I want to be a consultant. I dont have a HPYSM degree. Am i done for?

[Pizzagirl]

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1. Consulting isn’t really a career ambition. I know a few people – a very, very few people – who started out in consulting and didn’t leave until much later, but generally consultants are young people biding time, picking up skills, and networking until they figure out what they really want to do, and older people who developed substantive expertise doing something other than consulting and wind up selling that expertise. I think that’s true even at the McKinseys of the world, although they do have some home-grown talent. (Pizzagirl: I have no idea what you earn, but my friend the erstwhile McKinsey partner earned enough to run a smallish country.)

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<p>I’m not talking about people who grew up at McKinsey from Day 1. I’m talking about people who are of generally comparable age / career status as I am, and who followed similar career paths as me in the early part of their careers, who are now at McKinsey (in the case of many I know, because their boutique consulting company was bought out). Many of them have elite degrees but quite a few of them have degrees from more “ordinary” schools. But they’re of value to McKinsey because of the business acumen and analytical ability they bring and have been proven to bring. I know for sure that I’m making in the same general ballpark as they are.</p>