Stanford Gsb Sees A Moderate Dip In 2018 Grads Choosing Consulting
Like HBS, Stanford Graduate School of Business does not disclose the number of students hired by individual recruiting firms. So, heres what we do know about the Palo Alto school: Of the most recent graduating class, 18 percent headed into the consulting industry, down from just 20 percent the year prior. Twenty-four percent took on a consulting function after graduation. Technology hires, meanwhile, jumped 8 percentage points to 33 percent. Finance lured 31 percent of the most recent GSB grads. In commenting on their employment results this year, Stanford highlighted, Stanford MBA students and graduates were hired by a record 421 organizations, a 40% jump from 8 years ago. A signal of the sheer breadth of Stanford GSB employers, 94% hired just 1 or 2 students.
The school does disclose salary data for the industry as a whole, specifically that the median base salary for consulting-bound grads was $151,400, with an additional median signing bonus of $25,000. These figures are on par with the HBS and Chicago Booth Classes of 2018, whose consulting grads averaged a $150,000 salary and $25,000 signing bonus, which suggest that the prestige consulting firms are also those hiring the lions share of GSB grads.
Sloan School Of Management Massachusetts Institute Of Technology
% Graduates in Consulting: 34.8%
Average Consulting Base Salary: $153,649
Average Signing Bonus: $29,382
Many of the MBA candidates at Sloan enter consulting upon completion of their degree. For the class of 2021-2022, the MBB firms were among the top employers with McKinsey hiring 30 individuals, BCG hiring 29, and Bain hiring 11. The schools curriculum is globally-focused, giving students an opportunity to study abroad and learn multicultural business practices. It also offers a finance track for MBA candidates who are planning to exit into a finance role.
First Lets Talk Industry
Industry is about the company you work for and what it does for instance, consumer packaged goods , oil & gas, and technology are three different industries. But theres some additional nuance to consider too:
- A lot of new, young companies work across multiple industries. Think of Uber, PayPal, or Airbnb those are all tech companies, but theyre also transportation, finance , and hospitality companies, respectively.
- Some big conglomerates work across industries as well, so youd want to be specific about which part of the company you want to work in for example, GE works across healthcare, consumer goods, and financial services.
- Consulting is often considered an industry, but within consulting you can specialize in serving clients from other industries, like retail, CPG, or technology this is important, because different firms and offices within firms will have different profiles of which industries they serve.
As youre narrowing down your target industry, be specific. Do you want to work at a technology company that makes a product, or at a retail company that sells the product? Or do you know you want to be at a company that does both, like Apple? What industries excite you? What industries do you read articles about? That can help you start narrowing down where you want to be.
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Join Clubs And Societies To Strengthen Mba Consulting Skills
Business school offers a great opportunity to get involved in socializing activities that can help to further your career.
For Xinyi, the PKU Guanghua MBA PitchClub, a club formed by two students, offered exactly that. The group creates a supportive space where MBAs can build negotiation, communication, and presentation skills outside the classroom.
Every week invited guest speakers to talk to us about how to present ourselves and become more confident, she says.
In Xinyis role as a business analyst, she regularly advises clients about complex business problems and presents her research findings to clients. She says that her experiences from the PitchClub have readily prepared her for a rigorous consulting career in Asia.
There’s never a dull moment in my role because I’m constantly learning new things, she adds.
Consulting Resume Cover Letter And Interview
Consulting selection process is usually preceded by presentations made by consulting firms for placement at various business schools.
Graduates get to network with the recruiters and follow it up with the application process. Cover letters, resume and interviews are the standard steps towards an offer letter.
But for consulting jobs, these can be dash more painful than other job applications. Heres why.
With a 1% chance of making it into the top consulting firms, the demand to supply ratio of deserving MBA applicants is extremely disproportionate. This becomes progressively better as you hit the top business schools.
To beat the odds you have to do all that is required to stay ahead in the game. Your resume, cover letter, interview preparation and overall inclination for the job itself can take you rest of the way well into the end zone.
Instead of getting into the details, which are in the articles linked below, we will walk you through some of the standard expectations to be consultancy worthy.
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Top 10 Mba Jobs In Abroad For International Students
If you have questions like After completing an MBA, what jobs can I get? or What can we study after an MBA in abroad? read on as here is a compilation of the best paying international jobs for MBA graduates, and what you can study to have the best shot at those jobs. However, note that post-MBA work opportunities never remain the same. Instead, they may vary depending on the candidates networking skills, interpersonal skills, global job market, and the prevailing economic conditions in the world.
Other Benefits Of Research
The consulting recruitment process is synergistic with the MBA admissions process, so whichever task you do first will benefit the other. If you are doing your research on the right firm for you and the various ins and outs of the consulting business, you might also find that you are already putting in the legwork for the career goals portion of your MBA application and essays.
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Total Placements Into Mbb: Conclusions
- INSEAD is the global leader in total post-MBA placements into jobs at MBB.
- HBS is the #1 US MBA program, followed closely by Kellogg, Wharton, and Booth. The strength of HBSs overall placement at MBB partly reflects the fact that HBS admits many sponsored MBB consultants. This is a strong performance by Kellogg and Booth considering that their class sizes are around smaller than those of HBS and Wharton.
- Several MBA programs not historically considered to be target schools for MBB have shown incredible growth from 2018 to 2020.
- NYU Stern increased by 40%
- Cornell increased by 155.56%
| 6.4% |
New Placements Into Mbb: Conclusions
- INSEAD is the global leader in new post-MBA placements into jobs at MBB.
- In the US, University of Chicago Booth is #1 and Northwestern Kellogg is #2. This has been a close race, with a tie between the two schools in 2019, and a Kellogg victory in 2018.
- Kellogg, Tuck and Booth are the top three schools by % of the student body being placed into MBB for the first time, far ahead of the competition.
- HBS and Stanford were #1 and #2 in terms of new MBB placements as a % of all new consulting placements. MIT Sloan was a strong #3 on this metric, with 86% of all new consulting placements being at MBB specifically, which was higher than Whartons 78%.
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What Mckinsey Is Looking For In Its Mba Hires
Sydney Lake
Consulting is one of the most popular careers for recent MBA graduates. In fact, top business school programs in 2021 sent between 16% and 36% of their graduating MBA classes to work in the consulting industry, according to data from ClearAdmit, a website that provides resources for aspiring and current business school students, including admissions advice and information about MBA programs.
Not only is consulting one of the most sought after career pathsits also one of the most lucrative for MBA graduates. Top consulting firms, including McKinsey & Co., Bain & Co., and Boston Consulting Group shell out $175,000 starting base salaries for MBA grads, according to Management Consulted, a company that offers prep and training for professionals entering the industry. Plus, these MBA alums are raking in major signing and performance bonuses that can total approximately $75,000.
While attending a top-ranked MBA program can certainly give candidates a leg up, theres no guarantee of landing a job at one of the elite consulting firms. Fortune sat down with Adriana Crespo, McKinseys manager of recruiting operations, to find out more about the companys recruiting process for MBA hiresand what it takes to make the cut.
The following interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
How To Become A Consultant
Though an MBA is not essential to a consulting career and some have been known to make it in either straight out of school or with a few years of work experience in a related sector, as one of the stories shared in the link below, MBA still does provide one of the most standard paths towards a consulting career. As experts put it, an MBA degree is a silver bullet to help you land a job at a top consulting firm.
The best consulting jobs on the campus go to MBA graduates from the top ranked business schools. If you havent worked in the consulting industry before your MBA, a career change can be a big challenge.
There are a few business schools that can increase your chances of becoming a consultant, even if you werent already one before the MBA. These are the hot-spots for getting consulting jobs that pay high post MBA salaries.
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Tuck School Of Business Dartmouth College
% Graduates in Consulting: 36%
Average Consulting Base Salary: $158,353
Average Signing Bonus: $30,000
The oldest business school, Tucks graduates are not only known as team players but team leaders as well. Each student is required to come up with a personal leadership development program. They only admit 250 students per year, one reason for the collaborative and tight-knit atmosphere of the program. The school offers many relevant elective courses like Client Project Management, Advanced Competitive Strategy, OnSite Global Consulting, and FinTech Topics, among others.
Median Consulting Base Salary: $165,000
Median Signing Bonus: $30,000
Located close to Wall Street, Columbia Business School is known for its academic excellence and relationships with the finance industry. Its graduates are known for their strong quantitative skills, which are the backbone of many consulting jobs. The school also offers an opportunity to focus on Decision & Risk Analysis, which includes coursework designed to provide an excellent foundation for a career in consulting. Classes in this focus include security pricing, risk management, and supply chain management, among others.
More details can be found at Columbia Business School MBA Program & Application Overview.
Beyond Mbb: Choosing The Best Mba For Consulting
Now that weve looked at which schools send the most students to the elite consulting firms, we wanted to explore, in detail, three schools and the offerings these schools have for candidates seeking consulting careers. The three schools we have chosen, Darden, Kellogg, and INSEAD, send the highest proportion of their students into consulting, two of the schools, INSEAD and Kellogg, were highlighted earlier as feeders to MBB consulting.
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Intense Work Schedules + Motivated Colleagues
Consulting involves long hours and stressful work. It can be a grueling schedule. It is not unusual to stay at work until two in the morning. And the hours can be quite volatile. You might leave at 4am on one day, only to arrive at 9am the next morning. The positive side of this is that you will form intense relationships with your colleagues. The hours may be variable and long, but they will be spent in great company.
What Are Some Crucial Skills That You Acquired Through Your Mba Program
My MBA taught me how to make decisions without all the data and build the confidence to pivot as new information became available. I learned how to present my ideas in a compelling and succinct way and to speak up. Working in teams successfully is also an important skill I had to master in my program as much of business requires motivating and inspiring others toward a common goal.
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Mit Sloan School Of Management
The program earning the bronze medal spot for a consulting career is the full-time MBA at MIT Sloan School of Management. The school received high scores across the board and a near-perfect score for employer reputation. Almost 31 percent of MIT Sloan MBAs landed jobs in consulting upon graduation.
Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the 24-month program has tuition fees of US$192,115. Sloans Career Development Office has extensive resources to help students with their job search.
What Was The Job Search Like After Completing Your Mba
I interviewed on campus and, because I had done a summer internship between my first and second year, I was fortunate to get an offer from them for after graduation so I could really focus my job search on finding the best fit for me and my interests. There was a recession in the early ’90s when I graduated so I ended up deciding my offer from the summer was, in fact, the best opportunity, so I took the job.
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What Is The Outlook For Consulting Management Careers
Management consultants are employed to investigate methods to enhance a companys efficiency and revenues. Management consultants gather and assess information about a companys operations before making recommendations for cost-cutting or revenue-boosting adjustments. Consultants frequently provide their advice in the form of a written report and oral communication, which can aid in implementing their recommendations.
Hundreds of eager college grads and seasoned industry veterans are looking forward to and concerned about the management consulting employment prospects for 2021. For a decade, the consulting employment market has been gradually increasing year after year.
With each passing year, the employment market grew stronger. This is partly due to the success of the management consulting business as a whole, which had risen to $160 billion in global revenue by 2019.
Between 2018 and 2028, the Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts a 13.5% increase in jobs for management consultants. During that time, an estimated 99,900 positions should become available. In 2019, the average salary for management consultants was $85,260. The top 25 percent earned $113,770, while the bottom 25 percent earned $64,060.
The management consulting sector now has a market capitalization of $250 billion. This vast, extremely profitable sector is still expanding internationally, with hotspots in the United Kingdom and the United States.
| State |
US Department of Labor Projections Central
Best Business School For Consulting #: London Business School
37% of the London Business Schools class of 2018 chose careers in the consulting industry. Graduates choosing careers in consulting received average salaries and sign-on bonuses of US $ 113,329 and 47,407 respectively. Graduates also received an average other guaranteed compensation of US$ 49,677.
The flexible curriculum at London Business School offers more than 20+ electives in Strategy. Several top consulting firms have dedicated teams to help and recruit students from LBS such as McKinsey & Company and Bain & Company.
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What Jobs Can I Get With An Mba In Consulting
Professionals holding a master’s in consulting pursue exciting careers in business and management. Many degree-holders hold roles as management consultants, project managers, strategy consultants, marketing managers, and various leadership or administrative positions. Some professionals find niche careers based on their specialties, such as healthcare or retail sales.
Student / Faculty Ratio For Mba Programs In Consulting
How much investment a university places on its instructors and the quality of education you may receive is based on the accessibility of your professors. Therefore, you need to examine the Student-Faculty Ratio before choosing a school for yourself. This way, you can understand whether or not you will receive the amount of attention you need to ace your courses and excel in your profession.
When there are more faculty members as compared to students, they can help students understand the core procedures of the field without issue. They can take the time to offer a fitting plan for each student. However, when students become a burden for teachers, they cannot offer as much time to the students.
Students researching a school should also look into the quality of its professors, not just the number of them, what kind of research do they do, where they have worked, and more. Similarly, the faculty/student ratio is a key indicator of how much energy and attention youll get from your professors in a campus MBA program. For an undergraduate accounting course, you could have been comfortable with sitting in the back of a huge lecture room.
The lowest student faculty ratio from a Consulting MBA program is 1:5 while the highest ratio is 699:50, and the average from all MBA programs is 33:10.
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Investment Banking Path: Best Business Schools For Leading Investment Banking Firms
Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan & Co., Morgan Stanley
We evaluated Linkedin alumni data for employment at top investment banking firms to determine which programs had the best career outcomes.
For MBA candidates seeking a position with a prestigious firm, the two best schools are located in the world’s financial capital New York City. NYC is also home to many leading investment firm headquarters, including the number one employer for all five MBA programs, Morgan Stanley.
