<p>I understand it involves providing strategic advice to clients, but in what capacticy? What is the job like? What does it entail, and what sort of job titles or positions are there? What is the job structure like within the industry? Stress level, quality of life, compensation figures???? A day in the life???</p>
<p>i was researching the exact thing last night... here's what i "think" i understand...</p>
<p>consulting is pretty broad. maybe a company wants to downsize. or they want to restructure their management/organization. maybe they need to cut costs and needs to find ways to do it. or they want their employees to be more creative, etc. etc. in comes consultants that can help.</p>
<p>i hear the job industry is a lot more stable. it isn't as cyclical as say, my other choice, i banking. but you'll be doing a lot of traveling, which gets boring.</p>
<p>hours aren't as bad as ibanking, but still between 60-80 hours a week, not including travel.</p>
<p>starting salary is comparable to ibanking, but without the huge bonuses. (60k start i'm guessing)</p>
<p>i think i've switched from ibanking to consulting (with a global management concentration).</p>
<p><a href="http://despair.com/consulting.html%5B/url%5D">http://despair.com/consulting.html</a>
'If you're not part of the solution, there's good money to be made in prolonging the problem.'</p>
<p>^ haha yes. Someone at my dorm had that on his door.</p>
<p>Bankers are monkeys, but consultants are witch doctors.</p>
<p>Another word for consulting is advising. In other words, giving advice. Thus, it's a very broad field. </p>
<p>There are strategic management consulting firms: McKinsey, Bain, Mercer, BCG, etc. These are quite prestigious firms; they tend to recruit out of the top 10 b-schools.</p>
<p>There are operational and IT consulting firms, some of which actually implement IT systems as well. Deloitte Consulting, Bearing Point, etc. These firms will do some strategic consulting sometimes, but not generally at the level of CEO or C-level, which is where the firms above typically consult.</p>
<p>Criticisms of consultants: they employ a bunch of really intelligent, but inexperienced "kids" who have no industry experience. The senior people with the experience sell the work, the inexperienced lower level ones do the work. They write reports, but never actually have to see if the reports' recommendations work. They are paid to tell companies what the companies already know, but haven't been able to accept. They claim to have knowledge of what's happening in particular markets, but in fact their market knowledge is typically lacking. They are slick, but not necessarily wise.</p>
<p>Other consulting: Think about it: consulting happens whenever an advisor is hired. There is consulting in everything. In most fields, consultants should have deep experience and a proven track record. But it's all about what they can sell.</p>
<p>Many former engineers make excellent MC consultants. Mckinsey loves to hire top MBA students who have significant engineering experience from what I've seen when I looked into UChicago's graduating class placements.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Criticisms of consultants: they employ a bunch of really intelligent, but inexperienced "kids" who have no industry experience. The senior people with the experience sell the work, the inexperienced lower level ones do the work. They write reports, but never actually have to see if the reports' recommendations work. They are paid to tell companies what the companies already know, but haven't been able to accept. They claim to have knowledge of what's happening in particular markets, but in fact their market knowledge is typically lacking. They are slick, but not necessarily wise.
[/quote]
My perception as well. Of course, this is strictly of management consultants. Other types of consultants IT/Engineering/Industry specific are usually quite useful.</p>
<p>So "Management Consulting" only deals with business administration aspects, but other forms of consulting don't?</p>
<p>By definition, management consulting usually deals with management issues. You don't hire McKinsey to work as a technical consultant. IBM or many other smaller shops would be much better suited for that.</p>
<p>those who get into Mckinsey or other prestigious firms more often end up in executive positions of businesses than any other field, including Ibanking. Whether or not this is because those in banking don't want to be VP's or CEO's or because they don't have the skills is up for debate.</p>
<p>what is life..</p>
<p>You can think of management consulting as corporate strategy. They're not always interchangeable, but they're almost synonymous.</p>
<p>Consulting arguably offers a more well-rounded skill set than IB/finance, which tend to give you a specific (financial) type of skill set. With consulting, you are dealing with general business issues and not just finance. That may be why they end up as top executives. But just like being a great stockbroker doesn't necessarily mean you're a great investor, being a great consultant doesn't necessarily mean you're a great manager. It's a different side of things.</p>
<p>Another reason might be exposure. If you're a consultant (not to be confused with associate consultant positions), you'll be meeting with top executive clients to advise. If they like you and know you provide trustworthy advice, they might just hire you. </p>
<p>Also, it's most likely that the exit opps are different and that IB people and consulting people want different things later on in life, like stoneimmaculate suggested. The only common exit opp is venture capital. I've seen as many M/B/B get into VC as the BB banks. But those out of IB want to mainly go into "higher" finance positions like PE/HF, not executive positions.</p>
<p>more m/b/b people are going to pe. in fact, some pe firms only hire past consultants</p>
<p>can anybody recommend any books on mgt consulting?</p>
<p>Start with the book "Strategic Planning" by George Steiner. It's the "bible" on the subject.</p>
<p>Also look up the term "Boston Consulting Group matrix" which shows one analysis used extensively (and now taught in all MBA programs).</p>
<p>Get the book "Vault Guide to Consulting Careers". It's an excellent description of the field.</p>
<p>Top Management Strategy by Tregoe and Zimmerman (later led to the Klepner-Tregoe analysis model)</p>
<p>Any book by Michael Porter of Harvard (he's written extensively on strategic planning and on leadership)</p>
<p>P.S. George Steiner was my thesis advisor at UCLA when I was working on my MBA.</p>