MANAGEMENT CONSULTING  
 
A BEGINNER’S GUIDE 
 

Pavan Sathiraju Akshat Shrivastava

INSEAD, Ex-McKinsey ​INSEAD, Dalberg
Global College Info Study Abroad Companion (Youtube)

 
 CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 3

WHAT DO MANAGEMENT CONSULTANTS ACTUALLY DO? 4

WHY MANAGEMENT CONSULTING? 7

FINANCIAL BENEFITS: 7
Return on Investments 7
NON- FINANCIAL BENEFITS: 9
Continuous learning: 9
Exit Opportunities: 10
Exposure 12
People & Network: 12
Benefits: 13

HEATMAP OF SKILLS REQUIRED 13

EXTRACURRICULARS 13
ACADEMICS 14
COMMUNICATION & PROBLEM SOLVING 14

UNIVERSITIES TO GET INTO MANAGEMENT CONSULTING 15

CONSULTING CAREER - INDIA vs. ABROAD 17

 

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 INTRODUCTION
 
The job industry globally is changing at an unprecedented pace.

It is no news that post the 2008 financial crisis, the Finance Industry has been in a deep slump;
with the advent of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, the technology industry is
transforming massively. Change has become a constant in almost every industry.

In these uncertain times, the Management Consulting Industry is still well and thriving! Most of
the jobs in Finance - especially for international students studying abroad - have now shifted to
Management Consulting. Consider, for example, NYU Stern’s MBA program; prior to 2008, ~
60% of the class used to go into Finance, in 2019 however, only 29% were able to get into
Finance. Whereas there has been a consistent rise in Management Consulting jobs from 14% in
2008 to 37% in 2019.

​https://www.forbes.com/lists/2009/95/best-business-schools-09_NYU-(Stern)_950016.html

https://www.stern.nyu.edu/business-partnerships/employment-reports/year-over-year-data

If you are someone who is looking to build a career in Management Consulting, this e-book
would be a very practical guide for you.

Every year, we speak with thousands of undergraduate and graduate students aspiring to work
in Management Consulting. During these sessions, we hear a bunch of common questions such
as: “What are the pros and cons of working in Consulting?”, “What colleges and degrees should
we consider getting into McKinsey?” and the most common, “What can I do to improve my
odds of getting into Consulting and how should I prepare?”. This is a quick introductory guide to
such queries.

This book is useful for both undergraduate and graduate students. We share our best practices,
tips, and strategies to build a career in Management Consulting. We have divided this book into
three sections:

● Is Management Consulting for you? Will you enjoy Management Consulting?

● Getting into Management Consulting: Schools/Majors
● Things you can do next to improve your odds of getting a Management Consulting job

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We are deeply saddened when we meet bright college students, who make bad career choices.
Intro to the Consulting guide is a part of our career guide series. These books are a must-read
for school and college students, who are undecided on their career path. 

WHAT DO MANAGEMENT CONSULTANTS ACTUALLY

DO?

Simply put, Management Consultants, ‘consult’ for their clients. These clients are generally top
level executives at F-500 firms/government bodies and international organisations.

What do they consult about? they usually solve business problems that plague large firms. For
example, several fortune-500 firms struggle with revenue growth or market entry in new
locations. They hire Management Consultants to help them suggest possible strategies to
execute their business mandates.

Many times, people wonder why a firm - for example Microsoft - would hire McKinsey to advise
them on Technology Strategy? Wouldn’t Microsoft be well equipped to solve such problems
internally?

This is a logical thought process. However, one needs to understand that Management
Consultants have two specific value add: first, they are able to present an external perspective.
For firms earning in millions and billions in revenues, getting this external sanity check is critical
at times. Second, Management Consulting firms have built a strong reputation in terms of being
thought leaders. Therefore, top corporations take their inputs as a stamp of approval for
galvanising board level approvals or narrowing down on key strategies for the firm.

The hierarchy at Management Consulting firms and the roles and responsibilities differ starkly
as per the organisation. The following is a broad categorisation:

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Not all Management Consulting firms work alike. While organisations such as McKinsey, BCG,
Bain are considered ‘traditional’ consulting firms, organisations such as Dalberg or Delta
Partners are niche in their operations.

While there is no unanimous consensus on which which Management Consulting firm is better,
the following chart can help you reach a decision:

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 WHY MANAGEMENT CONSULTING?

According to Glassdoor, the popular employer reviewer website, A.T. Kearney, Bain &
Company, McKinsey & Company, and BCG are amongst the 20 toughest companies to interview
1
for in the world . ​Then why do bright students put themselves through such an ordeal? Let’s
look at some of the key reasons why Management Consulting is currently one of the top career
choices for students:

FINANCIAL BENEFITS:
Return on Investments

Let’s be practical! Money matters.

Management Consulting is a lucrative career path from a financial return point of view. Post an
MBA, Management Consultants in the U.S. make approximately US$230,000 per year.

Post-undergrad, Management Consultants make approximately $100,000 USD including the

2
bonuses . These numbers are comparable only with salaries offered by Investment Banks (IB),
and top technology firms.

1
​https://www.glassdoor.com/blog/tough-interview-processes/
2
https://poetsandquantsforundergrads.com/2020/01/21/consulting-pay-what-undergrads-and-mbas-earned-
in-2019/2/

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However, unlike IB and technology, the diversity of work offered by Management Consulting
firms are unparalleled.

In case you are debating the merits and demerits of different career paths, the following grid
would help:

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In addition to financial compensation, consulting organizations also invest a lot in employees in
terms of learning & development. For example, in 2018, McKinsey invested more than
3
US$600M of firm’s resources on knowledge development, learning and capability building . The
opportunity for personal growth is one of the highest in Management Consulting. We have
covered this aspect on the next section:

NON- FINANCIAL BENEFITS:

Continuous learning:

During one of my lunch conversations with a Partner from McKinsey, I asked:

“Marc, you have been with McKinsey for over 20 years. You must have learnt everything you
wanted to”?

3
​ ttps://www.mckinsey.com/about-us/overview
h
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Marc replied, ​“No. I am still learning how to communicate with senior executives every single
day!”

Marc in many ways symbolizes why impressive individuals target the Management Consulting
industry. Every consultant seeks learning opportunities on a daily basis and Individuals with a
similar mind set prosper in such an environment.

Consulting firms also offer some impressive trainings. Most top-tier consulting firms offer a
global training session once every 18-24 months. These are held from Hong Kong to Los Angeles
4
to Rome and beyond. Learn more about these trainings on Bain’s career website .

1st year consultants are trained on advanced excel functions and powerpoint, along with basic
client readiness skills. Consultants do a lot of data analyses and presentation work, and at the
same time will start learning about businesses from clients and colleagues.

In the 2nd year and beyond, consultants work with clients directly and gain corporate insights
across industries.

For example, I worked on a marketing strategy project during my 2nd year at McKinsey and
presented the findings to senior client executives. I could answer a lot of questions that the CEO
had in that meeting, and got an opportunity to connect with him personally.

Exit Opportunities:

After my interactions with the CEO, I got a call from my Manager at McKinsey:

“Pavan, the CEO is highly impressed by your skills and personality. And he is offering you a job
as Director of Strategy. It is an impressive role, and let us talk about it”.

I was surprised that my manager was comfortable talking about my exit opportunities openly,
and was helping me assess my options.

I politely declined the offer after careful consideration, and I realized the range of exit
opportunities that consultants have in the process.

4
​https://www.bain.com/careers/#tab-33455391-0316-4562-8be1-4ec94ab1f44b-3

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Firstly, a lot of consultants are offered jobs by their clients itself. Also, consultants are offered
good roles in the corporate world. Most of the time, when consultants move to industry, they
are offered a step above in the corporate hierarchy compared to professionals with similar
tenure.

Second, consultants move into PE or VC roles after spending 2-3 years in the consulting world.
Finally, a good portion of consultants go on to start their own ventures or join a growth stage
startup.

Consulting companies support employees, who are looking for opportunities elsewhere. After a
consultant resigns, he/she is offered compensation and full benefits for a few more weeks /
months until they find a new job. What else could you ask?

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Exposure

When I moved to Indonesia for a short 2-month project, ​“I noticed that all my clients were
sleeping on their desks during the lunch hour”.

Immediately ran to my team room, and told my Indonesian director about that. He very
casually replied that – ​“Even the CEO is sleeping at this hour”. ​He mentioned that it is a very
prevalent culture in corporate Indonesia to take a 20-minute power nap during lunch hours.

I would have never learnt about such cultural nuances, if not for being a consultant. Along with
the geographical flexibility and cultural insights, consultants also get exposure into multiple
industries and business functions.

While in one project, I worked with a video gaming company, where I was working with
software engineers to make the difficulty levels of the game optimal. On a different project, I
was working with a pharmaceutical company’s finance team to determine the prices of
medicines. This range of experiences gave me a practical understanding of various business
functions and industries early in my career.

These learnings across business functions, industries, geographies, and cultures make
consultants strong leaders and potential CEOs.

People & Network:

Management Consulting firms hire top talent from best business schools and universities
around the world.

One of my colleagues from McKinsey from San Francisco, also a PhD from MIT is now working
in a ​space technology startup launching commercial rockets from Alaska​. And another
colleague moved from the UK to Singapore in the Venture Capital space. It is hard for me to
imagine any other network going on to achieve such impressive & diverse things collectively.
Don’t forget that consultants are also adding executives from the client side to their
professional networks.

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By virtue of hiring processes, consultants are always working with extremely talented
colleagues. After a few years in consulting, a lot of these colleagues go on to pursue different

things in the Corporate, Entrepreneurial, Public, and Social sectors. This network gives access to
a wide variety of opportunities later in a professional career.

Since Management Consulting is a client-first industry, individuals who are nice to others
around them and listen to others are hired in the first place. This makes the work environment
enjoyable and enriching at the same time.

Benefits:

Along with the standard compensation and benefits, consultants get additional perks because
of their travels. The reward points awarded by airlines and hotels help in reducing costs while
taking personal vacations. Also, the majority of the consulting organizations sponsor MBA
education for their undergraduate hires and offer guaranteed employment post business
school. This is a huge investment, upwards of $100,000 USD from the organization. Obviously,
this is a top draw for undergraduates eventually interested in a graduate level business degree.

HEATMAP OF SKILLS REQUIRED

Some of the brightest minds around the world want to get into management consulting
because of the intellectual stimulation the work offers. One of my friends, who’s AIR (All India
Rank) was below 10 in JEE Mains, spent hours preparing for the dreaded case interviews.

His recommendation is that, ​“Approaching the interviews holistically and understanding the
skills tested increases your chance of getting an offer”.

Consulting firms evaluate an applicant based on three different parameters.

1. EXTRACURRICULARS

A consultant from McKinsey’s Silicon Valley office was an Olympics gold medalist.
Another consultant runs an online blog with 100,000+ followers. Not every consultant is

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 an Olympics gold medalist or a blogger. But, everybody shows interest and has
achievements to back them up in 1 or 2 activities besides academics.

Extracurriculars help the applicants stand out right from the first step of applications.
I.e. resume screening.

Getting started early and sticking to one area of interest, helps the applicant build a
strong case. A few extracurriculars that helped applicants (not exhaustive by any means)
- Authoring a book, maintaining blogs, excelling in sports/music are some of the key
activities you can pursue. Focus on excellence, rather than simply adding more skills to
your repository.

2. ACADEMICS

The chance of getting an interview invite increases for applicants with high GPAs. In
premier Indian institutes, typically the top 5% of the class get an interview invite. A
strong extracurricular background, and excellent test scores (GRE, GMAT, etc.) could
help negate the impact of low GPAs to an extent.

3. COMMUNICATION & PROBLEM SOLVING

At the highest level, the following skills are evaluated in the interviews.

a. Ability to research, staying organized and absorbing information and data: Case
interviews could last from anywhere between 20 minutes to 1.5 hours. During
this discussion, you are expected to take notes, write key points and store
valuable information intelligently. Sometimes the interviewer collects your notes
to see if you are being organized. Your ability to simplify information and relating
it back is the key
b. Ability to prioritize and analyze: Consider this just like a SWAT squad, you can go
from room-to-room, searching for the “culprit” (in your case, the solution to
your business problem). This approach, though very thorough, is not practical
when it comes to business problems. After intelligent investigation via some key
questions, you are EXPECTED to narrow your focus area and prioritize the things
you would like to investigate about the case.

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 c. Ability to clearly communicate: All the analysis would not help, if you cannot
state your points clearly and convincingly.

In addition to the high-level skills, Management Consultants are expected to be

presentable; have good body language, problem solving, math skills, and communicate
well.

UNIVERSITIES TO GET INTO MANAGEMENT

CONSULTING

Best time to get into top tier management consulting organizations is right after ​under
graduation​ ​or after ​Business School​. Recruitments primarily happen through campus
placements at both undergraduate and graduate levels. It is important to shortlist universities
from where consulting companies recruit regularly.

While students compete with their classmates in the campus recruitment process, students
applying from non-target universities are competing with applicants from around the country.

Students from non-target universities do apply for various roles as well, but the intake is
restricted, just by design.

These are some of the target schools for top tier consulting schools for Post MBA roles in the
U.S. (Numbers indicate the % of students getting recruited into the management consulting
industry every year).

● Tuck School of Business (44%)

● Darden School of Business (35%)
● Fuqua School of Business (35%)
● Booth School of Business (33%)
● Columbia Business School (32%)
● Kellogg School of Management (31%)
● Sloan School of Management (30%)
● Wharton School (25%)
● Berkeley Haas (25%)
● Harvard Business School (21%)

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 ● Stanford Graduate School of Business (18%)

And, these are some of the target schools for top tier consulting schools for Undergraduate
roles in the U.S.

● NYU
● University of Pennsylvania
● University of Texas at Austin
● Yale University
● Harvard University
● University of Michigan
● Northwestern University
● Stanford University
● Cornell University
● University of Notre Dame
● Columbia University
● Georgetown University
● Princeton University
● Duke University
● UC Berkeley
● University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

These universities offer a plethora of opportunities for students to learn about the industry and
interact with professionals on a regular basis. For example, Shankar Krishnan, a current
undergraduate student at UC Berkeley highlights that

“There are many consulting clubs dedicated to students interested in consulting as a career.
For example, there is a marketing consulting club, tech consulting club, a non-profit
consulting club, start-up consulting club among many others. The level of exposure is
unparalleled”.

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The best part about studying at these universities is that you would be eligible to apply for
consulting roles irrespective of your majors.

Tip: If Consulting is your long-term career objective, choose your university

wisely. Prioritize university over majors.

CONSULTING CAREER - INDIA vs. ABROAD

While the nature of work itself remains the same, consulting companies recruit differently in
India when compared to the rest of the world.

For example, MBA graduates from the U.S. are offered Associate roles at McKinsey, whereas
MBA graduates in India are offered Junior Associate roles (and it takes an year or two to get
designated as Associate). This difference is explained by the fact that MBA students in India
typically have 2 years of work experience, whereas MBA students in the US have 4+ years of
experience on average. So if you are interested in Consulting and have significant work
experience, getting an MBA from abroad makes more sense.

We will continue to publish beginner’s eBooks along various career paths. If you want to follow
& get more updates - follow us on our social media handles

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