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Consulting with MSc Operational Research/Management Science/Analytics

I'm looking into an MSc in Operational Research/Management Science/Analytics with the aim of pursuing a career in consulting. It probably wouldn't be straight up management consulting, more towards the technology side of things. I have two questions.
1. Are the above masters a good way to go for consulting?
2.Which course out of these?

- MSc Operational Research with Finance at University of Edinburgh
- MSc Analytics: Operational Research and Risk Analysis at Uni. of Manchester
- MSc Business Analytics and Management Sciences at Uni. of Southampton
- MSc Business Analysis and Consulting at Strathclyde

I'm not willing to pay the fees (and probably wouldn't get in to) the courses in the top colleges. I'm from Ireland but want to improve my chances of getting a job in London by doing a masters in the UK. If you know of any other similar courses please let me know. Oh and I'm about to graduate from Civil Engineering.

Cheers!

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 1

cmoloney90

Is there anyone that knows anything about these courses or even similar ones?

Reply 2

TBD

They are all interesting subjects but IMO lead towards as "decision support" or "analysis" role rather than a "doing" or "management" role. In other words if the CEO wanted to know the impact of such and such a course of action , you may be asked to go away and produce an assessment of impact or scenarios. The conclusions or last para of your report may be read and actioned or ignored. This is in contrast to a role where you are the manager will be doing the commissioning of the research and making the decision based on evidence of an analyst or consultant. So they seem well suited to consultancy roles in specialised domains eg traffic/planning/logistics/military etc. Incidentally if you are interested in Defence Engineering Operational Research, Cranfield does an excellent MSc...

Analytics and Metrics are currently in vogue and so you will get a lot of interest. The topics are all challenging and interesting for someone with an engineering brain and if you were looking at becoming a Consultant Chartered Civil Engineer, then check with your Institution those which are accredited.

If it was me doing it all again after a first engineering degree, I would undertake a management Masters either toward further technical specialism or engineering management. The courses you have described seemed to offer a combination of both and would therefore be attractive. I got as far as discussing the Cranfield course with the university but I realised my interest was more in the doing rather than decision support consultancy.

TBD

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 3

cmoloney90

Thanks for you're input, it was very helpful. I'm trying to get out of Civil Engineering so thats why I'm leaning towards this type of Masters. As you said Analytics etc. is 'in' at the moment and seems to be the way things are heading in the future, so I want to do a Masters with a good mix of maths and computing as opposed to a straight MSc Management.

I know I will be doing the 'decision support' at the beginning of my career but I don't want to stay at that long term. Do you think graduates from this type of MSc along with a few years experience in something like Technology Consulting would be desireable in a mangement role?

Also how would people rank the Universities mentioned in my first post?