MBA Admissions Consultant
Joined: 26 Dec 2008
Posts: 2457
Given Kudos: 2
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Re: Consulting recruitment at Business School
[#permalink]
03 Jul 2010, 11:45
Recruiting for specific offices has less to do with school, and more to do with the candidate's own preferences and the firm's needs.
While regional preferences are unofficially discussed during the interview/recruiting process, the real decision making for the most part won't happen until you're basically close to getting an offer from the firm.
In short, for the most part you have to get the offer first before you can discuss regional offices in any substantive way.
Traditionally, the Bay Area offices for all the major consulting firms are the hardest to get into no matter which school you go to - it's simply a matter of supply and demand. A lot more people from ALL schools who go through the consulting recruiting process want to go to the Bay Area than there are spots. As such, it really comes down to an individual case-by-case basis - a combination of your pre-MBA experience (and whether it happens to match the kind of work/industry they're working on at that moment), and the political process of schmoozing (i.e. getting the people in those offices to really like you and pick you - which has everything to do with you the individual and not the school).
The small regional offices tend to be the easiest to get into -- Cleveland, Dallas, Houston, St Louis, Pittsburgh, Philly, etc. NYC typically has the largest headcount (and therefore the highest turnover) so they need the most bodies, and where a lot of consultants end up getting placed if one isn't focused on the regional offices. Chicago, Boston and LA are fine assuming you get through the interview process and you get an offer from the firm (i.e. if after you get the offer and you want to be based in Chicago, Boston or LA, you have a reasonable shot of getting it).