<p>I don't know if anyone's interested in this, but my dad works for McKinsey so I can answer any questions you might have about the life of a consultant. I know the college path question gets asked a lot, so I'll get that one done and say that he went to Cornell, Stanford, and then Wharton.</p>
<p>Perfect. Thanks for the offer. I’d like to know if hours ever get good. Do consultants ever have weekends off?</p>
<p>Yes and no. I mean, the hours are still incredibly long, but you have more choice about them. During an average work period, if a director is okay with doing a lot of work during the week, then it’s quite possible to have a free weekend. Also, the more junior you are, the more grunt work you do, obviously. The partners and directors can opt out of meetings and such should they have other commitments.</p>
<p>1) How do the firms view people coming from non-business/engineering majors?
2) Is there fear among those at the lower levels of becoming a jack-of-all-trades but a master of none?</p>
<p>I really want to work for McKinsey one day, so I was wondering what undegraduate business schools do they actively recruit from? Compare NYU:Stern, Michigan (Ross), CMU (Tepper), Emory (Goizueta) and BC (Carroll). Thanks very much.</p>
<p>Being at BC myself, they don’t directly target the school but do accept applications from there. McKinsey requires top caliber college pedigree.</p>
<p>McKinsey and the other of the Big 3 focus more on business strategy as opposed to second tier consulting that have heavy focuses on technology. Thus, major is not particularly important. After all, what do you think the Harvard grads at McKinsey have?</p>
<p>I always get a chuckle out of someone in high school that knows they “really want to work at [insert company name here]”. If you only realized how naive you are at this stage of life, then it would help you take it one step at a time. Most of your haven’t even taken a business course in your life, yet you want to plan you life around employment with a an elite strategy consulting firm…of which you do not have a clue what they actually do. </p>
<p>Take a breath and attend a few classes before making ridiculous comments.</p>
<p>I’m surprised consulting talk isn’t more highly discussed on this board. Lastly, MBB are not the only 3 places doing strategy work…it is actually quite common now amongst all of the big firms and it is not all technology related as you said earlier.</p>
<p>Agreed. New business majors are allured by the buzzwords “consulting” and “IB.” The one that perplexes me the most is consulting, as it is just as nebulous of a concept now as a Junior business student as it was when I first heard the term several years ago. Ironically, I’ll be working in management consulting this summer, with a healthy dose of skepticism knowing that I don’t really know exactly what I’m getting myself in to. Using my situation as reference, a newbie in college should regard the term of consulting with skepticism x10. </p>
<p>The reality is that only an elite few make it to the top of either field, so to plan for something so far ahead is extremely naive and ultimately a waste of time.</p>
<p>Guys need to chill out. I just want to know what college to attend, so that I will be best prepared for the management field. lol</p>
<p>OP, Business consulting seems like a good place to start a career, out of undergrad, even if one doesn’t spend entire career and rise up to partner. Consulting firms seem to welcome college grads more than corporations. Does your father agree with this? Do junior consultants leave and have good careers in other businesses? </p>
<p>Is McKinsey a good place for undergrads (if they can get in) or is it more geared to MBA’s?</p>
<p>Hi, I am a freshmen in an undergrads business program. What are the best major(s) to pick in terms of getting a job in consulting?</p>
<p>Collge, you furthermore show you’re lack of understanding by lumping McKinsey (management consulting) and management into one discipline. They are very different. Look broad and focus later.</p>
<p>Mia, its more about the college than the degree. English majors at Harvard actually have a chance at the Big 3, whereas a student from a, say, above average Boston area school with a degree entitled consulting would stand only the slimmest of chances at any of the top firms. Most people who go into consulting from my school tend to have liberal arts majors (econ, english, etc) but technically speaking there really isn’t preferred major from what I know.</p>
<p>trizz75, PM me if you have any specific questions.</p>
<p>Son is a junior. He got offers from 2 of the big 3 (MBB) this summer. He worked at another big consulting firm (not 1 of the big 3 but still well known) last summer. Both companies that gave him offer this summer invited him to events, dinners so he met all the other recruits plus many (associates, managers, principals, partners) from both companies. Company he worked for last summer already told him they will give him a full time offer as soon as he graduates.</p>
<p>If you are interested in consulting, some of his experience:
- Being at a target school is important. 2 of the big 3 recruit at his school and he got offers from both. He sent his resume to the 1 that doesn’t recruit at his school and didn’t even get an interview.
- Very high gpa is important, the closer to 4.0 the better.
- Interviewing skill is important.
- Major is not important, for example, 1 recruit majored in political science.
- If you think you might be interested, pursue your interest as early as possible. You can have multiple interests early on and narrow down as you are further along. Join consulting clubs. Do case competitions. S did all that starting first year of college. Although he didn’t know much about consulting at first, he really like it as he got more into it.
- Practice, practice, practice cases. S practiced for hours before his interviews.</p>
<p>So when is someone going to tell me what consulting actually is in both the mentioned forms?</p>
<p>Google is your friend.</p>
<p>How would you respond if you went to a thread that seemed to have knowledgeable people in a field and asked for a legitimate explanation and then they said go google… wherein the purpose of asking was to get an informed response by a person not a website?</p>
<p>The internet was not populated by robots, so for general questions like that Google is your best bet. Trying to answer that question would take 2 pages minimum</p>
<p>@palier</p>
<p>It sounds like OP is trying to answer questions that you won’t readily find in Google. There are tons of sites where you can read up on consulting. Mergers&inquisitions is a good start.</p>
<p>And answering that information with 2 pages minimum would be useful for others and not just myself.</p>