Happy 2009, readers! Thanks for being patient during the previous few days. I’m back and ready to continue helping people get a job in management consulting.

This is the first of my series on entering consulting from “non-business” backgrounds – future posts include entering from liberal arts/humanities degrees and non-MBA grad schools

It’s very common for engineers to be interested in consulting – a professionally demanding, well-compensated job which opens many doors in business and beyond.

Another popular field is finance. Read more on the differences between consulting and finance here

As an engineer – whether thats electrical engineering, computer science, civil engineering, or any of the other quantitative and analytical fields – you may have the following concerns:

• You don’t have enough business experience on your resume
• You don’t understand the consulting industry sufficiently
• Recruiters won’t give you a fair shot since they assume you have no people-skills – preferring numbers and analytics
• You don’t have any recruiting preparation – in particular, how to tackle consulting interviews and case studies

In this post, I’ll address each of the above concerns, discuss what strengths you should market and develop, and share tips that will serve you well during the management consulting recruiting process.

What options are available as an engineer?

• Global management consulting firms – increasingly quantitative, increasingly analytical, and some of them (eg, McKinsey) have a reputation for hiring engineers, particularly in regions that serve high-tech clients
• Boutique consulting firms – especially those with technology-focused industry specializations (eg, semiconductors, telecom)
• Technology consulting firms – firms such as Accenture and IBM Business Consulting provide technology-heavy support and solutions to clients

What are your strengths as an engineer?

• Quantitative/analytical skills – applicants that have strong analytical capabilities are at an advantage. These skills are helpful with modeling (financial, operational), statistical analysis, and just basic analytical reasoning
• Success in a “tough” undergraduate major – generally speaking, engineering majors are tougher to complete – there’s more work involved and the academic content is more complex. Having a strong GPA in an engineering major shows recruiters that you work hard to accomplish your goals

How do you mitigate perceived weaknesses as an engineer?

In the order listed above:

• Business experience – if you’re still in college, find business-related summer internships and part-time jobs during the school year (provided you can manage the workload). If you’re not, tailor your resume to focus on skills and experiences that consultants look for, such as people-leadership, quantitative impact, and entrepreneurial initiative
• Insufficient understanding of management consulting – its your responsibility to learn as much as you can. Check out Management Consulted; email me with questions; read the Vault Guide to Management Consulting; network with contacts in the industry
• Recruiting biases against engineers – you can counter this by focusing on the following: presentation skills (practice interviews as much as you can); have a strong story about why you want to enter the industry; show a clear understanding of business news and current events; highlight your people-skills and teamwork/leadership experiences in resume and interviews
• Insufficient recruiting preparation – like the second point, it’s dependent on the time and effort you invest; I offer a coaching service that you can look into; read this article and follow its advice