About Management Consulting

Management Consulting is currently a popular and competitive career field. While we have seen an increase in the number of firms who are recruiting for management consulting at Cornell there are many excellent firms who do not recruit and who must be contacted directly or through networking contacts.  Basically there are two types of consulting positions--the generalist and the specialist. Specialists offer process or functional knowledge to clients. Not surprisingly the hottest specialist area for management consulting has been in information technology and many of the firms who recruited at Cornell were specifically interested in students with background and interest in technology. Accenture and CGI (was: AMS-CGI) are examples of such companies. Another consulting specialty that does well in recruiting at Cornell is human resource management. 

Most students who ask about management consulting are interested in the generalist firms such as Bain,McKinsey and Mercer. These firms offer advice to corporate clients on to operating more efficiently, or opening new markets, etc.They generally only hire experienced candidates or MBA's for the positions that lead to partnership within the firm. Typically they hire undergraduates to act as research analysts and assume that these "associate consultants" or "business analysts" will leave after two years to pursue an MBA.  If you are seriously interested in a career in management consulting, you must make the effort to learn as much about it as possible and demonstrate your resourcefulness in researching both the consulting industry and the individual consulting firms. Remember, the firm needs to hire the type of individual who can demonstrate the ability to research thoroughly and articulate succinctly. In your first contact with a firm you should demonstrate as much knowledge about the firm as you would eventually be able to demonstrate about the firm's clients.