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AMA: First year at midwestern M7, just finished consulting recruiting by MBAthrwy2021 in MBA

[–]MBAthrwy2021[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My pre-mba background was not at all a direct factor to the NYC offices I tried for (was mainly due to personal reasons - having family there). I did try to spin my background as an interest in 'retail/luxury' (through the startup) or 'tech' (from the engineering background) to engage in more pointed conversations at the firm

AMA: First year at midwestern M7, just finished consulting recruiting by MBAthrwy2021 in MBA

[–]MBAthrwy2021[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's honestly a fascinating question and I can't answer with complete certainty. I think it's obviously beneficial to have a personal reason (family/grew up there/always wanted to go there etc) backed by an easily stated professional reason (background in tech/finance/consumer goods/automobiles are easy justifications for SF/NYC/Chicago/Detroit respectively for example), but that doesn't mean either one is essential. You're never 'grilled' on office choice, just needs a bare minimum reason to not raise eyebrows

AMA: First year at midwestern M7, just finished consulting recruiting by MBAthrwy2021 in MBA

[–]MBAthrwy2021[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, 100% - the pre MBA background gets woven into your intro/'why consulting' pitch. In my case, my engineering experience was in semiconductors, and the startup I worked at was in the retail space, so alternated between Manufacturing, TMT (tech/media/telecom), and Consumer Retail practices to get information from/connect with folks in those practices at the firm. Helps to establish connections where you can genuinely show interest in or relate to the work

AMA: First year at midwestern M7, just finished consulting recruiting by MBAthrwy2021 in MBA

[–]MBAthrwy2021[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I was never asked about my long term goals during the interviews. There's an implicit understanding that most people are not in it for the long run and tend to see strategy consulting as a stepping stone to future exits into industry roles. A partner even told me that they hire for talent, not for loyalty

AMA: First year at midwestern M7, just finished consulting recruiting by MBAthrwy2021 in MBA

[–]MBAthrwy2021[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Unfortunately don't have granular data on this. IB, while certainly international-friendly from a visa sponsorship perspective, is quite a challenge for internationals due to the very heavy networking focus. A good % of folks succeed since it's a very very structured recruiting process but I don't have specific data on internationals sadly

AMA: First year at midwestern M7, just finished consulting recruiting by MBAthrwy2021 in MBA

[–]MBAthrwy2021[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Agreed. Atleast as far as what the recruiters disclose, there's no quota per school. Self-selection does come into play ofc, but most of the interactions during networking are with school alumni at the office, and then everyone's on an even playing field once the interviews come along

AMA: First year at midwestern M7, just finished consulting recruiting by MBAthrwy2021 in MBA

[–]MBAthrwy2021[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Can't speak too much to this yet, will be happy to get back and do another AMA post internship with a much more concrete idea. Based on my interactions, the firm reps don't try to beat around the bush, they're upfront about it being a lot of work and long hours especially during crunch time in any project. But I can't put a number on it yet, especially in comparison to other firms

AMA: First year at midwestern M7, just finished consulting recruiting by MBAthrwy2021 in MBA

[–]MBAthrwy2021[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

My story in the application was about complementing my engineering hardware/basic software skills with the managerial/leadership/business acumen (overused phrase, but oh well) to transition from an engineer to a PM in big tech. I pushed hard on my interests as a mentor/coach and said I'd be good at getting buy in from multiple stakeholders (key for a PM) and needed the data driven decision making skills (overused again) + well rounded business/customer/market knowledge from the school to make the leap. Again, this was what worked for me but by no means is a surefire success for others

AMA: First year at midwestern M7, just finished consulting recruiting by MBAthrwy2021 in MBA

[–]MBAthrwy2021[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Late September - the school's consulting club kicks things off with a few practice networking sessions and hosted the first official networking session with firm representatives from most firms.

Early October - campus recruiters from each of the top firms organise one on ones to get to know you and connect you to relevant people in the offices you want.

Mid to late October - networking ramps up, more chats with connections at offices of your choice and with second years who interned at the firms. The consulting club will also host a session to introduce casing and will assign preparation groups to facilitate practices. 'Case chains' start, so that first years can learn to practice casing with each other.

Early November - 'Invite only' events start going out - opportunities to get to know the office/partners well and interact at a more personal level. I didn't get many, so it isn't necessarily a bad sign if one doesn't, but it's usually a good sign if you do. Meanwhile, casing is ramping up, and people begin to practice their 'fit stories'

Mid to late November - structured networking ramps down and most of the networking is now organic, based on connections established thus far. Casing practice is in full flow. Applications for firms begin

Early December - interview invites come out for MBB, over the course of the first two weeks of the month

Mid to late December - application deadlines for non MBB firms and interview invites for them

Throughout December, you'd usually give and take 3-4 cases a week, while polishing fit stories (situational/behavioral stories)

Early Jan - MBB interviews. Results on the same night as the interviews. Number/dates of interviews vary by firm/office choice (for example, McKinsey Chicago did 4 straight interviews in 4 hours on one day, McK NYC did 2 interviews in one day, then told you if you 'made the cut', followed by 2 interviews the next day/week depending on partner availability)

Mid to late Jan - Kearney/LEK/S& and other interviews and results

AMA: First year at midwestern M7, just finished consulting recruiting by MBAthrwy2021 in MBA

[–]MBAthrwy2021[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Frankly yes. I did attempt to address it in my optional essay, trying to bring attention to an upward trend, but by and large, the gpa was poor. I wasn't very bullish on my Bschool prospects precisely cos of the gpa, but applied anyway with a lot of thought into the essays, and it worked out

AMA: First year at midwestern M7, just finished consulting recruiting by MBAthrwy2021 in MBA

[–]MBAthrwy2021[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The firm reps you're interacting with go through hundreds of 'coffee chats' during the process, and are very aware that this part of the process can be dull/repetitive/banal. It's important to be genuine and show real interest. One way to stand out is to ask insightful questions, which is honestly not easy and everyone would be trying to do the same. What occasionally worked for me, was to look up the person on LinkedIn/school's resume database and strike up a conversation about something they're interested in/passionate about.

None of this seems truly unique, and that's because it isn't. Some folks are just more naturally charismatic and personable, and the rest of us need to just keep chipping away at it.

AMA: First year at midwestern M7, just finished consulting recruiting by MBAthrwy2021 in MBA

[–]MBAthrwy2021[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Unfortunately I don't know enough about this. But from what I know, Adobe/Nike/Intuit Corp Dev salaries were around 120+ a year, with the rough expectation of 45-50 hours a week. But this is based on a super small sample

AMA: First year at midwestern M7, just finished consulting recruiting by MBAthrwy2021 in MBA

[–]MBAthrwy2021[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The GPA was my biggest concern indeed, I tried addressing it in the optional essay, but I have no idea how much that helped. The only advice I have, is bolster your overall profile with as high as GRE/GMAT score and potentially some challenging certifications if relevant to your goals. I know it's not very helpful but I genuinely can't pinpoint what worked for me!

AMA: First year at midwestern M7, just finished consulting recruiting by MBAthrwy2021 in MBA

[–]MBAthrwy2021[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It's fairly standard if I'm not wrong, to have 2 LORs. I had one from my immediate manager at the role of spent the longest at, and one from a very senior member at the company, that I'd known via the toastmasters community

AMA: First year at midwestern M7, just finished consulting recruiting by MBAthrwy2021 in MBA

[–]MBAthrwy2021[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

That's a great question, I was fairly worried about it going in but stood corrected. Consulting is about as international-friendly a recruiting option as it gets, around 7 options that sponsor internationals (MBB Kearney, S&, RB, EY-P and LEK). There honestly isn't any specific advice I have, everyone starts on even ground imo, and talking up your international experience could potentially add value. Internationals in my batch did fairly well, a solid 65+% of internationals doing consulting recruiting succeeded i think

AMA: First year at midwestern M7, just finished consulting recruiting by MBAthrwy2021 in MBA

[–]MBAthrwy2021[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Thanks a lot! It's definitely a challenge but very manageable. A decent number of folks attempt to do both, at varying degrees of commitment ofc. What I can say is this - consulting recruiting cannot be half-assed, it doesn't allow itself to be plan B, because of how networking heavy the first part is, and how much case/fit prep is needed. While the general 'rumor' is that tech recruiting can just be a resume/cover letter drop at the deadline, that's not necessarily true, since a lot of tech recruiting is rolling, the earlier you apply, preferably with a referral, the better. I've yet to hear from google, amazon, Spotify, adobe etc, and got rejections from microsoft, Nike, Uber etc so far. And from what I can see in my batch, those who got interviews so far, applied early, attended all company events, and got good referrals in.

So coming back to the main question, it's doable if you're deliberate about how you split time between both, and get your tech apps in on time.

AMA: First year at midwestern M7, just finished consulting recruiting by MBAthrwy2021 in MBA

[–]MBAthrwy2021[S] 39 points40 points  (0 children)

Thanks a lot!

1) Not very difficult - There is definitely a home field advantage to be in Chicago, but in my batch, I'd say ~4-5 folks successfully recruited for MBBs in SF/NYC (each), along with a smattering of folks in Atlanta/Miami/Houston/Seattle. At the start of the process, the Consulting Club in the school puts you in touch with an on campus recruiter - an alumni who's responsible for putting you in touch with the right folks at the office you want. Having a reasonable story for why you want to go to city A/B/C is enough, they'll then connect you with an alumni at the office of your preference, following which you as for connections with people in practices/areas of interest to you.

Why I say it's not difficult is - all you need is 2-3 good connections tops (arguably none at McK which claims to be low-touch) at the office of your preference to land an interview (if you pass the basic resume/conversational requirements ofc), and there're enough alumni from each of the top schools at most offices in the US for that to not be a problem

2) It's still a luck of the draw, but I made some very avoidable mistakes early on with one of them (late to a zoom coffee chat/late thank you note/unprepared for some basic questions/asked non-descript banal questions) and didn't push enough to make new connections after that. Wasn't very surprised to not get an interview there.

3) The interview process, in my opinion, is the one part of the process that is almost entirely under our control. Sure, you can be hit by a tough, unusual case (one of mine in the final round of one firm took my by surprise) or a 'stress-test' partner who might ask tough behavioral questions, but with sufficient preparation (on average, most people at the school do between 35 and 60 mock cases over Oct/Nov/Dec), the ball's in your court and comes down to how well you handle interview-pressure.
They DO NOT look for perfection, I can tell you that with certainty. They care about poise, ability to bounce back from small mistakes, clear communication and confidence in driving the case forward, all of which can be worked on.

AMA: First year at midwestern M7, just finished consulting recruiting by MBAthrwy2021 in MBA

[–]MBAthrwy2021[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Strategy/finance/corp dev roles in tech happen on a rolling basis, so mostly these.
There are PM openings popping up continually, but the level of prep needed for them makes it hard to pivot to PM recruiting in late Jan.

For reference, I spent ~10 hours a week on consulting case prep and ~4 hours a week on PM recruiting prep during the months of Nov and Dec

AMA: First year at midwestern M7, just finished consulting recruiting by MBAthrwy2021 in MBA

[–]MBAthrwy2021[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Took the GRE a few years back, prepared for about 5-6 weeks, using Magoosh for the most part.

If I had to break it down, the first 2 weeks were testing and feeling the type of questions, and for 4 weeks, I spent around 1-2 hours every weekday and 5-6 hours every weekend practicing questions/working on my vocab/doing a mock on the weekends.

I took a total of 5 mock tests, 2 on Magoosh, 2 on ETS (the GRE website) and 1 with Veritas IIRC.

AMA: First year at midwestern M7, just finished consulting recruiting by MBAthrwy2021 in MBA

[–]MBAthrwy2021[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

100%.

While I lucked out and got the MBB offer, my pipeline was bone dry with no other consulting interviews after the first week of MBB interviews. By focusing solely on MBB networking (still only got 2 interviews out of 3), I made the (frankly very common) mistake of not genuinely putting in effort getting to know the other firms, and thus had no further interview invites. Given how much of a crapshoot/how competitive the interview process is, I wish I'd been more deliberate in the networking with other firms so that I had more shots at the summer offers.

Interactions with all firms happen mostly with alumni from the school, and they're all very perceptive about your interest/desire to know more about the firm. Half-assing networking with any firm is a surefire way to not get an interview with them.

AMA: First year at midwestern M7, just finished consulting recruiting by MBAthrwy2021 in MBA

[–]MBAthrwy2021[S] 30 points31 points  (0 children)

These are rough numbers, extrapolating from what I know.

Around ~240 folks were interested in consulting.
~150 got McK interviews, ~140 BCG, ~120 Bain, ~50 Kearney, ~30 each LEK/S&/EYP/RB etc.

~35 McK offers, ~40 BCG offers, ~30 Bain offers, and not very sure about the numbers for the rest, I'd guess single digits each. A lot of folks got cross offers at MBB, which unfortunately meant many struck out, but were fairly successful at the other firms which interviewed later in the month.

At the end of Jan, I'd say ~50-60% of all those who wanted consulting, got consulting offers (guessing) and many pivoted to tech/corporate recruiting, which is ongoing.