What Do Elite Colleges Advise Their Undergrads To Get Into Consulting
Consultants are in high demand. If you’re considering starting your career in consulting, now’s the time to begin making a strategy and outlining your goals. After all, as you know, the supply of talented individuals in this field is resulting in a highly competitive application process.
But where should you begin? There’s lots of information online, but one has to constantly wonder about who is right. One unique approach that we think is possibly the best is to look at what career advisors tell their students — specifically the advisors and other administrators at elite institutions. Why those institutions? Because:
They are not biased to simply market themselves and increase the number of applications (as consulting firms could theoretically do).
These Universities face the most pressure from their students, who have the most interest in elite consulting.
These institutions have the most resources. They cannot afford to not have great advice. And their students succeed at obtaining roles in consulting more than students at just about any university in the world (and there are over 20,000 universities).
In fact, elite consulting is so driven by top schools that the phenomenon even affects MBA admissions; for instance, at a program like Stanford’s MBA, the most selective MBA program in the world, a very large share (not very far from half) of its entering class comes from just 4 universities (some of which profiled below).
The purpose of this article is to democratize that advice so that students at other schools — including other elite schools — see what is being said. Many elite colleges have advice for their own undergrads that we’ve compiled for you. Here it is.
Princeton University
This elite college, clearly one of the top five in the U.S., has some words of wisdom for students who want to get into consulting; always begin your search for internships and jobs early.
They emphasized that while prior consulting experience isn’t typically required to apply for internships or full-time consulting roles, it definitely helps. This means the first thing you should do when starting this career path is to look for opportunities to gain experience. And when you are applying to these first positions, make sure to highlight your critical thinking and analytical skills along with your interpersonal capabilities. Firms will be looking for someone who can learn information and solve problems quickly, so you must prove you have those skills even if you’ve never held the position before.
You should also give concrete, quantifiable examples of what you’ve accomplished, such as successful projects you’ve completed in class or leadership roles where you helped a campus organization reach a goal. This demonstrates that you are not only action-oriented, but that your decisions helped you reach measurable results and outcomes.
Princeton also insists that most large firms start recruiting for internships and jobs more than a year in advance. Make sure to start applying for these roles as early as your sophomore year. Even though that sounds early, it would be for an internship for the summer after your junior year! But if you’re past that, remember that people enter into consulting later as well — many around age 30 when finishing an MBA program.
The university provides additional resources to its students to help you learn about this field, such as the Vault Career Guide to Consulting. Many other universities also provide this guide to their students, so check your institution.
Columbia University
The experts at Columbia, another Ivy League school, offer similar advice to undergrads when it comes to understanding the recruiting timeline — always start applying early! However, they go into more detail about the process that is essential for helping students prepare for the rigorous recruiting requirements.
Consulting interviews typically consist of multiple rounds of meetings along with behavioral and case interviews. The latter can be especially difficult to navigate if you’re not prepared. The university recommends reviewing each firm you’re interviewing for beforehand to understand their niche. This will help you understand if it’s a good fit for you and what you must do to prepare. Then, you should practice case interviews early and often.
This starts with reaching out to your larger community for support. Whether that be a consulting club or online archive, you can begin gathering resources and assistance as early as possible. Then, you should begin dissecting the readings available to you online or through your university. Two weeks before your interview you should practice cases with friends to build confidence and polish the transferable skills necessary for most cases. In the day leading up to your meeting, get lots of rest so you’ll be prepared.
Columbia University also has an extensive network of alumni profiles that they encourage students to contact for more career insights. This insight is valuable for students of many universities, though it is less applicable the fewer alumni your school has in consulting. This is one of the problems that Beacon seeks to solve: to provide everyone with elite-level consulting experience in its study abroad and study away programs, the kind that exceeds the level that even students at elite institutions receive.
Yale University
All the same advice from the previous colleges holds true at prestigious Yale University. That being said, this institution goes into more detail about the most popular consulting specialties their undergrads should consider. This includes management/strategy, financial, information technology, and human resources/staffing consulting. They emphasize that larger firms may require all kinds of consultants, while boutique firms may require an even more niche expert, such as a life sciences consultant.
Finally, strategy firms, which are the most elite and the most desired by students at elite schools, are almost always generalists, i.e., you come in for your smarts, analytical skills, people skills, and, crucially, desire to succeed (and to work long hours doing demanding work for demanding clients and demanding consulting firm partners).
Before getting into consulting, make sure you have an idea of what kind of firm you want to work for and any specialty you may want to pursue. Yale also recommends students who are interested in the field read Consulting Magazine. The flagship publication has all the latest information on consulting careers, thought leadership, and corporate strategies that are great for individuals who are interested in consulting or are seasoned professionals.
Stanford University
Stanford is the most selective undergraduate institution in the world (and there are more than 20,000 universities worldwide); so let’s pay attention to what they’re saying. Stanford Consulting is a very sophisticated club for undergraduates and graduate students who want to excel at major firms, banks, and tech companies in the future. It also provides plenty of advice that anyone interested in consulting should know about.
The organization reiterates the importance of having the skills to nail the personal and case interviews. In preparation for the latter, the consulting club at the university compiled a list of helpful resources for students (and you) to review. Many of the links are free resources and practice cases that are ideal for helping you prepare for your initial interviews into the world of consulting.
Other skills the school advises their students to hone include, communication, flexibility, leadership, teamwork, and overall business knowledge. With a balance of these qualities and good preparation, you will be a well-rounded consultant ready for your first position.
Northwestern
Northwestern includes these same skills on their career advancement page. But in addition to this information, they also disclose what a consultant typically does on a daily basis. They include actions like pitching proposals and making presentations, researching clients, and organizing customer datasets as responsibilities for this role.
This advice shows you how important consulting skills are applied each and every day in the job. Consultants will also be responsible for reporting on the data and trends they find as well as implement a new strategy if needed.
The school also advises their students to understand that there is no one correct response to the case interview. As overwhelming as they may seem, this portion of the interview is simply to give firms a glimpse into how you solve problems and analyze new information. While you can prepare by reviewing common types of cases, you will still need to think on your feet during the process and come to the best conclusion.
That’s It
We hope that helped! Check out more resources in our blog, and consider our consulting programs. Consulting firms want two things: can do and will do. The first is ability, the second is interest. And there is no better way to show interest than actually do consulting (which Beacon Fellows do), to really see if it’s for you, and to then explain that (from experience) in a resume, cover letter, and interview.
Beacon does not imply an endorsement from these institutions; however, it seeks to disseminate important truths about this topic to as many students as possible, in order to help students navigate the often stressful consulting admissions path.