences that demonstrate each trait, including results and what you learned. Finally, in the right column, write down a potential situation you might encounter as a consultant where you could leverage the experiences described in the middle column.  This brainstorming session may help you convince yourself and recruiters that you are already suitable for consulting, even without an MBA.

Moreover, experience in a certain field (e.g. IT or healthcare) means you can try to join the relevant specialized industry practice of a large consulting firm or even a boutique consulting firm specializing in that industry.  If you have a strong academic or analytical background, consider applying for a research analyst position within a consulting firm to get your foot in the door.

Most large consulting firms like McKinsey and Deloitte have dedicated research groups that support client service teams – while this may not be your ideal job, it can be a good transitional role while gaining exposure to how the industry works. Finally, consulting firms hire people mostly for their demonstrated traits and skills, which are more important than past affiliation with any organization. Have you lead teams and demonstrated success in doing so? Have you pursued challenging problems and shown measurable results? You need to be good at telling your story to reflect those traits and skills.

Another key point: many people don’t realize that they can pursue a high-paying and fulfilling job with great training and advancement opportunities outside of McBain Group.  There are great consulting firms out there looking for people with skills and personality traits like yours, especially if you write a great resume and cover letter and ace the interview process.

If you are still obsessed about prestige, consider that 2 years working at a top 50 consulting firm is an excellent springboard for applying to a top 10 consulting firm. This springboard may be even better than an MBA and you will also be over $200,000 richer than if you had gotten an MBA.

Finally, consulting firms often offer MBA-like training.  McKinsey sends many of its non-MBAs to a 3-4 week mini-MBA boot camp to learn the most important tools and concepts. In 1993, 61% of new McKinsey recruits had MBAs, but that number is now down to less than half, which demonstrates that McKinsey believes it quickly train non-MBAs to be consultants. You should research the training opportunities at a firm if that is important for you.

If you are reading this right now, that means you are likely already more motivated and qualified than most to apply to a consulting job.

The conclusion is simple: in most cases, if you are considering a consulting job, it is best to apply now.

The worst thing that could happen is you use up a few dozen hours and end up being much more knowledgeable about consulting firms. The experience can even help you evaluate your true interest in consulting.  Additionally, assuming you didn’t do anything rude or unprofessional, firms will see your commitment if you re-apply later on.

What would be the other 20% of candidates?

In some cases, it actually may be better to get an MBA first if:

1. You have more important long-term goals besides consulting (e.g. starting an international trade company) and your own assessment shows that you need the MBA to serve those long-term goals.  For many people, however, long-term goals are unclear and therefore not factored into consideration much. How to perform such an assessment is outside the scope of this blog.

2. You are extremely passionate about learning the management theory that an MBA has to offer, whether or not you will use it. (i.e. you love learning for learning’s sake even if it’s really expensive) Many MBAs comment that they only apply a portion of what they learned toward their actual consulting jobs.

3. Your previous experience is utterly removed from the corporate world (e.g. you spent 2 years writing a novel about unicorns)

4. You’ve already applied to 15 consulting firms and got rejected from all of them, even after writing a great resume/CL and properly preparing for interviews. (For the vast majority of our readership, I would be surprised if this happened.)

5. You feel that your past experience would qualify you to get into a top 10 business school but not a top 25 consulting firm. (e.g. you spent 2 years successfully fighting AIDS in Africa and you have a 760 GMAT score)

Getting an MBA is really expensive, and real-world experience usually trumps theory, so you should be very sure you need an MBA before you apply.

MBA admissions and consulting

OK, so let’s say you are still set on getting an MBA. Some people think of the relationship between the top business schools and the top consulting firms as a revolving door, i.e. people from McKinsey get into Harvard Business School, and people from HBS get into McKinsey.  Well, that’s true to an extent, but it’s not quite that simple.

Although business schools see consulting as great work experience, schools also try extremely hard to achieve a balanced, diversified student body.  This means that, even if hypothetically a third of a school’s applicants are consultants, there is no way the school is going to let a third of their study body be ex-consultants, which implies a lower acceptance rate than average applicants for consultants in this situation.

INSEAD (which sends roughly one-fifth of its students into McKinsey, BCG, and Bain every year) has once stated “We’re hoping the [number of students from consulting backgrounds] does not increase any further.” That even a consulting talent powerhouse like INSEAD wants to limit their consulting students shows just how much business schools value diversity.  (As a side note, you can see from the placement statistics that INSEAD and other schools may actually be a better choice than Harvard for breaking into consulting.)

This produces the paradoxical situation of consultants wishing they had some “unique work experiences” and non-consultants wishing they had consulting experience when applying to b-school.  What should you do? Easy: stop worrying.  Focus your time on improving your application and telling your life story better instead of spending time worrying about whether or not you have consulting experience.

It is impossible, and also pointless, to estimate just how many consultants are applying to a school on a given year.  If you are a not a consultant, focus on business experiences and explain how an MBA combined with your past experiences can make you a great business leader in the future.   If you are a consultant, focus on why you are more accomplished and more well-rounded than other consultants.

I’m currently a student with little or no work experience, and I’m interested in consulting.  Is it too early to apply to MBA programs?

The short answer is yes.  It will be extremely hard to get into an MBA program with little work experience (except for the unique Harvard 2+2 program) and you may not have the experience necessary to judge if you really need an MBA. In almost all cases it’s better to get some actual work experience first, whether it’s consulting or not.  If your grades, major, or school reputation makes it hard to enter consulting, try to accumulate specialized knowledge in another field while taking on business responsibilities (like team leadership).

How much of what you learn in business school actually helps in consulting?

This depends a lot on the school/curriculum you choose. Each firm will train you anyway with the management frameworks and tools that you will need, and that training will be more directly relevant.  That being said, if you choose your school and curriculum well, you could develop new perspectives to approaching business problems, and you can also improve your general teamwork/leadership skills, which always helps.  More on this in the next post.

I’m already a consultant. Do I still need an MBA?

If you want to return to your current firm, this answer depends on the firm.  For many firms, no.  How can sitting in a classroom and talking about business problems teach you more than working on those problems directly?  For other firms, an MBA is recommended for most consultants aspiring to more senior positions, since they will benefit from an expanded network and enhanced perspectives on business problems. You should observe the system of promotions in your firm and talk to your colleagues who have done an MBA before. As an example, CapGemini and Booz & Co. promote non-MBAs more readily than Bain and BCG. The answer also varies by region; for example, the Japan and Germany offices of global consultancies tend to have less MBAs among the top ranks.

If you want to change to another consulting firm, an MBA may make sense if you are targeting a firm that is much more selective than your current firm or a firm that places heavy emphasis on MBAs.  Given your previous consulting background, an MBA is usually unnecessary unless you are dead-set on a small number of certain firms.

In our next post, we’ll address how to choose the most suitable MBA program for a consulting career, as well as provide advice for current MBAs to maximize their educational experience and chances of landing the ideal management or strategy consulting job.

About the Author:

The author of this article is a long-time team member of Management Consulted and has extensive experience in consulting and at bulge-bracket investment banks, including interviewing MBA applicants. He has requested anonymity to protect his employer.

This is the concluding part 2 of my series on consulting exit opportunities.

The previous post covered finance and entrepreneurship.

Graduate school (MBA, JD, masters & PhD)

Percentage: 25%

Many undergraduate consulting hires pursue graduate school after a few years. Often paid-in-full by their firms (with the agreement to return post-matriculation for several years), it affords a break from the intensity of daily consulting work and an opportunity to pause before moving on to “phase 2″ of their careers.

The majority pursue business school, with law school and Masters/PhD programs coming in 2nd and 3rd, respectively. Consulting can position an applicant well for the best universities – particularly for MBA programs. Some thoughts on business school and consulting can be found in my interview with Marquis.

Which consulting firms are best depends on your intended academic path. For business and law school, aim for the top strategy consultancies. It’s good to look at:

• Where consultants at your firm went to school – this is a good indicator of the paths available
• Alma maters of partners at your firm – a good indicator of where your firm will be known and influential

If you’re interested in Masters/PhD programs, look at companies that specialize in that particular topic if applicable. For instance, Cornerstone – with its economics research focus – is great for prospective Economics PhDs.

Corporate roles predominantly in Fortune 500

Percentage: 25%

Another consulting exit opportunity is a jump to Fortune 500 corporate roles.

Consulting firms are feeders to strategy groups at large Fortune 500s – from Pepsi to Siemens, from Citigroup to Target. These relationships are mutually beneficial, as Fortune 500 companies hire consultants to support their own strategy work.

Click here for reasons why companies hire management consultants

Outside of strategy, consultants are a good fit in roles requiring research, analytics, project coordination, and personnel management. Functions that fit the above criteria include business development, corporate development, select Mergers & Acquisitions, and operating roles.

Benefits of corporate roles include a lighter work day, a more stable work environment, and potential to build an operating skillset. Cons include unpredictable upward mobility, reduced pay and benefits, and less flexibility in choosing projects, managers, and colleagues.

Every management consulting firm is well-suited for this path, although the more prestigious firms provide more opportunities.

Nonprofit consulting

Percentage: 10%

Many consulting firms offer nonprofit consulting cases as a perk. Many consultants choose to pursue nonprofit consulting work fulltime, which comes in several formats:

• Independent nonprofit consulting firm (eg, Logistics Management Institute, Wellspring Consulting)
• Non-profit consulting firms closely affiliated with for-profit consultancies (eg, McKinsey’s Touch Foundation, Bain’s Bridgespan)
• Internal nonprofit fellowships – more common at the largest strategy consultancies
• Actual nonprofits with a track record of hiring consultants (eg, The Clinton Foundation)

The benefits of this career path are clear – eliminating poverty in sub-Saharan Africa is more exciting than increasing operational efficiency 7% at a Philippines call center. Non-profits are closely tied to public sector institutions, so this path can be an interim step to public policy and government roles.

Cons include reduced pay and benefits, long hours, and challenging environments.

If you’re interested in this path, target consulting firms that are known for nonprofit and pro-bono case work, either internally or through strategic partnerships.

There are independent nonprofit consulting firms that offer flex-work arrangements regardless of your background as long as you have a valuable skillset. This can be a great way to get your feet wet. Company names are escaping me now, but I’ll update when I remember

Public sector and government roles

Percentage: 5%

The least typical of consulting exit opportunities.

Many consultants pursue political careers – Bobby Jindal (ex-McKinsey) and Mitt Romney (ex-Bain) are 2 visible examples. Few consultants enter politics and government service directly.

Those that do gravitate towards diverse roles, from advising political candidates to direct political appointments (witness Nancy Killefer’s failed attempt to become Obama’s Chief Performance Officer) to campaign work. These roles are flexible, prize business skills, and provide upward mobility. Few become civil servants in the normal, bureaucratic-sense.

Benefits to this work are clear for those interested in pursuing government careers. Cons include reduced pay, longer hours, uncertain career paths, and less talented colleagues (I’m aware this is a generalization).

Consulting firms best suited for this career path do a lot of public sector consulting. Booz Allen is one obvious example. DFI Consulting is another.

That wraps up our tour of consulting exit options. They are more diverse than investment banking exit opportunities.

A new resource for prospective consultants – this was advertised through the Consulting Magazine newsletter. It’s a niche social network dedicated to students who are currently involved with campus consulting clubs. It’s just getting started (only 60 members atm) but could be a useful resource in the coming years. If anyone uses it, let me know your experience!

For a complete list of reader questions I’ve answered here at MC, visit the FAQ page. Ctrl-F to find what you need

On to reader questions through the last week:

Will attending a top business school make it much easier to get into management consulting?

Definitely. Target business schools provide a level of access that you don’t get anywhere else. Given how selective the recruiting process is, your best chances of breaking into consulting happen in-school.

If you don’t have that luxury but want to break into consulting, consider the following two elements when debating career paths: prestige and skill-development. Consulting firms respect brand-name companies, and they respect jobs where you learn a broad set of business skills.

What’s wrong with not including interests on your resume?

There’s nothing explicitly wrong. Including interests has no downside, and plenty of upside. So why wouldn’t you do it? It gives resume readers and interviewers an opportunity to understand you better, and there’s always the chance your interests will overlap with theirs. If that happens, it’s a huge boost to your chances (for instance, if you and your interviewer are both avid mountaineers).

How important is undergrad GPA for MBA recruitment. I have a 3.2 avg over all four years but a 3.7 over my final two years (got my act together). Is there anyway to spin this positively on the resume? I also got a 730 on the GMAT if that helps anything.

Not my area of expertise, Marquis talks about MBA recruitment issues at length. My guess is that undergrad GPA plus a variety of academic factors (eg, major, transcript, etc) play a large role in the admissions process. A 730 GMAT helps but won’t completely factor out the 3.2 GPA the first two years. The best way to spin this, if the issue arises, is to explain how the transformation in your approach to studies took place. Provide a good story, and then emphasize repeatedly the positive results that have come in the intervening years.

Is the nature of pre-mba experience important? Currently I work in the strategy/corp. finance department of a Fortune 500 company. I also moved up pretty quickly (only 2.5 years out of school, but promoted to Manager of Long-Term Strategy)

Definitely. Working at a brand name firm and being successful on the job (as shown by promotions, accomplishments, references) makes a huge difference in MBA recruiting (and consulting recruiting as well).

I’m a senior graduating in May 2009. I know that most firms have already done their recruiting this past fall, but unfortunately, I was studying abroad. Do you have a breakdown of how the firms recruit? Are there some firms that do their recruiting in Winter and Spring?

Most on-campus recruiting occurs in a concentrated time-frame (typically Fall for full-time, late-Fall and Winter for summer/internships). I do not have a specific breakdown of how firms recruit, but many will do recruiting on a rolling basis as well. Your best bet is to contact your school’s career services office, as well as HR/recruiting contacts that you have at target firms. As mentioned earlier, online consulting applications are not the best way to go.

In normal years, you may still have a shot – certain offices and departments may be looking to meet headcount; yield rates may be lower than anticipated. In today’s economy, that’s a lot tougher.

The thought of applying directly to the McKinsey New York office, for example, from Sydney never crossed my mind. Is this possible?

The broader question here is the feasibility of applying to international consulting offices. Short answer is possible but tough. Long answer is it comes down to a variety of factors – such as if you’re a good fit for that region (language expertise? local work experience?); the quality of their local recruiting class. Typically if you list international offices on your application and are a strong consulting candidate, they’ll consider you for the office provided language is not a barrier.

Out of curiosity, do you have any confidence that public consulting continues? Seems like exactly the time those things will be cut back.

Given the nature of public-sector consulting (eg, federal, state, and local government consulting) – the size of the clients, the large pocketbooks, the long-term nature of most projects – there may be a slight decrease in demand but I’d expect a larger decline in private-sector consulting.

I got a certificate in business administration from an extension program 2 yrs after a PhD in Mechanical Engineering – should I mention the certificate first in the education section of a consulting resume?

The question about certifications/licenses/etc is a good one. In general, I’d list a few of the most relevant ones – business skills, project management certifications, etc. If it’s not a generally recognizable certification (use common-sense here), provide a short explanation.

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Consultant salaries is a topic many readers are dying to learn more about.

I’ve gathered the data from my own experience, consulting colleagues, and public sources. They won’t be 100% accurate but should be pretty close.

One resource I’ve found valuable is the Consulting forums at WallStreetOasis.

First year out of undergraduate:

• Base salaries: $50-65K
• Signing bonuses: $5-10K
• Relocation/moving expenses: $5-10K
• Year-end bonus: $5-10K depending on firm.

That’s an average of $70-75K in first year consulting pay. As a summer intern, you can expect a comparable, pro-rated salary minus bonus. This does not include retirement contributions.

First year out of business school/MBA:

• Base salaries: $110-140K
• Signing bonuses: $20-40K
• Relocation/moving expenses: $10-20K
• Year-end bonus: $20-40K depending on firm.

That’s an average of $160-200K in total first year consulting pay. Again, consulting summer interns should expect a pro-rated portion minus bonus. This does not include retirement contributions. My original estimates were a bit lower, but have been adjusted upward based on emails and the comments below.

Progression track through partner:

My numbers have a higher risk of being inaccurate as this is only from personal anecdotes, so if you have better information, email me or comment below

• Engagement manager/Project leader: $175-250K
• Associate principal/Senior project leader: $250-400K
• Partner/Principal: $500-800K
• Senior partner/Director: $1M plus

Senior consultant salaries becomes increasingly variable and performance-based

How consulting salaries lose to finance:

At almost every level, your salary will be 30-50% lower than a comparable position in investment banking. This is variable by year and median salaries in non-banking departments (such as research, asset management, sales & trading) are lower than in banking. But as mentioned in the consulting versus banking post, consulting is not a profession to make big bucks.

How consulting firms compensate for the lower salaries:

• Better benefits – healthcare, life insurance, etc
• Retirement contributions – this one is important because at MBB, they’ll contribute an added 5-10% of your base salary to your retirement funds, effectively a 5-10% year-end bonus! (A reader just informed me that his MBB retirement contribution starting fulltime in ’09 was 4.5%, which is lower than I’d seen in previous years)
• More generous expense/reimbursement policies, travel perks, etc