Admissionado
Joined: 30 Nov 2009
Posts: 9218
Given Kudos: 69
Location: Chicago, IL
Schools:Brown University, Harvard Business School
Re: Things to do before joining Sloan
[#permalink]
12 Nov 2019, 12:19
Have you been accepted to Sloan yet? If not, I’d focus on *that* -- put your best foot forward in the application to maximize your chance of acceptance. If you have already been accepted or if you gain acceptance R2, it would be a good idea to get ahead of the consulting recruiting if you have the capacity.
Reach out to friends/acquaintances/alums from your undergrad and ask them to “case” you. This is basically an interview where you are given a management consulting case and you have to work your way through it, showing your logic and problem solving ability in the absence of lots of data. You want to show that you can triangulate to an answer by using basic business concepts and your own creative ability. You can purchase “Crack the Case” online - the case studies in that book are a great way to prepare. The book is written so that even people who aren’t consultants can “case” you - you can meet up with a non-consultant friend and have them do it (although it’s best to get the “real” consulting experience from a current M/B/B alum or current employee if possible).
Another thing you can do to prepare for consulting case interviews is to reach out to the consulting point person at the Sloan career office (make sure that you are accepted before you do this). He/she may be able to point you to additional resources (such as officers for the schools consulting club, for instance) prior to your matriculation.
On a non-professional development front, I’d also try to take a little bit of time for yourself. If you can forgo the income, it might be nice to travel a bit before school starts, or go to the boston area early to scope out your new stomping grounds. Most people get great jobs that pay well after Sloan, and there will be plenty of time after you graduate to build wealth. The time you might be able to take before business school (for instance, 6 weeks between when your job ends and your school begins) may not appear in your career again before retirement.