Seems like you've already thought through some of the differences between the programs and how it'll affect your career moving forward. I will say that all 3 programs are excellent and I think that your ability to get a top consulting job will mostly depend on you and your efforts, not necessarily the school. The school is there to help provide you with the environment and the education to be successful at those firms. Will your attendance at one of those schools decrease your chances of getting into a consulting position? Probably not. Here's a excerpt from some advice I read recently from an alum of an M7:
Quote:
1. M7 does not equal MBB, and does not even equal 2nd tier firm
I was amazed by the number of people who walked into recruiting assuming they would get an offer. In reality, only about 40% of people who seriously recruited for consulting got 1st year offers, and my understanding is that this number is fairly consistent across the M7. Interviewing is a bloodbath, no other way to put it. Lots of people do NOT get offers. I saw lots of people who didn't adequately prep for interviews and they ended up without offers. That said, the people I saw who really treated the recruiting process seriously generally got offers.
2. You (generally) don't have to network to get an interview, but you need to network to get an offer
The percentage of applicants who get interviews is between roughly 65-80% depending on the firm. The vast majority of people who attend one or two events, email a consultant, etc got interviews. Of course, people with weaker resumes had to network more aggressively, so if you are on the fence, keep that in mind. That said, everyone I saw who got offers in my city were very well networked with the firm and had built solid relationships with multiple consultants. Don't skip networking with 2nd tier firms either, I didn't get a 2nd tier interview that I really should have gotten due to insufficient networking. While this would be speculation, my guess is that networking is used as a pretty easy tiebreaker in interviews. Also, it gives you something to talk about during your fit interviews.
3. You don't get a ton of exposure to firms on campus, so you do need to be proactive
I had always assumed that firms would hold lots of events to get to know consultants, after all, we're a top supplier of consultants to each firm. This is not the case at all. Only 1 firm did a city-specific dinner, and one other firm did a brief, city-specific reception (probably all of an hour long). Other than that, we just had a coffee chat and a company info session. Each firm did a case prep session, but don't count on these for networking as there will be 100+ students and 2-3 consultants from whichever random city they decided to fly people in from.. Don't just rely on these events, reach out to consultants with similar professional backgrounds, practice areas you are interested in, etc. It's not a bad idea to reach out before recruiting starts either, though make sure you are ready to ask and answer good questions.
So with all of this in mind, choose the school that you think will give you the best all around experience and will yield the best ROI of both your money and time.
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26 Mar 2016, 15:46
