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Financial services professional looking to lateral into management consulting

by | Feb 27, 2015 | Business, career, consulting, Investment banking, management consulting, transition | 0 comments

In this entry, I’ve tackled a question from a pre-MBA investment banker who wants to transition over to management consulting (preferrably into McKinsey, Bain, or BCG).

Based on her undergrad school and her current employer, she likely has several avenues to get plugged into those companies, but, like many people, I guessed that she didn’t know the power of her own network in this regard.

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MZ wrote:

Hi Marquis,

I found your email through your website. I am currently a financial services professional looking to break into management consulting (ideally MBB) and was wondering if you had any advice for how to break in without going for an MBA. I have 2.5 years of experience at Morgan Stanley in equity research / research management in NYC, graduated summa cum laude at NYU, but do not have many contacts in the consulting world. I know I would be a great fit for the lifestyle and the day-to-day if given the opportunity, and it fits with my long term goals (to be a business thought leader / CEO). Do you know of anyone who I could connect with?

Thanks for your help.

Best, MZ

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My response:

Hi MZ,

I hope this message finds you well. Thanks for reaching out with your questions.

Over the years, I’ve written dozens (maybe even hundreds) of blog entries providing advice on how to break into the management consulting industry and many of those entries were focused on people who were trying to transition from financial services into consulting. Instead of diving deep on typing out a bunch of advice here, I’d recommend that you go to my blog and read through my archived entries to find the advice that I’ve already given to people. That would be the most efficient way to go here and you’d likely find answers to questions that you hadn’t thought to ask at this point.

Here are a few high-level thoughts that I’ll offer in addition to what you’ll find by looking through my past blog entries:

  • You stated that you don’t have many contacts in the consulting world, but you’d be surprised at how many contacts that you can uncover if you work your networks. You’re an NYU grad working at Morgan Stanley, so I’m POSITIVE that there are people in your networks (either NYU alums or former Morgan Stanley people) working at all of the MBB firms. You just need to find them. I’d recommend starting with the NYU Career Services office and asking them to pass along the names of alums who might be working at your target firms. From there, look up their contact information on the NYU alumni website and send out some exploratory emails. Some folks might not reply, but the few that do will probably be willing to have a phone call at a minimum. You can take a similar approach when it comes to Morgan Stanley folks, assuming that there is some sort of website for alums of that company. If there isn’t a website with that information, then you might want to try some targeted LinkedIn searching.

  • It may take a little while to get yourself in line for an interview, but, in the meantime, you should start preparing for the consulting case interview, which is the most important part of the process for the MBB firms. There are several case prep books that you can buy, so the choice is yours. I had a lot of success with “Case in Point” by Mark Consentino when I was going through the process in business school. “Crack the Case” by David Ohrvall is also a good one to check out.

  • In most major cities, there are young professionals groups that hold happy hours and mixers on a periodic basis. Find a few of those groups in your city and start going to their events. I’ve found that many management consultants attend those types of gatherings because they usually happen on Thursdays or Fridays and offer a chance to socialize with a lot of people, which is key when one is usually traveling from Monday to Thursday night. I’m pretty sure that you’d be able to meet a lot of consulting folks at those events and those people could turn out to be strong connections for you as you try to get plugged into that industry.

When it comes to me connecting you with people within the firms, that would pretty much be a non-starter because I don’t know you personally. You’re probably a really nice person, but I’ve run into several past instances where I made those kinds of introductions and ended up burned in the end. My recommendation would be to work your networks as described above and, eventually, you’ll get plugged in with the right people.

Take care and have a great day.

Marquis