The Not-So-Secret Way To Land a Job at EY-Parthenon
After the hard work and sweat of earning an MBA degree, you’ve probably thrown yourself into searching for the perfect job to match your new found expertise. Luckily, some of the world’s top companies are also looking for you.
Companies like EY-Parthenon are always looking to recruit top MBA talent seeking careers in strategy consulting. A division of Boston-based EY (formerly Ernst & Young), one of the world’s top professional services firms, EY-Parthenon is a strategy consultancy which aims to combine innovative thinking with clients’ smarts to create actionable strategies that can cause a real impact in today’s business world.
MBAs Love EY-Parthenon
For MBA graduates looking for a career in strategy consulting, there are few places that can provide the unique combination of diverse clients and rewarding entrepreneurial work that EY-Parthenon offers. Comments from Parthenon’s MBA-holding consultants on why they love their job range from the incredible relationships they get to build with clients to the competitive benefits package they receive (including a night at the EY suite at Yankee Stadium).
“There is certainly an attitude in the New York office that we work hard but ensure that we find that balance necessary to enjoy the great benefits of working with wonderful colleagues in the best city in the world,” commented a graduate of NYU’s Stern School of Business and current Senior Consultant at EY-Parthenon.
For Adam, a graduate of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and current Vice President at the Shanghai office of EY-Parthenon, working at the company has given him the opportunity to use his industry specific expertise to benefit a diverse set of clients.
“[A]t any given time, I may be leading a two-week diligence for a private equity client while also working on an eight-week corporate strategy engagement,” he says. “Having such a variety of engagements while still being able to be focused on very strategic work within a single sector practice is what I think sets EY-Parthenon apart.”
Life at EY Parthenon
As a consultant at EY-Parthenon, MBAs will play a critical leadership role in the company. Serving as the primary contact for clients, MBA graduates will have the chance to get their hands dirty right away, developing and executing work plans for a diverse client set. Consultants will use their knowledge of teamwork, leadership, analytics and communications to excel in the role.
The consultant career track at EY-Parthenon consists of various phases, beginning with work stream leadership—a focus on gaining the crucial analytical skills needed to best help clients—and ending with client management, the final stage before moving into a role as a partner or managing director. EY-Parthenon accelerates individuals through their careers and have no official timetable for new consultants outside of their own ambition and ability to take on responsibilities.
According to anonymous profiles on Glassdoor, consultants at EY-Parthenon make an average of $173,814 annually.
Landing The Job
Anyone can apply for a consultant role at EY-Parthenon, but the company also actively recruits at a number of undergraduate and graduate business schools. The MBA programs the company recruits from are spread throughout the world, and include some of the United States’ top programs, such as Harvard Business School, Kellogg School of Management, and the Stanford Graduate School of Business. The company also heavily recruits at international schools like INSEAD and the London Business School.
MBA students in their second year may apply directly for a full-time consultant role with the company, and first year students are eligible to apply for the summer consultant position. Any student attending a school that EY-Parthenon directly recruits from should check for the specific instructions on how to apply to these roles, typically through their university’s career services. The interview process for these schools typically takes place over two rounds, with the first round taking place on campus and second round interviews at the one of the various global Parthenon offices.
For more information on the company and job opportunities for current MBA students and graduates, check out the official EY-Parthenon MBA job page.
Ivey EMBA Alum Linda Hasenfratz Named Business Leader of the Year
EMBA alum Linda Hasenfratz from the Ivey Business School at Western University Canada was recently announced as the winner of this year’s Ivey Business Leader of the Year award.
Industry Expert Ellen Terry Helps to Shape Analytics Program at Houston Bauer
Ellen Terry, a lecturer at the University of Houston – C.T. Bauer College of Business is bringing her years of analytics experience into the classroom to help students—and the university—prepare for changing industry needs.
According to a 2016 report from the McKinsey Global Institute, one of the biggest challenges to integrating data and analytics into their operations is simply finding the right person for the job. Bauer decided to respond to the ever-growing need for talent in the analytics field, making expansions to their program and following guidance from industry experts like Terry.
Ellen Terry, who currently serves as a lecturer in Bauer’s Department of Accountancy & Taxation, brings her many years of experience to help Bauer shape a new program that can address the growing needs of the industry. She is a former vice president in the Data Science Group at JPMorgan chase, also having served for more than a decade at Microsoft. Working alongside Kaye Newberry, Professor and Department Chair, and Michael Newman, a clinical professor and Director of Accounting Programs, Terry has played a key role in developing new graduate level advanced analytics courses at the university.
“We decided to start with the end game,” Terry said. “What competencies do students need when they start with a company and get the opportunity to apply data science on the job? At JPMorgan, I had a good view of incoming capabilities … the biggest challenge I saw was the ability to comprehend holistic business architectures and integrate the intelligence pieces.”
In addition to addressing these challenges through coursework, students will also have the chance to work with Big Four accounting firms like KPMG and Ernst & Young. The application of analytics training, however, Terry believes, will be applicable to many fields even outside of accounting. “I can’t think of many job markets that won’t be impacted,” she said “It’s already happening with the big companies: banks, accounting firms, manufacturers, governments … are all busy transforming.”
Despite the coming changes in various markets and industries, Terry has no concerns about what’s to come. “I’d like to say this to the students,” she said. “You are very lucky to be living in this era—the future is going to be amazing!”
3 Leadership Lessons from Ivey’s MBA Leadership Day
At Western University Canada’s Ivey Business School, leadership is a regular part of the curriculum. In fact, part of Ivey’s mission is to equip its MBA students to become global leaders. In the context of this mandate, each year the Ian O. Ihnatowycz Institute for Leadership hosts an MBA Leadership Day. This year, the class of 2018 heard from four, senior Canadian leadership in a conference setting. The event also included a panel discussion, a LIVE case, and a keynote presentation.
The Speakers
- Barbara Stymiest: former Executive Vice-President & Chief Financial Officer at BMO Nesbitt Burns, Chief Executive Officer at the TSX Group and current board member of several public companies including Blackberry Ltd., George Weston Limited, and Sun Life Financial Inc.
- Michael Rolland: Chief Investment Officer at OMERS Private Equity
- Jon Hantho: Chairman of the Board at Life Labs, former Chief Executive Officer at Maxxam
- Linda Hasenfratz: Chief Executive Officer at Linamar
Beckie Thain-Blonk, an ’18 MBA candidate at Ivey, was one of the students in attendance at the event. In a recent blog post, she shared her three key leadership takeaways: humility, listening, and selflessness.
Humility
Through the case discussion, attendees learned about how important it is to be endeared to your team. No matter if you have good intentions or not, if you don’t take the time to build relationships up front and listen to your team’s feedback, you’ll lose sight of the real goal.
“Building relationships requires active listening and a healthy dose of humility,” Thain-Blonk noted. “The lesson was very clear: remember that relationship skills and humility are important in both the highs and lows of your career.”
Listening
The second lesson for Thain-Blonk came during the panel discussion when Barbara Stymiest talked about being a manager and earning her first board chair position at Ernst & Young. Drawing on examples from her career, Stymiest told attendees that the first leadership lesson she learned was to “listen first.”
“Stymiest emphasized the importance of a leader speaking last,” Thain-Blonk wrote. “She highlighted that, as a leader, if she spoke first, the room would orient around the direction she initially provided.”
Selflessness
The final lesson was learned throughout the entire event as each speaker agreed that “leaders focus on others.” They categorically stated that an individual only becomes a leader when they stop focusing inward and start focusing on others.
“A leader is not born when they become a CEO or are appointed to lead a team,” Thain-Blonk added. “Instead, a leader is defined by an ‘others orientation,’ and that can start today, regardless of who the individual is or what position they hold.”
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.
