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Question from an attorney trying to break into management consulting

by | Jun 28, 2013 | Business, career, career path, consulting, international business, management consulting, professional advice, recruiting | 0 comments

The email below came to me from a reader who currently works as an attorney and wants to transition into the management consulting industry. As opposed to attempting an immediate “seismic shift” in his career path, he’s decided to take a more measured approach and plans to spend up to a year making a smooth transition, which would include getting another grad degree. He asked for my advice about how he should answer any questions that might arise from his desired career change.

As usual, it took me a while to send over a reply, but, hopefully, he’ll think that it was worth the wait. Check out my response below to see the advice that I gave him…

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SE wrote:

Dear Sir:

I just stumbled upon your blog/article. I have decided to follow the path of a consulting career and I’m determined to succeed when I break in. I am an attorney with 3 years experience as a litigator in a top 100 big law. firm I have decided to go back to school for my masters in finance then change careers into consulting. I am eyeing a program which will take 10 -12 months to complete (some of my law school classes will be credited). My main focus is on companies which are international-based since I was born and raised overseas (Africa). How should I go about answering questions about my career change? Any other advice you can offer is highly appreciated. Thanks!

SE

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My response:

Hi SE,

I hope this message finds you well. You may not even remember sending the email below to me because it’s been so long since you reached out, but I appreciate you looking at me as a resource for your query. Unfortunately, due to the number of emails that I receive and my crazy schedule, it often takes me a while to respond to messages. I hope you understand and, furthermore, I hope this message gets to you in time for it to be helpful as you consider your transition.

I’ve been contacted by several people in the past who aspire to make transitions into management consulting and the question of answering questions about such a move is a common one. Over the years, I’ve written several entries providing advice to people from a range of backgrounds on this topic, so I’d recommend that you read through my archived entries to get a sense for general themes that could be helpful.

As an attorney, your situation is a little different than most of the other folks who’ve contacted me in the past, so I’d like to dig into it a little more here. Although you only asked one question in your email, I am actually seeing a couple of underlying questions that should be addressed:

  1. Why don’t you want to be an attorney anymore? –> This is a tough question and it is one that you will have to figure out for yourself, but I do have some thoughts on it. After having spent 3 years in law school and another 3 years as a lawyer, it may seem strange for you to want to go back to grad school and then walk away from law altogether. I’ve always found that a good way to explain job transitions is to focus on a desire to have impact in some way and how the current role doesn’t allow you to maximize your desired impact. For example, in your case, you might say that, given your international background in having grown up abroad, you want to drive impact in other countries, which is limited by your current role as an attorney in the US. The business world could offer you many more avenues to impact people and, as such, this feels like the right time for you to make a move. Again, this is a question that you have to answer for yourself, but I’ve just tossed that out as an idea.

  2. Why do you want to go into consulting? –> This is probably the easier of the two questions. After answering the first question, you will have made a case for why a transition from law over to business makes sense to you. Here, you’d probably want to focus on how management consulting is a fantastic foundation for a career in business, as it exposes people to a range of top-of-mind business challenges across varied industry and organizational environments. As a Consultant, you’ll be able to build expertise in a given area through work with different clients and, since your interest is in international business, the role could help you to gain cross-border experience that will be valuable once you are ready to transition into a corporate environment. Based on what I saw from your email, a move into management consulting would be a great fit for your career interests…definitely much more so than your current job as a litigator.

Once you’re able to come up with a concrete story for each of the above questions, you’ll be much better equipped to handle any career transition queries that might come your way during the recruiting process with management consulting firms.

I hope this email has given you some helpful food for thought as you consider your desired transition…even if it is coming over a year after your original email to me. Good luck!

Marquis