Advice to a lawyer who is making the B-school vs. consulting decision

The following email is from a young lady who is currently a practicing attorney that is interested in switching careers over to consulting. In addition to making this switch, she’d also like to get an MBA. After exchanging several emails with her, it came out that she’s interested in both, but doesn’t really know the right way to sequence them so I’ve been trying to give her advice on that choice. After going to law school and passing the New York Bar on her first try, I can only imagine the sort of strain the prospect of leaving law as a career must be putting her mind through…

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G.A. wrote:

Hey Marquis:

Man – when do you have the time to write everyone emails back, to update your blog, write essays, and do your job and everything else? Wow!

Anyway, I think you should open your own consulting business — you just have a great way with helping others — that is where it is — well, I guess – at the rate you are going – you can be CEO of your Tech company, and set up your own consulting business to help people applying to schools, etc.

My mission – somehow, someway, make you my mentor — I’m really wanting to apply to B school – but I know that I’m not ready for Round I – I want to really prepare for the GMATs and given that I haven’t taken a math course in 7 years, etc., I think I should practice – a lot.

Well, I was thinking going into consulting (if I get a chance) and then work there for 2 years or so, go to B-School, and then return to the Biz world.

Another question – why did you get the M. in Ed.? (So, you were at Stanford for 3 years?)

“G.A.”

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My response:


G.A,

Lol! I have no idea how I find time to do all the things I do, but I just make it all work out. For as long as I can remember I’ve been running at 150% capacity trying to chase my own dreams and, in the meantime, I’ve developed a liking of helping others chase theirs too. As long as I can handle it, I’m going to keep on doing what I can to have an impact on people.

You’ve got a heck of a dilemma on your hands, but I might have a way for you to pursue them almost simultaneously. This would start with you studying for the GMAT anmd taking it by late summer or early Fall. I normally wouldn’t recommend that a person consider both Bschool and
applying to consulting at the same time, but your situation is unique. You’re already working as a lawyer, so there’s really no time table by which you would HAVE to make the transition over to consulting. As long as you can keep on doing law, you can buy yourself time on the consulting side. And, it sounds like you really want to apply for business school and having a JD already will be an asset in that regard.

So, let me get back to the GMAT…you’d take the time to study and then take the test in the next few months. Once you get a score you’re cool with, you would start figuring out what schools you’re interested with the goal of applying for round 2. Upon finishing your apps, you’ll be waiting to hear from the schools and, in that time, you can start reaching out to consulting firms to express your interest in a transition. During that application process, you will make it known that you’ve taken the GMAT and (hopefully) your strong score will show that you can handle the intellectual rigor of a career in consulting. By the time you start getting your consulting apps submitted and interviews scheduled, you’ll begin to hear from your Bschools and can decide if you want to matriculate immediately or defer so you can start a consulting job (provided you get some offers). If you choose to start Bschool, you can inform the consulting firms that you’ve contacted about your choice but let them know that you’re still interested in the industry. Then, you would maintain those relationships and reapply to the firms when you’re going after your MBA summer internship. Having already explored the consulting interview process earlier, you’ll be even more prepared for those internship interviews and you’ll be in a good position. Basically, you could pursue both options and acheive both in due time.

And, on the M.Ed degree, Stanford has a joint degree program that allows you to get it along with the MBA in only two years. I didn’t find out about the program until I got on campus and decided to do it because I have an interest in education. I have some non-profit aspirations for the future that involve reaching out to kids in small rural towns and making them believe that higher education can be an option for them, so getting the background in education made sense. I had to take a bunch of extra classes to do it, but it was worth it to finish up with the extra degree…plus it didn’t require any cost on my part, which also made it an attractive thing to pursue.