CAREER IN MANAGEMENT CONSULTING
Do you have apprehensions about having a Career in Management Consulting? Not anymore if you are reading this. A career in Management Consulting is quite competitive, yet full of opportunities. The majority of people enter the board after graduation, especially the MBA. Generally, high wages are the attention factor that explains why the board is so popular. If you can manage your job well, a 6-figure salary with little or no experience is not just a dream.
What does a management consultant do?
We, humans, face umpteen problems every now and then but sometimes we are unaware of the root cause of the problem and how can we get out of that problematic situation. So we ask our friends/family to help us by suggesting some solutions to our problems. Similarly, Organizations often face difficulties in their business and totally unaware of the real problems; this is when they hire Consultancy Firms to bail them out of their critical situations.
A management consultant helps an organization to improve the performance of its business, solve problems, and maximize its growth. A wide variety of consulting firms such as McKinsey & Company, Boston Consulting Group (BCG), KPMG, Deloitte & PwC cover a wide range of industries.
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Types of Management Consulting
Consultants could be in any domains such as strategy, operations, IT/Technology, HR, etc.
- Strategy consultants advise management teams on high-level decisions such as prioritizing new markets to enter, developing price strategies, mergers, and acquisitions, the amount to invest in research and development, organizational structure, and how to deal with competitive threats.
- Operational Consultant advice relates more to the implementation of the strategy, for example; how to improve the efficiency of the recruitment process or implement a new commercial strategy.
A consultant job is best suited to someone who enjoys traveling the world and meeting a wide range of people. Also, the easiest way to get a job as a consultant is through networking, and once you get that job, networking will be an integral part of it. This job may not be suitable for a well-structured person who prefers a routine and never gets tired of it. So if you like uncertainty, exploring places while brainstorming with people, then pursuing a career in Management Consulting could definitely be your cup of tea.
How to begin with a career in Management Consulting?
To start with, you must develop good analytical skills, right from your class 11th & 12th by studying mathematics. You can choose Commerce for learning the basics of business, or also learn Computer Science if you wish to go especially for IT/Technology Consulting.
Bachelor’s Degree
Similarly, Under-graduation no particular degree is compulsory. To become a management consultant, no specific qualification is required, but the competition tough. Most employers require that consultants have at least a bachelor’s degree with a major in accounting, business, finance, marketing, management, or a similar field. You could go for any Bachelor’s degree based on your interests. But, it would be better to have a degree relevant to the industry if you want to go into a specialized consulting field, such as engineering or IT.
After completing your graduation, you could enter a company as an “Analyst” and work for about 2 to 3 years. The work would usually be data gathering for the analysis.
Master’s Degree
Having an MBA or management master’s degree will boost your chances of being hired as a consultant. You can opt for an MBA / PGDM which could be self-sponsored or company-sponsored. Most companies prefer a consulting experience of at least 2 years. You could also opt to do your MBA from abroad to get better exposure and jobs as well.
Some of the top Indian colleges that offer MBA in Consulting/Business Analytics are IIM Ahmedabad (www.iima.ac.in ), IIM Bangalore (www.iimb.ac.in ), IIM Calcutta (www.iimcal.ac.in ), XLRI Jamshedpur (www.xlri.ac.in), etc.
After completing the MBA, the title given is that of “Associate Consultant” and this can be long term or short term depending on the work done and the comments obtained.
Additional Courses
Recommended courses to prepare for a Career in Management Consulting could be courses that help you specialize in tools such as Excel, Power-Point, R, Python, Tableau, and SQL. Each company has a unique management structure with unique problems. This is why management consultants must be familiar with the different approaches to find management solutions.
Skills Required
When qualifications are essential, skills are suggested to give you a superior advantage when planning a Career in Management Consulting. The skills a business expects from a management consultant are the ability to work under pressure, quantitative, analytical, teamwork, problem-solving, interpersonal and communication skills, as you will be doing a lot of talking, brainstorming, research, analysis, etc if you decide to pursue a career in Management Consulting.
Career Path
A Career in management consulting follows a general rule of thumb that the more senior you are, the greater your exposure to clients – and to senior clients in particular. Here is how you can expect your consulting career to progress, as per McKinsey’s hierarchy: Business Analyst, Associate (After doing MBA), Engagement Manager (Project Manager), Associate Partner, Partner (and ultimately Director). Though, the title of the roles could differ from company to company.
Top Companies
A career in Management Consulting is becoming one of the most preferred careers in India. Consultants are hired by top companies as business advisors who look after the key decisions of the organization and can help the organization to reach new heights. Some of the top Consulting firms are:
- McKinsey & Company
- Boston Consulting Group (BCG)
- Bain & Company
- Deloitte
- PwC
- KPMG
Future of the Industry
Counseling is nothing but mentoring, and the millennial generation sees mentoring as a valued top career. It’s too vague when it comes to defining management consulting because of a broad concept. A client will always prefer to seek a consultant when it is necessary to restructure or modernize the continuation of the business. Companies prefer to use external consultants for two main reasons: a level of expertise and an impartial perspective. Management consulting careers follow a general rule that the older you are, the more you are exposed to clients – and to senior clients in particular.
Obviously, the growth of a consulting company depends on the economy. The more funds the company retains, the more it can spend on hiring consultants. The current scenario where, in the midst of COVID-19 foreclosure, the global economy is severely affected, it is also a big loss for consulting firms.
How would my life look like?
This was brief on Career in Management Consulting, but is it enough to give you a practical aspect of what your life will be once you become a Consultant? Let’s hear it from Ellen Vrana, a former consultant at McKinsey & Company who tried to capture a typical day in the life of a consultant.
“On Monday morning, I head towards the client location, and the other members of my team either come with me or join me there. A taxi picks me up at the house and we have breakfast. The customer will usually never send mail on a weekend, so Monday morning, when the emails start arriving early, it takes a long time to go through all of it & acknowledge the same. On the client-side, the team has a conference room. I am all surrounded by clients designated by their company to work with us. They are not only a resource for obtaining data, but they are also seen as partners in making the solution better and usable. In the conference room, we probably have another associate and an EM (Engagement Manager) who leads the team and is responsible for almost everything. The EM manages the PowerPoint platform which contains all the analysis, data, problems, and solutions. Around noon, I head for lunch, then return to the conference room. After lunch, a partner or PA (senior associate) joins the team to resolve the issues. It explains how we engage partners who really know what they are talking about and how we improve our solutions and ultimately serve the customer better. This can take up to 2.5 hours. The rest of the day, I work on the deck & then connect with the team in the evening to review what is left in the day. The updated deck is sent to EM at around 10 p.m. and the day ends, expecting the same day the next morning.”
We hope this is going to be helpful if you are planning to pursue a career in management consulting. For more guidance, feel free to connect with us and provide your feedback as well, so that we can also improve in the future.
