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How Easy Is It To Go Into Consulting After An MBA?

Dr. Markus Maedler, head of MBA programs at Frankfurt School of Finance and Management, answers your Applicant Question of the Week

Thu Dec 13 2018

BusinessBecause
It's time for another Applicant Question of the Week at BusinessBecause. 

Every week, we give you the opportunity to ask one of our chosen admissions experts anything you want to know about getting into business school. One question each week is chosen for our expert to answer.

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This week, the question comes from Ruchir Singh, a business school applicant from India. He has eight years of experience in sales in the building materials industry. As well as a bachelors degree in civil engineering, Ruchir already has an MBA degree from an Australian university.

Now, Ruchir is looking to do a second MBA at a higher-ranked university in Europe in order to transition into consulting.

His question is answered by Dr. Markus Maedler, head of MBA programs at Frankfurt School of Finance and Management


Applicant Question of the Week:

Dear BusinessBecause,

I have already done an MBA in my home country but would like to do another at a more prestigious university to transition into consulting. How easy is it to go into consulting after an MBA?


The Answer:

 

This is a question that we hear rather often from aspiring MBA students. The consulting industry has not lost any of its eternal appeal for many future MBAs and entering it remains one of the most popular career choices. The answer, though, is one that you will hear quite often during your MBA: it depends.

It depends on your pre-MBA background, the skills that you build and develop during the studies on your MBA, and your clarity of which type of consulting you would want to do.

First, consulting companies often value specific industry expertise and real-world experience that you have acquired during your career so far, for example in operations, marketing or client-facing responsibilities.

An MBA can help you frame your unique experience profile, identify which transferable skills you have built that will be an asset, and link both to the requirements of consulting companies in a way that appeals to them. As in any client-facing professions, cultural and language fit also play an important role in setting you up for success.

Second, consulting is a profession that requires a certain set of knowledge, skills and capabilities; an MBA is an ideal vehicle to foster and build exactly those skills in a quite efficient and effective way.

Think of cross-functional knowledge; working knowledge of frameworks and methodologies; independent, critical and strategic thinking; research and analysis; self-management skill; personal agility to work in a fast-paced, pressured environment within a multi-functional, multi-cultural team; ability to rapidly absorb scattered information, learn new things and embrace them; or project management and presentation skills.

Third, which type of consulting is it that you are looking for? Consulting is a broad sector with many segments, and players come in many shapes and shades. Strategy consulting, implementation consulting, or transformation consulting, just to name a few? Intensive research is required to understand the market and to find the area—or even niche—that is the right fit for you.

But then, an MBA equips you with the skills to perform such research, the career services to identify your fit, the contacts that allow you to reach out to your target companies, and the network that increases your chances of success.

In summary, with the new insights, perspectives and networking opportunities that an MBA provides, it surely is an excellent educational vehicle to put you on the right track towards consulting and open many doors for you. But then, ultimately, again it depends—it depends on you to actually walk through these doors.


So, that was the final Applicant Question of the Week for this year! Thanks to all the applicants who submitted questions to us, and the admissions experts for providing help each week. We'll be back again in January, but in the meantime, you can read all our previous Applicant Questions of the Week right here.

Student Reviews

Frankfurt School of Finance & Management

Student

Verified

11/11/2019

Modern and global

Frankfurt School provided me with one of the best experiences of my life. I was an Erasmus student for a semester and could learn a lot. I took some mainstream courses like marketing and supply chain management, but also some innovative courses like applied persuasion and event planning. The professors are not only germans but from different parts of the world, mostly with international experience. The student life is great, the FS Bulls are a great community that is definitely worth being a part of. The best part is the campus, newly built with ultra modern architecture located in on the of the best neighbourhoods in Frankfurt am Main. You can find accomodation right next to it, many student residences at a fair price.

Student

Verified

30/09/2019

Career Oriented

I am a first year at the Frankfurt School and have been a prt of it for only a month; however, I can say for sure that the university provides its students with all the opportunities to grow professionally and personally. The majority of the professors are or have been successful professionals who easily relate the course material with real life and make lectures enjoyable. The extra curricular activities provided by the university are also a great step to life after graduation and give a head start for the students career.

Student

Verified

27/09/2019

University giving its students education of high quality and career prospects.

This university has helped me gain knowledge and experiences, that I lacked in my home country. Being in a great international surrounding, I have the opportunity to prosper and learn every day. The study program is very engaging, and the lecturers help you grow.

Student

Verified

17/11/2019

FSFM

I’m a bachelor student at Frankfurt School of Finance and Management and my overall experience was better than I expected. The classes have a small number of students, which makes the relationship with the professor better because they become easier to approach. During my years of study, I had both practical and theoretical classes, like innovation management, big data & analytics, econometrics. But the theories and concepts are directly applied to real-life problems due to many professors working in banks or consultancies, which is really good. FS supports students in finding internships and semesters abroad, but when it comes to housing not so much because it’s not that easy in Frankfurt. FS offers dorms, but it is only to a limited amount of students and the facilities aren’t the best. In terms of student organizations, there are a lot of different sport clubs for almost every kind of sport, also student consulting, student investment club, student politics club, music, arts, etc. Living in Frankfurt is good, it is very multicultural in Germany, with lots of cultural actives, museums, parks, etc. The nightlife is also nice with proper nightclubs compared to the size of the city, Gibson, Velvet, Adlib to name a few, and there also is a bar district in Alt-Sachsenhausend and a lot of bars where bankers go in the city center. The campus is not really comparable to an actual campus like the American universities, but it’s a big modern building that was built 2 years ago. I would definitely recommend it to a friend if you're willing to pay that much for uni, because there are still a lot of public unis in Germany that are comparably good (Mannheim, Goethe, LMU Munich...).

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