Hot Jobs for MBAs – Management Consulting
Business school students know a thing or two about cutting their teeth. Between getting an undergrad degree, gaining work experience, going back to grad school and successfully navigating a summer internship, there’s tons of work that has to be done before someone can say, “I am an MBA.” After years of hard work, lots of MBAs look to get into management consulting.
Management consultants provide strategic, advisory services that assist companies in improving their productivity, output and overall performance. Consultants use the knowledge, skills and abilities they have learned and acquired over the years to help top management plan and implement various strategies to improve things like efficiency, growth and profit.
Lasse Lund, a manager in Deloitte’s customer management practice, won the 2013 performance consultant of the year and overall consultant of the year in the Management Consultancies Association’s (MCA) awards. In an interview with The Guardian, he shared his insights into what the job is like:
“I am really fascinated by working with different customers on different projects–and very much enjoy the momentum and excitement we create in the organisations we work with. I like being in the middle of all the different pieces that need to come together. For example, an issue comes up and you think, ‘I haven’t seen that before, I need to pull in the right people from the right teams, I need to put in place the right processes and I need to get the right technology in place to fix that issue.’”
According to ConsultingFact.com, specific duties of a management consultant include:
- Defining the problem through consultations, meetings and case studies.
- Reviewing and analyzing information through different reports and researches.
- Interviewing or facilitating focused group discussions with management and employees.
- Developing and presenting recommendations for the management.
- Developing plans and programs for change implementation in the organization.
Consulting work is important, and by no stretch easy. It’s a demanding job that often requires traveling and spending time away from home while visiting and working with clients. With that being said, it’s also lucrative, as MBAs who get consulting gigs out of business school make a considerable amount of coin.
According to Payscale.com, the average salary for a management consultant is $86,064 per year, and that number can climb into six-digit figures with experience/depending on the firm that employs you. Business Insider reports that MBA consulting internships also pay well. Firms trying to lock down the best prospects pay an average $10,500 per month to summer interns from top business schools.
ManagmentConsulted.com put together a list of the top 10 MBA programs for management consulting careers, listing the Kellogg School of Management as the top program for consulting. Around 35 percent of Kellogg MBAs get jobs in management consulting with an average base salary of $133,253. Kellogg has become a hot recruiting spot across top firms, especially McKinsey.
According to that same report, McKinsey has hired over 215 Kellogg graduates over the last five years, including 34 from the most recent graduating class. In contrast, this year 28 graduates accepted offers from Bain, 26 from BCG, 20 from Deloitte and an additional 18 went to PwC/Strategy.
Other schools to make the list are Columbia Business School (35 percent), Chicago Booth (33.5 percent), MIT Sloan School of Management (32 percent), Wharton (26 percent) and Berkeley Haas (25 percent).
The Guardian reports that while some firms are particularly interested in hiring an MBA or an MSc, these advanced degree as not required. In general, degrees in business may be a benefit, but generally consultancy is not a degree-specific industry.
Forbes has also compiled a list of top management consulting employers, which features companies like McKinsey and Co., Boston Consulting Group, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, Accenture, Bain and Company and Kaiser Associates.
According to Forbes, to be considered for this list, companies had to fall into one of the following categories: ”classic” management consultancy firms, IT consultancies, advisory branches of auditing firms and consulting branches of agencies. The best firms, such as McKinsey, Bain and BCG, are pretty explicit about only hiring top performers from the most prestigious schools.
About the Author
Max Pulcini
Max Pulcini is a Philadelphia-based writer and reporter. He has an affinity for Philly sports teams, Super Smash Bros. and cured meats and cheeses. Max has written for Philadelphia-based publications such as Spirit News, Philadelphia City Paper, and Billy Penn, as well as national news outlets like The Daily Beast.
