The Student Room Group

Consultancy?

Just curious on the process to landing a job at a firm like McKinsey? Is it the same as banking i.e. Target university, Spring week, internship etc?

Scroll to see replies

Oxbridge and LSE, internship doing something prestigious (not necessarily consulting).

Generally they want you to have experienced living/travelling abroad for an extended period (3-6 months).

ECs included leadership positions, etc., a first class degree-- similar stuff to other graduate schemes.
(edited 7 years ago)
Reply 2
Original post by Mathstatician
Oxbridge and LSE, internship doing something prestigious (not necessarily consulting).

Generally they want you to have experienced living/travelling abroad for an extended period (3-6 months).

ECs included leadership positions, etc., a first class degree-- similar stuff to other graduate schemes.

Just Oxbridge and LSE? And would you say it's more competitive then banking?
I'm going to bed but this is easily searchable. I googled 'consulting targets uk' 'consulting requirements'
Reply 4
Bobby you need to do your own research, you're a grown man!
Reply 5
You could look that up. Don't be such a studos
Reply 6
Original post by Trapz99
You could look that up. Don't be such a studos

Studos is my idol
Reply 7
Original post by spoli21
Bobby you need to do your own research, you're a grown man!


Wagz has gone to sleep and I cba
Reply 8
Original post by Axlerod
Studos is my idol


The big Studes is such a banterous guy
His trolling is pitch perfect if I say so myself
Generally for MBB/tier 2 strat houses:

Target Universities:
Oxbridge (roughly ~50-70% of the intake) > LSE/Imperial (~20-30%) > UCL/Warwick + Bristol/Bath/Edinburgh/St Andrews/Durham (~8-15%) > everything else (~0-3%)

The MiM from LBS places very well too.

^Scoured Linkedin to confirm this.

-------------------------------------------------------
Uni Career Progression

1. Penultimate internship (MBB/tier 2) -> grad conversion/apply to better firm

2. SW (optional) --> penultimate intern in a front office finance role (IBD/S&T/AM/Research) at a top bank (BB/Elite Boutique) ---> (convert for back up) --> apply for grad in final year (renegotiate, i.e. turn it down, on conversion offer if you successfully attained a consulting offer)

3. Penultimate intern at a blue chip F500/FTSE100 (Google, P&G, L'oreal, Unilever, Microsoft etc) company in a business/technical function (Marketing/Finance/Operations/R&D/Software Eng/whatever)--> apply for grad in final year

4. Tier 3 internship (i.e. poorer bank, big4 normal consulting, non-brand name company, poorer consulting firms) --> apply for grad final year

1, 2 and 3 will yield the best results.

--------------------------------------------------------
Of course all the extra stuff: 1st (ideally) or 2:1, any academic degree, strong problem solving skills, leadership experience, extracurricular involvement etc.

Bottom line is do stuff you find interesting, and do it well. You'll get noticed if you achieve highly in a non-well-trodden area than if you're average in the well trodden path.

NOTE: This is for top tier strategy. Regular Big4 consulting, Accenture, IBM, CHP, et al will be much less persnickety about backgrounds.


Posted from TSR Mobile
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by Axlerod
Wagz has gone to sleep and I cba


You know I almost didn't bother writing the above up because of this attitude


Posted from TSR Mobile
Reply 11
Original post by Princepieman
You know I almost didn't bother writing the above up because of this attitude


Posted from TSR Mobile

Nah I appreciate all of your help a lot especially you prince you've increased my knowledge a lot and I thank you for it. That "cba" was a reference to a character from a tv show which is where my username comes from (billionaire which basically means he can do whatever the fook he wants). Please don't take it the wrong way! ☺️
Original post by Axlerod
Nah I appreciate all of your help a lot especially you prince you've increased my knowledge a lot and I thank you for it. That "cba" was a reference to a character from a tv show which is where my username comes from (billionaire which basically means he can do whatever the fook he wants). Please don't take it the wrong way! ☺️


Ahh, I'm an idiot looooool. Haven't kept up with the series because of exams :tongue:

Posted from TSR Mobile
Reply 13
Original post by Princepieman
Ahh, I'm an idiot looooool. Haven't kept up with the series because of exams :tongue:

Posted from TSR Mobile


It'll be worth the wait dw hahahahaha
Original post by Princepieman
Generally for MBB/tier 2 strat houses:

Target Universities:
Oxbridge (roughly ~50-70% of the intake) > LSE/Imperial (~20-30%) > UCL/Warwick + Bristol/Bath/Edinburgh/St Andrews/Durham (~8-15%) > everything else (~0-3%)

The MiM from LBS places very well too.

^Scoured Linkedin to confirm this.

-------------------------------------------------------
Uni Career Progression

1. Penultimate internship (MBB/tier 2) -> grad conversion/apply to better firm

2. SW (optional) --> penultimate intern in a front office finance role (IBD/S&T/AM/Research) at a top bank (BB/Elite Boutique) ---> (convert for back up) --> apply for grad in final year (renegotiate, i.e. turn it down, on conversion offer if you successfully attained a consulting offer)

3. Penultimate intern at a blue chip F500/FTSE100 (Google, P&G, L'oreal, Unilever, Microsoft etc) company in a business/technical function (Marketing/Finance/Operations/R&D/Software Eng/whatever)--> apply for grad in final year

4. Tier 3 internship (i.e. poorer bank, big4 normal consulting, non-brand name company, poorer consulting firms) --> apply for grad final year

1, 2 and 3 will yield the best results.

--------------------------------------------------------
Of course all the extra stuff: 1st (ideally) or 2:1, any academic degree, strong problem solving skills, leadership experience, extracurricular involvement etc.

Bottom line is do stuff you find interesting, and do it well. You'll get noticed if you achieve highly in a non-well-trodden area than if you're average in the well trodden path.

NOTE: This is for top tier strategy. Regular Big4 consulting, Accenture, IBM, CHP, et al will be much less persnickety about backgrounds.


Posted from TSR Mobile


Referring to the bolded part, why have you ranked this at no.4? I understand it wouldn't be as valued as an IB/strat consulting internship, but I would have thought big4 consulting would be more valued than a finance internship at a Nestle, L'Oreal type gig for a strat consulting grad role.

Whilst on the topic, what are people's thoughts on the KPMG Strategy Group?
Original post by Fas
Referring to the bolded part, why have you ranked this at no.4? I understand it wouldn't be as valued as an IB/strat consulting internship, but I would have thought big4 consulting would be more valued than a finance internship at a Nestle, L'Oreal type gig for a strat consulting grad role.

Whilst on the topic, what are people's thoughts on the KPMG Strategy Group?


From speaking to a few consultants in the field, they're far more interested in people with 'top' experience. It goes that the firms that have huge brand names are the leaders within their respective fields, whereas for strategy consulting the big4 (regular consulting arms) are not leaders, and as such aren't as impressive on a CV.

Overall it's the brand that means the most, and top honchos at MBB/tier 2 firms like to use brand names as proxies.I get the sense that they would rather someone have impactful work experience from being within a large, successful industry player which can thus inform their future strat. consulting career.

There's also the case that regular big4 consulting arms don't work on the same projects as MBB/tier 2 strat houses. One being more implementation based vs the other being more strategic/high level.

TL;DR: Strat houses are brand name snobs
(edited 7 years ago)
Reply 16
Original post by Princepieman
From speaking to a few consultants in the field, they're far more interested in people with 'top' experience. It goes that the firms that have huge brand names are the leaders within their respective fields, whereas for strategy consulting the big4 (regular consulting arms) are not leaders, and as such aren't as impressive on a CV.

Overall it's the brand that means the most, and top honchos at MBB/tier 2 firms like to use brand names as proxies.I get the sense that they would rather someone have impactful work experience from being within a large, successful industry player which can thus inform their future strat. consulting career.

There's also the case that regular big4 consulting arms don't work on the same projects as MBB/tier 2 strat houses. One being more implementation based vs the other being more strategic/high level.

TL;DR: Strat houses are brand name snobs


If the Big 4 are industry leaders in audit should you do that rather than consulting to stand a better chance at getting a grad consulting gig?
Original post by AC1995
If the Big 4 are industry leaders in audit should you do that rather than consulting to stand a better chance at getting a grad consulting gig?


Audit would be a step down from big4 consulting unfortunately..
Reply 18
Original post by Princepieman
Audit would be a step down from big4 consulting unfortunately..


What about rather than doing moving down in the supposed career hierarchy you end up interning in Big 4 management consulting but are assigned to a project that involves some benchmarking or research e.g. economic policy?

(changed it to keep anonymity but if you stalk hard enough you can still figure where)
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by AC1995
What about rather than doing moving down in the supposed career hierarchy you end up interning in Big 4 management consulting but are assigned to a project that involves some benchmarking or research e.g. economic policy?

(changed it to keep anonymity but if you stalk hard enough you can still figure where)


That would be good.

Economic policy is an interesting area you could expand on in your interviews.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Quick Reply