Can consulting firm diversity networks be leveraged while applying?

The email below came to me from a reader who was the subject of a recent blog entry about her pursuit of McKinsey. As a reminder, this reader is currently a medical school student at the University of Chicago and, instead of going into residency post-graduation, she wants to pursue management consulting as a career path. This time around, she’s asking for some advice about whether diversity networks can be leveraged during the application process.

As she did in her first message, she hit me with several questions and, after the number of questions from the first email, I thought about not responding, which is what I’ve done in past situations like this. In this case, she asked some pretty good questions that I don’t remember having been asked before. As you’ll see below, I made sure to communicate that this response was the last one that I’d be able to send to her…

—–
FA wrote:

Hi Marquis,

My name is “FA”. I was the PK who sent you a bunch of questions a few weeks ago. Thanks again for all your help. As an update, I did take your advice and do some networking at my school, and was able to contact an alumni who agreed to send my resume along to a recruiter at McKinsey. I am still waiting to hear back from the recruiter. In the meantime I would like to speak with some other consultants at McKinsey and other firms to get a better idea of what the job is like and also to hopefully get some help with case interview prep over the summer.

My question is specifically about the diversity networks available at the MBB firms. Do they play a significant role in recruiting or are they primarily used for career development for those hired and working within the firm? How have you seen people successfully utilize these networks while in the application phase? Can I e-mail the network with a direct request of an informational interview/help with case prep and expect an answer?

—–
My response:

Hi FA,

It sounds like you’ve made a lot of progress since our last email exchange. I’m glad that you’ve been able make connections through your alumni network to get better plugged in for recruiting purposes. That’s a big win for you on the road to McK and its peer firms.

To be honest, I usually don’t respond to emails from people who have hit me up before, especially when the first email had several questions and the second email has several more questions. Given the number of emails that I get, in general, it just isn’t fair for me to devote the time required to answer a bunch of questions for a single person. Fortunately for you, your questions here are ones that I think might be useful to others in a blog post, so I’ll answer them. But, after this, I wont be able to cover any others.

Here are my answers to your questions:

1. Do they play a significant role in recruiting or are they primarily used for career development for those hired and working within the firm?

   At most firms, the answer to your question is both. The biggest role that these diversity networks play is to support current employees with their career development, networking, and community interactions. My guess is that this is the primary charter for these kinds of orgs within the consulting firms. In addition to that colleague support role, most diversity networks provide support in the recruiting processes at varying degrees, depending on the company. Because the practices are so different between the firms, it is difficult to give you more of a hard and fast rule on it.

2. How have you seen people successfully utilize these networks while in the application phase?

   I have seen many people successfully use these networks in the application phase, but the key is that they did it during the standard recruiting cycle for campus recruiting. Often, the diversity affinity groups will proactively reach out to applicable candidates from the potential campus application pool to provide information about their firms. Also, some companies will conduct focused informational events for candidates from diverse backgrounds, which can be a great way for folks to actively get plugged in with the networks of Consultants within those firms. There have been times when I’ve heard of experienced hire candidates doing this too, but I don’t know too much about the details behind those situations.

3. Can I e-mail the network with a direct request of an informational interview/help with case prep and expect an answer?

   I think the answer to this varies by firm, so it is difficult to give an answer that will cover all cases. Most of the larger firms have sections on their website devoted to diversity recruiting and/or diverse affinity groups. From what I’ve seen, there are often email addresses available to allow interested candidates to ask questions and, if you contact them with general questions, I’m pretty sure that you’ll get a response. On the other hand, if you email them asking for someone to do practice cases with you, I don’t know if they’d be able to make that connection for you. The Management Consultants whose time that you’d be requesting usually don’t have much free time for their own personal lives, much less having time to do mock cases with folks that they don’t know. If you were to make your request during the standard on-campus recruiting cycle, you might get lucky, but, if not, your best bet is to rely on case prep resources available to you on the University of Chicago campus.

Hope this helps. Have a nice weekend.

Marquis