<p>I'm currently a frosh at MIT, trying to decide what to do with my life. After extensive search, I realized that quite a lot of top school grads (HYPSM) end up in consulting firms, ibanking jobs even though their degrees were in engineering. As an example, I know at least 2 seniors who are current course 6-2 (EECS) at MIT, who are next year going to work for JP Morgan, and many more going to McKinsey/Booz Allen hamilton/ etc..</p>
<p>Hence I was wondering, how do they do it? What background does one usually need to be able to achieve such feat? I have always considered myself a math/science dude, but i'm willing to consider alternative career paths, if such paths end up beneficial to me.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>If I become an EECS major, what supplemental background in business/management/economics should I get in order to stay competitive to be employed by such firms?</p></li>
<li><p>If I don't become an EECS major, what other majors will give me a necessary background to be successful at getting employed by top consulting firms?</p></li>
<li><p>What courses should I supplement my engineering background with? (for example, get a minor from sloan/economics minor?)</p></li>
<li><p>How likely is it for me to get employed by such firms with only an engineering background, if I maintain a decent GPA?</p></li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li>none. Just get internships and network</li>
<li>again, any majors. Quantitative majors have a better case than say an art major though.</li>
<li>Some econ, some business coursework to show interest would be nice.</li>
<li>Depends on interview skills. I see a lot of MIT grads in trading at the bulge bracket I interned at last summer…</li>
</ol>
<p>why do you want to do consulting unless you want to get into a bus-dev or corp strat position in the future?
[YouTube</a> - Damn It Feels Good to be Banker – A Wall Street Musical](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROlDmux7Tk4]YouTube”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROlDmux7Tk4)
“Where’s the dow at? Still bigger than your bonus” or “Take this mouse and get back to making 60k a year” Sad thing is they are actually true…</p>
<p>by the way ever thought about being a quant? You get the same large bonus, you get to use your EECS skills and you are doing higher level work than the typical EECS major dealing with models in structured products which are usually mentioned in the order of billions.</p>
<p>“by the way ever thought about being a quant?”</p>
<p>Yeah, I was actually interested because I heard that our math skills are sought after, which is my strength. I just don’t have much business/managerial experience or courses.</p>
<p>Another thing I thought about was technical consulting.</p>
<p>By quantitative majors, does that include physics? I’m fairly strong at that, and I might be able to obtain a higher GPA by majoring in physics, rather than EECS.</p>
<p>While I agree largely with the sentiment of bearcats, I would say that if your goal is consulting (although not necessarily banking), the most straightforward path is through the Sloan School.</p>