Consulting Placements at Rotman

hope this response doesn't come too late. I'm a 2016 grad who was heavily involved with the mca at rotman, so I might have some insights to share. also, rotman admin doesn't know who I am, so I am not censoring my responses (yes, I refuse to tell them my identify even if they keep asking me).

re: career services
first, career services at rotman is great! that's if you take advantage of it. and unfortunately, not everyone does and they complain. when I was there I saw my career coach a few times a month, honing my interview skills and the my stories, my elevator pitch, etc. and not just the coach, but I took advantage of resume and cover letter reviews from other coaches too. again, they're awesome if you take advantage of it.

second, rotman is a finance/consulting school, so you'll see them heavily focusing on those two tracks. Gil Panuncialman is the consulting industry lead at the career centre, and he does a phenomenal job. you will not see any of the big firms not coming to rotman. if you're only looking at consulting, the notion that career services is weak is false.

re: consulting jobs primarily for Canadians
I'd say this is false. what a more accurate statement would be: consulting jobs are geared towards those who can identify with western business cultures. two of my closest friends at school were international students. they both landed at top tier firms. again, they were able to identify and fit in with western business cultures than most. their English skills were also better than most, and this would be important as consulting is heavy on communications.

consulting firms also value international experience. you'd be better off having worked all over Europe or asia than just Canada.

that being said, there are firms who specifically do not hire internationals, and this is strictly because they don't want to deal with visas. just because you're guaranteed a work permit to work in Canada does not mean they want to sponsor you for a visa to do consulting work in the states. firms like Accenture or trindent avoid internationals strictly because of paperwork. so yes, unfortunately, your options are more limited.

re: mbb don't hire internationals
false. again, two of my closest friends were international and they're at top tier firms right now. consulting firms look for cultural fit. business acumen is assumed to be trained at rotman. consulting skills is something they'll train you for. cultural fit cannot be trained, so they look for those who fit in already. unfortunately because of the cultural differences between Canada and internationally, most people don't get this and just blame it on the fact that they're international, which is a false notion.

hope that helps.