<p>I don't really know what I want to do with my major (B.A. in environmental studies). I would like to consult with people and give them advice, as opposed to doing physical things 'in the field'. Being a lawyer seems more in line with this type of work, but I also know that lawyers spend long hours working, and that their employment prospects aren't too great unless you go to a tier-1 school. This is why I am also considering consulting. Based on the work, hours and job security, which is the better career choice?</p>
<p>You will probably have trouble finding work as a "consultant" immediately out of college. Its not really a primary career goal IMO, most people doing any type of consulting work have had alot of real world job experience in addition to their degree. Most organizations are not going to be seeking advice from someone with no experience in the field they are advising.</p>
<p>Consulting firms hire plenty of first-year-out associates. They tend to recruit exclusively at top-tier undergrads, but the jobs are plentiful if you're at, say, a top-ten USN undergrad.</p>
<p>Bluedevilmike is absolutely correct. Especially over the past few years, it seems that working for a strategy consulting firm has become the norm for students at my school who studied anything other than a hard science or math, and even amongst math/science majors, there are plenty who opt for consulting. I kid you not when I say that of the approximately dozen seniors living on my floor, 5 of them are slated to work for large, well-known consulting firms (places like Bain, Parthenon, etc.) next year. Indeed, I'm the only one on my floor or amongst my group of friends headed for law school after graduation.</p>
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Consulting firms hire plenty of first-year-out associates. They tend to recruit exclusively at top-tier undergrads, but the jobs are plentiful if you're at, say, a top-ten USN undergrad.
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<p>Crap; my school isn't in the top 10. Its in the top 80...</p>
<p>So you invest a few years in quality work experience doing something meaningful, and go for the MBA. If you can get into a highly-ranked business school, go into consulting. Or get the JD from a top law school (not just Tier 1) and get hired into consulting.</p>
<p>even outside the top ten, it is possible to get into a consulting firm. with bcg, mickensy and bain, it might not be as easy but there are a lot of smaller firms who will hire outside the top ten. many of these might specialize in a certain area such as health care.</p>
<p>Consulting firms pay well, but working as a consultant engenders a lifestyle that isn't everyone's cup of tea. A typical consultant may work full-time on a project for a single client that may last a few weeks, or even a few months. When one project comes to a close, the consultant has to find a new project. Often, these clients are located in a different city, which means catching a plane away from home every Sunday night, and another one back home on Thursday night (and working from home on Friday). That's four nights a week in hotel rooms, week after week. It puts a strain on family life, and puts a strain on friendships. The length of the assignments, the high rates charged for the consultant's services, and the nature of the work the consultant performs (which may involve re-engineering business processes, which may mean laying people off) all make it difficult to form rewarding relationships with temporary colleagues.</p>
<p>The Big Four accounting firms all have consulting arms, and all hire truckloads of first-years, and they're from all types of four-year schools.</p>
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Consulting firms pay well, but working as a consultant engenders a lifestyle that isn't everyone's cup of tea. A typical consultant may work full-time on a project for a single client that may last a few weeks, or even a few months. When one project comes to a close, the consultant has to find a new project. Often, these clients are located in a different city, which means catching a plane away from home every Sunday night, and another one back home on Thursday night (and working from home on Friday). That's four nights a week in hotel rooms, week after week. It puts a strain on family life, and puts a strain on friendships. The length of the assignments, the high rates charged for the consultant's services, and the nature of the work the consultant performs (which may involve re-engineering business processes, which may mean laying people off) all make it difficult to form rewarding relationships with temporary colleagues.
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<p>But to a certain degree, couldn't the same thing be said about a lawyer's lifestyle (in terms of hours, stress, etc).</p>
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You will probably have trouble finding work as a "consultant" immediately out of college. Its not really a primary career goal IMO, most people doing any type of consulting work have had alot of real world job experience in addition to their degree. Most organizations are not going to be seeking advice from someone with no experience in the field they are advising.
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<p>You would think so, right? There was a time in my life when I thought exactly the same way. Logically, it makes sense.</p>
<p>I then noticed, as BDM did, a giant slew of my classmates getting hired as consultants straight out of college with precisely zero work experience. In fact, I remember a few of them laughing over drinks about how they were providing high-priced 'expertise' to people who had decades of work experience when they themselves had none. Yep, the guys with long years of experience were paying through the nose for advice from guys who had no experience. What's wrong with this picture? For years I have wondered exactly why this happens, for it seems to make no sense, but what can I say? Nobody ever asked me. McKenna (2007) has stated that the modern management consulting industry rests on an edifice of brilliant marketing that makes clients think that the consultants know far more than they actually do. </p>
<p>But hey, I guess it's no worse than investment banks paying $150k - or even more by VC/PE firms - for English majors fresh out of school.</p>
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You would think so, right? There was a time in my life when I thought exactly the same way. Logically, it makes sense.</p>
<p>I then noticed, as BDM did, a giant slew of my classmates getting hired as consultants straight out of college with precisely zero work experience. In fact, I remember a few of them laughing over drinks about how they were providing high-priced 'expertise' to people who had decades of work experience when they themselves had none. Yep, the guys with long years of experience were paying through the nose for advice from guys who had no experience. What's wrong with this picture? For years I have wondered exactly why this happens, for it seems to make no sense, but what can I say? Nobody ever asked me. McKenna (2007) has stated that the modern management consulting industry rests on an edifice of brilliant marketing that makes clients think that the consultants know far more than they actually do.</p>
<p>But hey, I guess it's no worse than investment banks paying $150k - or even more by VC/PE firms - for English majors fresh out of school.
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<p>Sakky, just curious, when/where did you go to school? I'm asking because my school isn't exactly prestigious (a lower-ranked UC).</p>
<p>Lawyers get paid more, they work about the same (consultants travel TONS), but I think the work would be more interesting in consulting...</p>
<p>It's not like first-year consultants who were English majors and drinking at the frat house six months ago are now telling CEOs what to do. Newly minted "consultants" are doing a lot of grunt work -- research, number crunching, creating pretty PowerPoint presentations, generally doing a lot of boring things, while the older, more seasoned consultants who have expertise inan industry are the ones who do the actual consulting. A lot of the "real" older consultants are people who worked in a particular industry for several decades. Often, a first-year consultant won't even get to be in front of the client at all -- just working back in the office.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, consulting can be very interesting, because every industry, every company, every problem is different. If a consultant is really good, they'll see that and tailor their "solution" to those realities. If a consultant is really bad, they'll provide the same warmed-over solutions to every client.</p>
<p>The other thing that consultants can do (if they're good) is offer a business-minded, sophisticated perspective to an executive who has never worked out of his industry or out of his function. There's an old joke -- that "even though we're losing money on everyone we sell, we'll make it up in volume." Consultants can help a business person see the folly in something like that. Consultants can help illuminate the blind spots and suggest different ways of looking at problems.</p>
<p>So does getting a law degree and being a consultant ever converge?</p>
<p>"But to a certain degree, couldn't the same thing be said about a lawyer's lifestyle (in terms of hours, stress, etc)."</p>
<p>Some of the same things can be said about a lawyer's lifestyle. Long hours are stressful, and put a strain on personal relationships. But extensive travel adds a different kind of stress. I'm not saying lawyers don't travel; I spent a total of eleven weeks away from home one year, my heaviest travel year. But many consultants spend more than half their time on the road.</p>
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It's not like first-year consultants who were English majors and drinking at the frat house six months ago are now telling CEOs what to do. Newly minted "consultants" are doing a lot of grunt work -- research, number crunching, creating pretty PowerPoint presentations, generally doing a lot of boring things, while the older, more seasoned consultants who have expertise inan industry are the ones who do the actual consulting. A lot of the "real" older consultants are people who worked in a particular industry for several decades. Often, a first-year consultant won't even get to be in front of the client at all -- just working back in the office.
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<p>Obviously the dichotomy is not as stark as your first sentence made it out to be. But at the end of the day, I think there is little dispute that the path of the consultant offers access to the top that most regular employees can't even dream of. </p>
<p>As a case in point, I know a guy who had worked in a large multinational firm (that shall remain nameless) for many years and had still never even seen the CEO of the firm in person, and forget about actually having been invited to a formal meeting with that CEO. Yet when the firm hired one of the major strategy consulting companies, the entire engagement team - including a few guys who were literally fresh out of college - were able to schedule meetings with that CEO routinely. Now, I agree with you that those fresh-faced kids were not making the actual consulting decisions, for those were indeed made by team members of far greater experience and maturity. But at least they got invited to the meetings, yet this guy couldn't even get that. The guy was grumbling incessantly about how these outside consultants were being provided with far better access to top management than even long-time company employees were provided. </p>
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The other thing that consultants can do (if they're good) is offer a business-minded, sophisticated perspective to an executive who has never worked out of his industry or out of his function. There's an old joke -- that "even though we're losing money on everyone we sell, we'll make it up in volume." Consultants can help a business person see the folly in something like that. Consultants can help illuminate the blind spots and suggest different ways of looking at problems.
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<p>Yeah, but on the other hand, consultants provide plenty of folly of their own (McKenna 2007, Craig 2005, Kihn 2005, Pinault 2001). Management consulting is not a profession that should be romanticized; unclear indeed is the value-add that many consulting engagements provide, and some engagements turn into unmitigated disasters. For example, Enron's numerous "business innovations" were eagerly championed by McKinsey at the time. Of course McKinsey doesn't like talking about Enron anymore. </p>
<p>BW</a> Online | July 8, 2002 | Inside McKinsey</p>
<p>However, I will say that I can clearly identify one tremendously useful service that consulting firms provide: the ability to provide cover for controversial moves. For example, if you're the CEO of a firm and you already know that you need to make a painful move - like layoff thousands of workers or sell off a division - it is far easier for you to do so politically if you can bring in a major consulting firm who will then "recommend" that very same strategy that you were going to implement anyway, which you can then blame the consulting firm for the pain it causes (i.e. don't blame me, McKinsey told me to do it) or to give you greater heft when you're pitching your idea to the Board (i.e. both McKinsey and I concur that this painful move is necessary). In other words, it's a convenient way to rent a political foil. </p>
<p>But look, I don't mean to single out consulting. This is a law thread after all, and I don't believe that consulting is any worse than law. Consultants may not always add value from a social welfare standpoint, but frankly, neither do many lawyers.</p>
<p>Hi. What’s the McKenna (2007) reference? Thanks</p>
<p>I am not sure that anyone has mentioned that the odds are almost zero that you will use your degree field (environmental studies) as a consultant. I worked for one of the big consulting firms for 10 years, and you are really just a body to be thrown into the breach of whatever big project they have going on at the time. That is one reason those people without a lot of work experience get hired. They figure if they get smart, hardworking people, they can train them up. But I think you would NOT be working in environmental studies in any capacity.</p>
<p>I suppose as a lawyer you could try to focus in on environment law issues, so that has a better opportunity of getting you some work in the field you are interested in. But jobs out of law school are so scarce these days… that is also a risky path.</p>
<p>Sorry that the picture is not sunnier with either of these options.</p>
<p>This thread is four years old. I doubt the OP is still looking here for answers.</p>