Hi friends!
I am a rising Sophomore international student (from Ethiopia) at Hamilton College. I plan on double majoring in Economics and Mathematics or majoring in Math and minoring in Econ. I came into college expecting to go to Law School right after, but now I am considering becoming a Strategy Consultant to a big company. I am hoping to work for a company that has a branch office in Ethiopia, so that I can go back to Ethiopia after a decade or so. Anyways, to keep things short… I keep hearing about the competitiveness of the consulting industry. I just wanted to know what kinds of courses, besides Econ and Math, I should take and also what kinds of internships I should apply to. Should I apply to Business School right out of college? or wait to get experience then think about B. School?
Thanks in advance!
Also, how likely is it for big companies such as Deloitte to sponsor an non-US citizen for a work visa?
You should check with the career services department at your college to see whether Deloitte comes to campus to recruit. You will need to have a top GPA to be considered. Most elite business schools want you to have at least 2-3 years of work experience for acceptance.
The consulting firms tend to recruit at the same schools year after year - I agree you should check with Hamilton’s career counseling office to see which firms recruit on campus, and attend any info sessions these firms offer on campus. Top GPA plus a good GMAT score is very helpful to secure the interview (many students take the GMAT late junior or senior year to have it done while still in school mode, planning to apply to business school several years out of undergrad). Many (if not most) consulting interviews are case interviews - do a search online and you’ll find lots of info on how to prep for these interviews. You do need to prep for this type of interview. Also agreed that most top business schools look for prior work experience.
You’ve got it completely backwards. You will have to have a decade or so of work experience before you can credibly qualify for a work visa.
Actually an international student can go from F1 to H1 visage without ten years of work experience. My uncle did and so did a lot of his classmates. In fact my uncle did not have any work experience other than an internship.
Many tech companies sponsor non-US citizens for work visa because they can’t get qualified US citizens for the job. I happen to be in a new technology that my company has a hard time filling with qualified US citizens. I am allowed to recruit candidates who need visa sponsorship. We spend a lot of legal money to do all the necessary filing. I hire new graduates with few years of experience, but it needs to be relevant. Other departments within my company are not given budget to spend money to recruit candidates who need sponsorship.
Unfortunately, unless you have certain specialty that can’t be fulfilled by an American citizen it is hard to get sponsorship. My niece as an anthropology major was hired into a top consulting firm in their business strategy area. She went to a top state U, but she is still dime in a dozen. I think you would be hard pressed to get a job as a strategy consultant as a non citizen, both risk and cost are too high, and frankly there are too many Americans who could easily do the job.
It didn’t hurt that my uncle graduated from that school in Boston. He had a few choices upon graduation, a couple from consulting firms, one a strategy firm. So you don’t need a decade of experience. You just have to be special
To have decade of experience can be special, but to have particular skill many Americans don’t have can also be special.
Agreed. It can be a differentiator but not a necessary condition
Top MBA programs typically required a minimum of 2-5 years of meaningful work experience so I’d suggest you work before applying to graduate b-school programs.
You can also re-invent yourself through an MBA program. So if, for whatever reason, you don’t get a job right out of college in the exact field you prefer, it doesn’t matter much. What matters is to get a job for those 2 to 5 years that pays enough to live on and gives you opportunities to learn. You can move into strategy consulting (if that’s still your interest) after the MBA, even if you weren’t in that field before.
Full disclosure: One of my kids is finishing up an MBA program next month, and will be starting a job in August in a field unrelated to the type of work she did before going to business school.
- Getting a job in consulting is very competitive, You really need to be the best of the best at your college.
- Don't write off your chances because a firm doesn't recruit on campus at Hamilton. (I bet many firms do not recruit on campus at Hamilton -- it's just not big enough to produce a steady stream of hires year after year.) All of the firms have procedures to evaluate applicants from colleges they don't visit.
- Math skills are really important. And it's not so much the math per se (beyond decent knowledge of statistics) but the analytic ability. Also, at many firms technical skills in computer science are in demand. But consulting firms hire PhDs and people with deep experience as technical experts; you are not likely to emerge from college as a technical expert in anything, no matter what courses you take.
- Make certain your English skills -- written and oral communication, both your ability to write and speak and your ability to listen and understand -- are great.
- Good luck finding a company besides Deloitte with an office in Ethiopia. If you are successful, you can open one.
- You should be aware that a minuscule percentage of people who get hired straight out of college by consulting firms stay at those firms longer than a few years. The general, unspoken "deal" is that you work like a dog for 2-3 years doing crap work for really good pay and a chance to learn a lot about how some industries work. Then either you take a job in one of those industries, or you go to graduate school (often an MBA).
Sometimes, it’s an overtly spoken deal, and it can be a good one.
My daughter spent her first three years after college working for an economic and litigation consulting firm. Reasonably good pay. Minimal travel. Pleasant atmosphere. Some crap work but also some real responsibility as time went on. The young people were expected to stay for three to four years and then move on, usually to an MBA program, and the company did everything in its power to help them get admitted to the graduate programs they wanted. And the kids were treated very well. For example, my daughter had the misfortune to be called for grand jury duty during her time with the company, and she received her full salary for the entire five weeks that she was out of the office serving on the grand jury.
What’s not to like?
It goes without saying (but I’ll say it anyway) that vast numbers of kids apply for every position at companies like this one and that you don’t have a chance of getting one of these jobs unless you have an essentially perfect transcript from a highly respected college – usually with an economics major.
I have a relative who works as a consultant with one of the Big Firms… she did graduate from a “top” Ivy, but without honors, and as a humanities major. She got her job through alumni connections after working in a sales/marketing/management position she got right out of college. So it’s at least sometimes possible to get consulting jobs without a business degree and without being a top student – in her case, success in her first job and those all-important alumni contacts from her top school did the trick.
For M/B/B, degree does not matter much. I used to work for one of them and we hired all sorts of degrees. What does matter is that the BA role (which is what you are looking for) is quite hard to land. There is a specific deal where you are a BA for 2-3 years and then go to b-school, with tuition paid by your firm. You then have the “loan” forgiven if you come back and work at your old firm as an Associate for 3 years or so. If you don’t come back, you owe them the cost of the b-school. So there are very few BAs relative to the overall population. A large office might have a dozen or so. You may want to consider I-banking, where there are a lot more undergrad positions available. Of course, you will have to work like two dogs there for a few years, then go to b-school, then apply for a consulting job as an Associate, of which there are many more positions available. Good luck!
Having once worked at one of these firms, any way that you can demonstrate good quantitative and analytical skills key. Many of my colleagues were econ and math majors, but more than a few had degrees in “real” science as well.
These firms are very selective, so DO remain open to other possibilities. If you have this opportunity, you’ll work hard. But also, you’ll be expected to leave at the end of the 2-3 year stint. There’s no track for a non-MBA/PhD. In many ways, that’s a positive – you get exposure to different companies and a little more time to figure out what you want to do with your life. If you’re not going back to school but taking another position, you have an easy explanation as to why you’re changing jobs.
And since you’re expected to leave, you can be completely open about the fact that you’re hunting for a new job. Colleagues may even help you out if they know of companies that are hiring, and you can get a recommendation from your current employer.