Management Consulting Salaries & Careers - YouTube

The consulting industry is one of the largest recruiters of MBA graduates.

In its simplest form, consulting is the business of coming up with solutions to real world

business situations or problems.

Companies often come across issues or targets that require fresh, unbiased, methodical and

strategic perspectives to resolve.

Consultants play this vital role, often as general experts who are trained to provide

solutions to help businesses function and attain their targets successfully.

Such insights into businesses require top notch management chops to build and expand

a list of loyal clients.

The global consulting industry is estimated to be worth $155 billion.

Corporations around the world depend heavily on consulting companies to maintain and sharpen

their edge in an increasingly competitive world.

Are you planning to get into the consulting industry?

If you like to solve problems, want to work in a variety of industries, don’t mind raking

up the frequent flyer miles, and the nice little perks of a lifestyle lapping up the

big luxuries in life, you are probably sniffing in the right quarter here.

Sit tight as we play tour guide into the career possibilities in the world of consulting and

help you peek into what could be in store if you were to choose this career.

Consulting, besides helping you get a plump bank account and more platinum cards than

your wallet can hold, is also a window to other industries.

A lot of MBA graduates use a consulting career to work in various industries, intimately,

to find out which one suits their calibre the most.

It also provides an excellent opportunity for consultants to network with the movers

and shakers in various corporations.

The challenges presented by every client’s business provide opportunities to expand

a consultant’s knowledge and profile.

And unlike other in-house roles which are probably stronger in depth of knowledge,

consulting firms and their employees are blessed with a massive breadth of experience.

So what are the types of consulting careers. And what do consultants do?

Consulting jobs cover many different industries and most consulting firms follow a particular

type of business sector.

It could be mainstream like strategy and operations consulting to more niche markets like real

estate, design, or others.

In your career as a consultant, you would be looking at one these functional areas.

The most glamorous of them all, strategy consulting

has become popular because of elite firms such as McKinsey, Bain and the Boston Consulting Group or BCG.

These companies help big companies with bigger problems – such as market entry or exit,

portfolio management, mergers & acquisitions, and much more.

Anything to do with technology or information technology

would fall broadly into the IT consulting space.

A firm might want to have a central repository of data and that might require a whole lot

of technological leg work, reviews, possible outcome research, and more.

An IT consultancy can provide solutions to factors such as data volumes, the size

of customer base, details to be captured, integration with upstream and downstream systems,

and other challenges.

Operations consulting mostly applies to manufacturing-type situations like a firm wanting to reduce assembly

line defects in a limited period and in limited costs.

As companies strive to improve the productivity of their employees, HR Consulting has become

very important, in assisting companies with framing of employee friendly HR policies,

guidelines and mandates, improving performance management systems.

Marketing & Sales Consultants can help companies that might need assistance in understanding

what the most effective promotional channels are, which ones to consider, how budgets should

be allocated across these channels and how large the marketing & sales team should be.

Real Estate Consultants assist firms with valuations, property-related legislation,

locating and renovating at a limited cost.

A city might need a new bridge or a new factory, for which design and building plans would

be required.

Engineering consultants would be employed for such assignments.

Other types of popular consulting are Health or Pharma, Software, Sales, Finance, and our

favourite, Admissions Consulting and Career Coaching.

There are virtually an infinite number of types of consulting companies specializing

in every imaginable area – the list is endless.

Let’s talk about consulting salaries and career growth

Management consulting continues to be a dream job for many.

Though it is considered very demanding, the glamour, prestige and perks associated with

the profession make it one of the most sought-after career options.

The perks that the best strategy consulting firms offer, grow as you spend more time in

the industry.

While the intangible benefits are plenty – like working with the best colleagues and clients

in the business, great exposure and powerful networks – the most obvious and quantifiable

change you’ll see is in the compensation.

If you can stick around long enough and move into the higher designations, management consulting

salaries can progress very rapidly over time.

Here’s a look at the average consulting salaries at the entry level

in India, USA, UK, Australia, Germany.

Entry-level consultants, or Analysts, are required to spend considerable time doing

research and data gathering, making PowerPoint presentation or working on Excel spreadsheets.

Here’s a list of the various designations in consulting firms and the average time you’d

spend in each role before you’re considered for a promotion.

The career progression from being an Analyst to being a Partner in a consulting firm can

take anywhere between 7 to 10 years, depending on the size of the company, the field, and

of course your tenacity to achieve your target.

To get to the Associate role and gradually work your way up,

Analysts are expected to work exceptionally well,

and also expected to get an MBA degree.

But it's easier said than done, as there’d be several hurdles at every single stage,

specifically the huge competition from other deserving MBA graduates and colleagues.

Considering the bigger pressure of moving ‘up or out’, there are no guarantees.

Only a smaller percentage move up but if you do manage to make it to a Partner in a consulting

firm, you can be all set for the rest of your career.

Consulting salaries are dependent on your position in the firm.

While the salary for junior analysts can be anywhere around $70,000 or a bit more,

an MBA degree can double it.

Let’s look at the best consulting firms in the world.

The elite names in consulting hire some of the brightest MBA students from across

the top MBA programs in the world, and pay top dollar in salary while shaping

successful careers for their consultants.

McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group and Bain & Company, or MBB in short are considered the

Big 3 management consulting firms.

Here’s how they stack up against each other.

Ernst & Young, Deloitte, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers are the traditional Big 4 accounting

firms that have gradually grown their consulting business to compete with the Top 3.

Other names like Accenture, AT Kearney, Booz Allen Hamilton, Gartner, The Parthenon Group,

and Mercer, are quite popular as well.

A little bit of research on your part can reveal more names.

A small hint - they will usually have revenues in the billions and employees in the thousands

spread across the globe.

Many MBA students consider management consulting as their next big step after graduation.

They are deeply impressed and extremely excited by the high-profile, high-paying careers that

most consultants build.

They quickly make up their mind when recruiting firms arrive at their top b-schools and make

an attractive sales pitch.

But as with most things in life, the promises of a consulting career can also be too good

to be true.

So, before you commit, ask yourself.

Is a consulting job worth it?

Consulting offers plenty of positives, as a career.

But the negatives make a strong case for why one should carefully examine options.

Wise people have been heard saying that it pays to get into consulting with both eyes

open.

Consultants often encounter stress, working close to 100 hours a week, with their offline

hours also filled with worries - about work, client, competition, deadlines, you name it.

Personal life suffers and consequently work as well.

Work life balance is a myth.

You can surely rake up your frequent flyer miles on the job.

Clients can be anywhere in the world and a jet-setting lifestyle is just part of the job

description.

But jet lag, loneliness, exhaustion and finally the inevitable health problems from all the

airline food are some of the side effects that firms don’t usually advertise when they

recruit new talent.

Management consultancies are only rarely able to ensure that your projects match your expertise.

You may have a marketing degree but may be called upon to plan the implementation of

an engineering project for a client, for example.

The exposure may do you good, but to give your 'A' game, you will need to work that much

harder when the field is not your forte.

At all levels, consultants live in a culture of constant feedback.

From clients, peers and bosses.

These decide your paycheck and can be an overall stressful ecosystem.

Especially if you have a hard-to-please client or a taskmaster for a boss.

And of course, there can be office politics, fighting for the most challenging or visible

project while stepping over another’s shoulders.

Many management consultants hardly complete two to three years in their jobs before they

realize that there’s more to life than consulting.

Burn out, lack of a personal life, and stiff competition faced in making it to partner

level, make consultancies have an employee turnover rate of 15 to 20 percent.

Consultants move on to careers in finance, private equity, asset management, entrepreneurship,

or even full on functional roles in the industries they had been consulting before.

Life as a consultant has its rewards, obviously, as well manifold challenges.

Stepping into the career requires motivation, passion, and most of all a near complete understanding

of what will be expected.

Or else, the charms fade just as easily as the blood pressures rises.

Make sure you check out articles on consulting as well as personal

stories from consultants at some of the biggest firms on the planet.

We’ll share the link below.

If your rock solid determination is still intact, let us know if you need any professional help

with getting into an MBA program for a consulting career.

We have former McKinsey consultants in the MBA Crystal Ball team who can help you get

into your dream career.

Good luck!