England, UK Business Schools Nervously Ready for World Cup Semi-Final
For France, Belgium, and Croatia, the raw enthusiasm of making the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup is nearly impossible to measure. But if it were possible, it might be hard for either of those country’s to match the torrid energy that England is swelling in at the moment.
Top MBA Internship Opportunities in the London Metro
As a center for global commerce and business, London is one of the top cities in the world to earn an advance business degree and secure an MBA internship. Continue reading…
The Best Business Schools for Landing Top Consulting Jobs
Clear Admit recently explored which business schools help prepare MBAs the most for a career in consulting, which you can read below.
With starting salaries in the $140,000 to $150,000 range and a customary $25,000 signing bonus on top of that, it’s no wonder so many business school students target the prestige consulting firms known as the “MBB”—McKinsey & Company, Boston Consulting Group (BCG), and Bain & Company—as their post-MBA landing pads. That $170,000+ annual compensation package can quickly cut any MBA loan debt you may have taken on down to size.
Indeed, management consulting has been one of the most coveted career paths for fresh MBA grads for ages. And though the technology industry has in recent years been stealing some grads from the consulting industry’s traditional slice of the pie, the most recent MBA employment reports reveal that consulting is already making a comeback against tech at certain schools.
The opportunity to work with a range of clients comprised of many of the world’s most celebrated businesses across industries—tech included—is part of the appeal of consulting. In many ways, a top consulting gig allows MBA grads to continue their management education while getting paid for it—and further honing their skills and expertise by helping solve a wide variety of business challenges. And, not for nothing, breaking into the MBB is a highly competitive pursuit—one that almost assures that your colleagues will be smart, driven people you’ll get a lot out of working with.
Finally, where the top consulting firms are choosing to find their talent reflects on the quality of the education those schools’ students are getting. In many ways, the hiring practices of the MBB can serve as a gold star standard of sorts for MBA programs.
Elite Firms Hire Grads from Elite Business Schools
The crème de la crème of leading business school talent has headed toward the top consulting firms for decades—and performed well there—creating a virtuous circle of sorts in which the firms’ appetite for such talent only grows. And while this piece focuses on MBB, we should note that a host of other consulting firms—Deloitte, A.T. Kearney, Accenture, Strategy&, and Oliver Wyman among others—are also highly prized post-MBA destinations.
If you are looking to see which business schools send the greatest percentage of their graduates into consulting overall, don’t miss our September 2017 analysis of leading consulting industry feeder schools. Which schools top the list? And what stands out about how these schools successfully train students for careers in consulting?
Looking at Class of 2016 graduates, the University of Virginia’s Darden School led the pack, with 38 percent of its graduates heading into consulting. Columbia Business School was next, sending 35 percent, followed closely by Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, which sent 33 percent.
The 2017 employment reports, which have been released since our analysis last fall, show some shifts year over year. Darden tied with Emory’s Goizueta School of Business in terms of the percentage of Class of 2017 grads who headed into consulting, with each school sending 34 percent. Close on their heels were Columbia, Duke’s Fuqua School of Business, Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, and Dartmouth’s Tuck School. All four sent 33 percent of their most recent graduating class off to consulting firms.
2 Non-U.S. Schools Lead All Others in Consulting-Bound ’17 MBA Grads
But year after year, one thing remains the same. INSEAD, with campuses in France, Singapore, and Abu Dhabi, beats all leading U.S. business schools when it comes to consulting. INSEAD’s 2016 MBA employment report, detailing employment outcomes for December 2015 and July 2016 INSEAD grads, shows that 46 percent went into consulting. And the most recent figures reveal that almost a full half—49 percent—of the 1,029 students who completed the INSEAD MBA program in December 2016 and July 2017 chose to either enter or return to the consulting field.
We should note here that INSEAD is distinct from many other schools in that it includes sponsored students who are returning to their pre-MBA employers among its hiring stats. This is in contrast to many U.S. schools, where the reported number and percentage of students hired by sector and employer corresponds to those students actively seeking employment, excluding sponsored students. Of the 49 percent of INSEAD 2017 grads headed into consulting, 33 percent were new hires and the remaining 16 percent were returnees.
London Business School (LBS) was the runner-up for the Class of 2017, sending 41 percent of grads into consulting. This was a 6 percentage-point gain over the school’s previous class of MBA graduates. Like INSEAD, LBS’s reported sector designation and top employer information includes sponsored students, only its employment report does not disclose what percentage of the class those returning students represent.
Finding Your Dream MBA Career at Barclays
For over 300 years, Barclays has been one of the leading international banks for both consumer corporate investments. MBA candidates are drawn to Barclays not only for its stature in the global finance industry but also for the vast array of professional opportunities it offers. Within business banking, corporate banking, customer banking solutions, marketing, investment banking, and technology career paths, Barclays’ training, mentorship, networking, and travel opportunities are often unparalleled in the financial industry.
Barclays’ MBA Recruitment Program
At Barclays, one major key to continued growth and success consists of building strong interdisciplinary business networks. As part of Barclays’ ongoing development opportunities, the company maintains a robust campus recruiting system. Barclays makes a point to develop relationships with their future prospects as early as possible in their educational and professional careers.
For students pursuing an MBA, Barclays offers the MBA Ambition Diversity Program, a summer internship program dedicated to talented and motivated MBA candidates. Within the MBA Ambition Diversity Program, Barclays initially gives a candidate a “condensed version of our on-campus recruiting process during the summer before you start your MBA, culminating in interviews at our New York office.” Successful candidates will then be offered an internship position the following summer after the first year of business school is completed. Once a candidate has been accepted, Barclays offers a fellowship program that “provides $45,000 toward first-year tuition and academic expenses.”
Barclays prides itself in seeking out women, men, and non-binary individuals of all backgrounds to cultivate a diverse environment for employees to learn from one another. The idea is that this multifaceted workspace will help employees expand their cultural perspective as they embark on a career in global finance.
As of October 2017, Barclays has begun to offer free accommodation for graduates taking job interviews in London, Birmingham, and Manchester. This is for all graduates—not only Barclays applicants.
The Barclays Career
In 2016, Barclays’ head of banking associate recruitment, Kristi Robson, explained in an interview that MBAs are commonly hired into their banking division where Barclays has its largest intake. Banking interns and employees generally move into a product or coverage role within Equity Capital Markets or Technology, Media & Telecommunication, for example. Robson explains, “We do hire a small number of MBAs into our research business but this is dependent on business need.”
According to the 2017 WSO Investment Banking Industry Report, first-year analysts earn between $70,000 and $150,000 USD based on experience and by year three average between $120,000 and $350,000. “At the analyst level, it is not uncommon to work between 80 to 120-hour weeks at some firms. Most analysts start in the summer and receive their first investment banking analyst bonus around June or July, approximately one year after the analyst starts working. Analysts also often receive a signing bonus from $5,000 to $20,000, as well as a moving bonus if they are transferring laterally to a different bank.” For these reasons and more, Barclays strives to provide their candidates with every opportunity to grow professionally.
Education Opportunities
The following London MBA programs are reputable feeders for roles at Barclays. They are all remarkable schools for distinct reasons but each provides a formidable mix of business education and valuable alumni networks:
- Ashridge Executive Education
- Cass Business School – City University London
- Cranfield School of Management
- Henley Business School – University of Reading
- Imperial College Business School – Imperial College London
- Judge Business School – University of Cambridge
- London Business School
- Saïd Business School – University of Oxford
If you’re driven and wish to work for a large organization that still believes in “small-business”-style relationships and offers unique opportunities to develop business skill-sets and global perspectives, then Barclays could be the perfect fit.
London Business School Prof Warns of the Future for Tech Giants
Last year, tech giants such as Google, Amazon, and Facebook already started facing new regulations and pushback from government officials. For example, last November, the State of Missouri launched an investigation into Google to see if it had violated antitrust and consumer protection laws. Julian Birkinshaw, a professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at London Business School, thinks that’s only the beginning.
“The tech giants are huge beasts, and there is a growing sense of unease about their power,” Birkinshaw said in a news article on the school website. He went on to talk about various fines already levied against big tech firms such as Google, which was ordered to pay €2.4 billion last June for abusing its internet search monopoly to promote its online shopping service. Facebook, meanwhile, got slapped with a €110-million fine by the European Union for providing misleading information about its takeover of WhatsApp.
According to Birkinshaw, these examples are just the tip of the iceberg. “Over the coming year we can expect to see more of this aggressively activist approach in tackling companies with dominant positions,” he wrote.
What’s driving this more aggressive regulation? Birkinshaw believes it has to do with the old supplier-manufacturer-distributor-consumer model, which doesn’t fit these new tech giants. Antitrust legislation wasn’t designed to cope with tech companies whose profitability increases rapidly alongside its growth.
For example, Facebook has more than two billion active users, Google handles 42 percent of all U.S. digital advertising, and Amazon has all but eliminated would-be competitors. Birkinshaw sees no signs of these companies slowing down.
“The more people who join Facebook or use Google, the more data the company can mine. The economies of scale become ever greater,” Birkinshaw wrote. “So we need to rethink the way we monitor the power of the huge companies now dominating the business landscape.”
This article has been edited and republished with permissions from our sister site, Clear Admit.
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.
