Landing a consulting job is the ultimate goal for so many business school students and prospective MBAs—the job responsibilities are are rewarding, the pay is very good and plenty of time is spent traveling and networking.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment in the management, scientific and technical consulting industry is expected to grow by 83 percent from 2008-18, representing more than 800,000 jobs. Typical consulting salaries range from $80,000 to $170,000, with senior level consultants earning up to $280,000.
Do you have aspirations of becoming a consultant? If you’re studying in the San Francisco metro, there’s plenty of opportunities for you. Here are some of the best MBA programs in the Bay Area that can help you reach your goals.
Edward S. Ageno School of Business – Golden Gate University
Golden Gate University is California’s fourth oldest private university and launched the region’s first evening MBA program in 1950. The school offers a traditional MBA, as well as an Executive MBA (EMBA) program.
The Ageno EMBA is designed for working professionals in mid-level management. The cohort-based system will focus on efforts for students to begin working well with teams, sell ideas and apply practical applications in a professional environment. Students can complete the EMBA with 48 credits taken over four trimesters, each containing three separate courses.
In the fourth trimester, students take Strategic Management (EMBA 355). The course covers the development and implementation of strategies for gaining competitive advantage in a global economy. Students will consider the strategic problems encountered by top-level managers in a competitive global market from an integrated perspective and learn varied approaches to analyzing strategic situations, developing a competitive strategy and managing policies to implement these strategies including controlling organization wide policies, leading organizational change and the allocation and leverage of resources.
F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business – Babson College San Francisco
While its main campus is located in Wellesley, Massachusetts, Babson’s San Francisco location offers a Blended Learning MBA program—a part time flexible program that combines about 20 weekly hours of online learning with classroom lessons every seven weeks on Fridays and Saturdays.
A big part of the Blended Learning program is experiential learning. Students at Babson have opportunities to participate in Student Consulting Projects where they can take on an organization’s real challenges and create value-added solutions. Student Consulting Projects include Babson Consulting Alliance Program, Management Consulting Field Experience and Global Connections through Technology.
Haas School of Business – UC Berkeley
Founded in 1898, The Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley is the oldest business school at a public institution in the United States. Today, Haas offers a full-time traditional MBA, in addition to the Executive MBA, and part-time Evening and Weekend MBA. Full-time Berkeley MBA students can focus their studies in a number of Areas of Emphasis that provide direction to the coursework a student takes. One Area of Emphasis is Strategy and Consulting.
According to Haas, consulting industry has been a big employer of Berkeley-Haas students graduates, with more than 25 percent of graduates typically going to work in the industry and most major consulting firms recruiting here, including Bain, The Boston Consulting Group, McKinsey & Company and LEK Consulting. Haas’s student-led Consulting Club also helps students build professional bonds with consulting firms, fostering connections that providing club members with the resources needed to succeed in the recruiting process.
Lucas Graduate School of Business – San Jose State University
San José State University is the oldest public school of higher education in the state. The College of Business was established in 1928, and in 1949 the Master’s Degree in Business Education was introduced. The school offers a full-time MBA program— available in both the conventional two-year and accelerated one-year format—as well as a part-time and the MBA For Professional program.
One MBA course at Lucas is Strategic Management in the Computer Industry, an online course that focuses on the industry-specific strategic challenges faced by companies that comprise the sector that is preeminent in the Information Age.
Stanford University Graduate School of Business
Founded in 1925 at the request of future U.S. President and Stanford alum Herbert Hoover, the Stanford Graduate School of Business was designed as a west coast alternative to eastern business schools. Now one of the premier institutions in the country, Stanford only offers a full-time, two-year residential MBA program. In the second year of the MBA Program, take mostly electives. One possible elective class students may take is Strategic Management.
UC Davis Graduate School of Management
University of California–Davis, one of 10 schools in the University of California system, was originally established as a farm school for UC – Berkeley. It offers a full-time, traditional MBA, as well as a part-time MBA for working professionals provided in both Sacramento and San Francisco.
Among the various concentrations for the full-time program is strategy. According to the school, this concentration provides a systematic analysis of the factors associated with customers and competitors (the external environment) and the organization itself (the internal environment) to provide a basis for rethinking the current management practices.