A New Site That All Aspiring Management Consultants Should Be Reading
Let’s face it: consultants have developed a poor reputation on Mergers & Inquisitions. Even if you don’t travel to the Yukon Territory every week and you get paid more than the average consultant, you still can’t buy bottles with Starwood points.
But in these uncertain times, even if you want to do banking or private equity, consulting is probably one of the “strategic alternatives” on your mind if your “Plan A” doesn’t work out.
I receive lots of questions on consulting, but I am admittedly not an expert on the topic.
Luckily, a friend who is an expert just started his own site covering how to break into the industry, what it’s like to be a consultant, and everything you always wanted to know about consulting.
So head over and check out Management Consulted, started by my friend Kevin Gao.
Can You Take a Few Minutes and Walk Me Through Your Resume…
Kevin is a real-life friend (win a prize if you can now guess where I went to school) who worked at McKinsey in New York for 2 years, also working in tech and sales & trading before that.
After finishing up his time in consulting, he launched a few startup projects of his own, including Yap’d and now Management Consulted.
He founded the site for the same reasons that I launched Mergers & Inquisitions: lack of quality information and advice online, and our own personal experience helping friends get into our respective industries.
About the Site
Since he launched Management Consulted in December, Kevin has been working intensely on developing a lot of the core content and he already has a ton of useful information online.
Here are a few of my favorite articles so far:
- Consulting vs. Banking (he ignores the bottles / Starwood points issue, but otherwise it’s accurate)
- Global Management Consulting Firms vs. Boutiques
- Making Your Consulting Summer Internship Successful
- Day in the Life of a Management Consultant
- How to Network Properly
- Interview Tips
- Resume Tips
A lot of these articles are relevant to banking as well – networking and writing an effective resume are almost the same. The main difference lies in the interview.
Consulting Services
Similar to what I’ve done here with resumes and interviews, Kevin is also offering his own personalized coaching services to anyone breaking into the consulting industry.
We have a lot of mutual friends and I’ve seen firsthand how he’s been helping people interview successfully for years.
He can help you with networking, figuring out whether consulting is right for you, crafting your resume, and, of course, successfully interviewing.
He’s structured his services a bit differently from my own, but the good news is that he’s charging far below market rates currently.
I’ve told him he’s crazy pricing his services at only around 25% of Vault prices – but since the site is relatively new, he’s offering a bargain to anyone interested right now.
Future Plans
In addition to his writing and the services Kevin is now offering, he’s also planning to release case interview guides and other great resources in the near future.
Since there’s a lot of overlap between consulting and banking recruiting, we may also be working together on some upcoming ventures (e.g. workshops that actually teach you something useful rather than charging exorbitant prices for irrelevant information).
One of a Kind
I make very few recommendations of other sites because there’s honestly very little useful information online about banking/consulting.
But Kevin’s site is an exception and one of the few I would recommend without thinking twice – for anyone interested in consulting or anyone weighing their career options, it’s a must-read.
So head over there now and start reading.
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You went to Stanford.
Sorry, you’ll have to use a lifeline… or maybe not?
ahhh I go to Stanford!
The jury is still out…
Thanks for the referral. And for all of your readers – M&I was the inspiration for me to start Management Consulted. I’m just continually impressed with what you’ve been able to accomplish here and looking forward to the areas where we can collaborate.
There may be a problem with your site. For some pages the website is lightning-fast, but other pages–like when I try to go to the Index by clicking the ‘Home’ tab–it gives me an internal server error.
I bet you went to Berkeley
That seems like 1 of the 2 leading possibilities…
I just read a few of the posts and they’re excellent! I will be bookmarking the site; thanks for the referral.
Yup, glad you found it helpful.
Are you still looking for people to talk to about getting into banking through non-traditional routes? I have an interview for a summer analyst position coming up…not sure if you were looking for something like that, but just thought I’d offer.
Sure, just email me a brief summary of what you’ve done and we can speak more about it – I’ll make everything anonymous and include only the parts that could help a lot of people with recruiting.
You went to the University of San Francisco, a jesuit university.
GOOOOOOOOOOOOO DONS!
Just kidding, great article.
And we have a winner!
see consultantninja.com, it’s got some good stuff too.
Yup that’s another good one.
Off topic, but…
Is it difficult to transition from being a capital markets or industry group analyst/intern to M&A?
It’s not that hard, way easier than doing the back –> front office transition. You need to have someone pushing your case in the M&A group though.
hey
recently bought the interview guide…great stuff
this is a little bit off topic, but for a summer analyst first round interview, will there be any technical questions?
Also, are there any common Excel questions that interviewers ask?
thanks
Yeah, definitely… even if you haven’t had finance experience, expect to get technical questions. It’s just a way they screen you.
I’ve never heard Excel questions in interviews, those would be pretty odd to ask… but never say never.
typo in the begining
“Let’s face it: consultants have devleoped ….”
fixed thanks
to prepare for upcoming interviews
what website would you recommend to learn more about certain deals by banks in specific regions?
there’s very little that’s good and covers all that information – the WSJ covers a good portion of it, but you need to read it pretty consistently… check out their Dealbook blog.