In short, this reader was knocking on 50 years old and was interested in entering the management consulting industry. He had concerns about whether he’d missed his shot by not doing it earlier in his career and wanted my thoughts on the subject. Definitely one of the more interesting questions that I’ve received in a while…
Since it took me so long to reply to this guy’s email, I made sure to give him as thorough of a response as I could. Because it took so long for me to get back to him, I have no clue of whether my advice is even useful at this point. That said, I always try to send responses, so, even though this one is hella late, I wanted to make sure I sent something good.
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RL wrote:
Dear Marquis,
I’ve had what many would consider a very interesting professional life. After a six-year stint with the US Navy flying combat jet aircraft, I earned an MBA from Kenan-Flagler. Since then, I’ve spent 14 years with two Fortune 20 companies, growing immensely through meaningful assignments within the corporate finance, risk management, and internal audit functions.
My work and experience as an internal auditor during the last two years have awakened my deep desire to become a management consultant, preferably with a well-established firm. However, I turned 50 this year, and wonder whether I missed the boat. Although I would bring significant experience, a track of achievement, and proven technical proficiencies (I am a Certified Management Accountant, Certified Internal Auditor, and Certified in Risk Management Assurance), the perception that the top consulting firms only hire people in their late 20’s to mid 30’s is holding me back (slightly).
Should I go for it? What do you think are my prospects, and how can I improve my odds of getting the nod? BTW, I look younger than my age, and have what you might call professional presence. Your thoughts and advise are greatly appreciated.
Thank you very much for your time, and I wish you a great and happy new year!
RL
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My response:
RL,
I hope this message finds you well. I know that you may not recognize my name, but you emailed me about 20 months ago with a question about breaking into the management consulting industry.
Unfortunately, your email became buried in my inbox at the time and I’ve just now rediscovered it while go through older emails. I owe you a huge apology for taking so long to get back to you. I don’t know if this reply is even relevant or useful to you anymore, but I felt that I owed you the courtesy of a response since you took the time to reach out to me. If you’ve already figured your situation out by now, then please feel free to ignore this message.
Based on what you’ve told me about your work experience, I think you’d provide a lot of value to clients of consulting firms, but, as you stated, it can often be tough to get an in, especially as an experienced hire. It certainly isn’t an impossible feat, but it’s good that you recognize from the beginning that it isn’t exactly straight forward. That said, I do think it is worth you taking a swing at the plate and working hard to make sure that you connect for a home run…it’ll take some effort on your part, but I definitely think that it is possible.
Instead of giving you a long drawn-out, stream-of-consciousness block of text, I think it would be best for me to structure things by major topics that you should consider as you formulate your plan.
- The age factor:
In your email, you stated a belief/concern that consulting firms only recruit candidates who are in their late 20s and early 30s. I’d say that, while it is true that the majority of post-grad school candidates do fall into that age group, consulting firms do give consideration to more experienced professionals who are older than that age range. It doesn’t happen at all firms and in all geographies or practices, but I have seen several examples of it over the years (more on this below).The key here is for you to not go into the process assuming that you’re at a disadvantage because of your age. You have something going for you that the younger candidates don’t have…your decades of relevant work experience and your wide-ranging functional and industry expertise. Of course, consulting firms like to bring in the young hot shots to crank on detailed analyses, research, and hands-on work, but there’s a huge need for people like you who have been operators within corporations and actually know the game. You can’t beat that with a bat!
One criticism that I’ve heard of management consulting firms in the “financial crisis” era since 2008 is that they are full of great strategic thinkers who can provide guidance and ideas, but don’t have many people who are doers. This is one area where your experience (and age) can be extremely useful.
Don’t psych yourself out from the start by assuming that you’re at a disadvantage just because you’re over the age of 50. You CAN play in this game. You just have to find the right way to play in it, which takes me to the next topic to consider…
- Finding the right role:
Most people go into management consulting in an Analyst role (i.e., post-undergrad; pre-grad school) or an Associate/Consultant role (i.e, post-grad school or experienced hire with 5-8 years of experience). In these roles, the firms have a chance to teach young folks the fundamentals of what many people refer to as the “Consultant’s toolkit”, which includes things like structured problem solving, techniques to present information, data analysis, working in teams, and interacting with senior people. The positions are essentially “training ground” roles to help kids become more capable professionals in the somewhat early stages of their business careers.I think it’s safe to say that these aren’t the roles for you because, as I mentioned above, you already know the game. That doesn’t mean that someone like you doesn’t have a place in the consulting industry, but that positioning can vary based on the firm. 2 primetime options immediately come to mind for someone like you:
- Client service / project team leader: When I did my summer MBA internship in Accenture’s strategy consulting group, there was a new hire on the team who was in his late 40s and joined ACN after 20+ years in the technology industry. He was hired on as a Senior Manager and he was on our team to observe the Senior Manager and Manager on my team to learn the ropes and see how ACN did projects. This is something that I could see you doing if you join a consulting firm.
With your functional background, you could be a major asset on project teams as a day-to-day leader in helping to diagnose and address client problems.
- Subject matter expert: Back at McKinsey, there was a career track called the Expert track, where people didn’t spend most of their time working on client projects for 3-6 months at a time. Instead, these folks were relied upon for their subject matter expertise on a given topic and might be pulled onto a range of projects for a shorter amount of time to support client service teams. When not working on client work, these folks often did research projects to develop their
expertise and add to the overall knowledgebase of The Firm in a given area. I know that other firms have similar roles and this sort of thing could be tailor-made for you, especially given your strong
background in risk management and accounting.
Please note that I didn’t say anything about you going right into a firm as a Partner. While it may be possible for you to be positioned for a fast track promotion to Partner, I don’t think it would be likely for you to swing that sort of role immediately upon joining a firm. Firms often bring in experienced folks in at a non-Partner role to allow them to learn the firms’ standard ways of doing business and to determine the best way to leverage their connections to be successful on the job. Keep this in mind as you set your own expectations.
- Client service / project team leader: When I did my summer MBA internship in Accenture’s strategy consulting group, there was a new hire on the team who was in his late 40s and joined ACN after 20+ years in the technology industry. He was hired on as a Senior Manager and he was on our team to observe the Senior Manager and Manager on my team to learn the ropes and see how ACN did projects. This is something that I could see you doing if you join a consulting firm.
With your functional background, you could be a major asset on project teams as a day-to-day leader in helping to diagnose and address client problems.
- Finding the right firm(s):
As someone with your level of experience, finding the firm that works best for you will be crucial. You’ll have to do significant research to determine which firms are known for the type of work that would interest you, would be a good culture fit for you, and, most importantly, might have an appetite for candidates with as much experience as you have.I already mentioned Accenture and McKinsey above, so those might be good places to start your research. Based on what I’ve heard/read about other firms, a few more candidates could be Deloitte Consulting, Ernst & Young Consulting, KPMG, Booz Allen Hamilton (they’d love your military experience), and IBM. Of course, this assumes that you’d even want to go to a big global firm. There are always small boutique firms that could be worth considering, as well, but you’ll have to work a little harder to find information about them.
A few top-of-mind resources that you could use to learn about the many firms out there are Vault.com’s management consulting section, ConsultingMagazine.com, and individual consulting firm websites.
- Describing your value-add:
This one may be somewhat easy for you because, based on your email, I’d guess that you’ve already put a lot of thought into this point. Now, you’ll have to turn your thoughts from conjecture into fact-based references to where your background can help you provide value to a given firm and its clients.Once you’ve identified your target firms, you should do some research on the types of clients that they serve. Next, think about the range of issues/problems that those clients face on a daily basis. Finally, find a way to draw a link between your background and capabilities to those client concerns. This way, you’ll be able to effectively describe the value that you will bring to the firms with whom you interview.
By the way, make sure that you don’t assume that the folks at the firms will automatically be able to see your resume and just figure out how you’d add value. I’m sure that they’ll be able to get some sort of indication, but it is incumbent upon you to make it crystal clear for them. If you do this right, they’ll have no choice but to be interested enough to at least have a conversation with you.
- Finding your in with the consulting firms:
This is especially tough as an experienced hire because one doesn’t have access to campus recruiting resources that undergrad and grad school candidates use. It is indeed harder, but it’s not impossible.There isn’t exactly a single “right” way to do this because there are so many avenues that one could take. Here are a few options that might make sense for you:
- Networking with alumni of UNC or your undergrad institution who work in the industry
- Attending industry events (e.g., conferences, workshops) where you’ll be able to network with Management Consultants
- Networking with other professionals who used to be in the military and now currently work for consulting firms or work for agencies/businesses that work with consultants
- Leveraging any other personal networks that might give you access to Management Consultants
Also, there’s always the option of applying through a company’s online application website. It may seem like this would be a “black hole” option, but I know for a fact that recruiters do review applicant profiles that come in through this channel. Of course, it’s always better to go into the pipeline as a referral, but, if you get an offer at the end of the process, it doesn’t really matter how your profile got in, right? 🙂
- Preparing for the interview process:
The standard recruiting process for consulting firms involves completing consulting case interviews as a way to demonstrate your structured problem solving abilities. There are several great books on the market to help in this area and I’m an especially big fan of “Case in Point” by Mark Consentino because it was such a big help to me.For someone with your level of experience, I could see the possibility of you having several more higher-level conversations with senior people at each firm where you’d discuss your past work and areas of expertise. As you can imagine, as one takes on more senior roles in management consulting, several “softer skills” that can’t necessarily be tested by case interviews become key success factors and these separate discussions are where the firms may try to tease these capabilities out.
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As I said earlier, making the move into management consulting won’t be a direct path, but, if you take a strategic approach to it and put in some work, I do believe that you can make it work out. Good luck!
I hope the response above is helpful as you evaluate your approach to breaking into the consulting industry. I apologize once again for the lateness of my reply.
Marquis
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