<p>OK, so in the past few days, Consulting seemed to be an attractive job. Pinpoint other companies' problems and try to solve them in groups and think critically to come with better solutions. But I don't know that much about Consulting either. So can you guys come up with the branches (areas of expertise) in the Consulting field? </p>
<p>For example, I've heard about IT consulting and management consulting. Are there more fields beyond these?</p>
<p>What are some of the top firms-good firms? Is it about a lot of number-crunching? What would be some of the characteristics of a successful Consultant? </p>
<p>Anything else you want to add, go for it. tthanks</p>
<p>top consulting firms: McKinsey, Bain & Co., Boston Consulting Group.</p>
<p>There is a good deal of number crunching especially at the entry level. At the same time, you have a good opportunity to gain a lot of knowledge in a variety of different industries whcih allows for some good exit opportunities(corporate dev/business dev. management at an f500, venture capital, sometimes even private equity).</p>
<p>Browse their websites, they have plenty of information regarding the type of work they do.</p>
<p>Take a moment to read around there, you'll find out that these consulting firms are able to advise on a variety of different aspects of companies.</p>
<p>There are several different fields of consulting. But when people on CC talk about consulting, they're generally referring to Management Consulting. And like dcfca said, McKinsey, Bain, and BCG are usually considered the top three firms specifically for management consulting. </p>
<p>Besides IT consulting and management consulting, there are many other fields of consulting such as Litigation, Financial, Tax, HR, Risk, and many more. </p>
<p>If we were to say top 4, I would add Booz Allen. The next tier would probably include IBM, Deloitte Consulting, Mercer, Accenture, etc.</p>
<p>Good qualities for consultants include anything a business professional needs: problem solving skills, presentation/communication skills, analytical skills. You need to work hard, and there's a lot of travel. Consulting firms are known for their case interviews, which demonstrate your problem solving and analytical capabilities.</p>
<p>what exactly do you want to do in the media&entertainment area? </p>
<p>I mean you can consult for pretty much everything. Consulting is almost a ******** term because anyone can do anything and call themselves a consultant. A star who may not be satisfied with their current PR or needs some additional help could get a PR Consultant. A movie studio could get a 'consultant' to look over scripts and decide what changes need to be made in order to help make a movie more marketable. An advertising firm may have a big project and hire 'consultants' to give a more specialized creative direction. An experienced stunt man may act as a consultant for an action movie. Experienced police officers may act as consultants for movies involving the police. Do you see what I'm getting at? Are these really consultants? Yes but at the same time you could easily give them another title. Getting into those types of fields would require extensive experience within the media&entertainment industry and then leaving and becoming a 'consultant'. </p>
<p>At the same time, obviously there is a business side to the entertainment industry. You can do things like workin in business development for Universal Pictures and maybe help make their movie ventures more profitable, you could possibly direct them in what kinds of movies they should be making at a current time (ex. focus on ethnic teen girl movies for the studio due to more profitability) and then eventually you could easily go off on your own and become a consultant.</p>