Source: "Five types of consulting careers for business students".
Firm types
The majority of consulting internships and graduate roles are in management consulting, and the role is similar to your role as part of one of the consulting societies at your university.
This is a popular career for students seeking constant intellectual challenges, exposure to top company executives, a collaborative work environment, and frequent travel opportunities. There are a few major sources of recruiting:
- "MBB" strategy firms: McKinsey & Company, Bain & Company, and The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) are strategy powerhouses, offering entry-level consultants immediate exposure to a wide variety of industries and functions.
- Other leading strategy consulting firms: e.g. Oliver Wyman, AT Kearney, OC&C, LEK Consulting. Smaller than MBB and very similar work.
- Big Four strategy arms: Monitor Deloitte, PwC's Strategy& and EY-Parthenon (not one for KPMG). These strategy arms are similar to "MBB" firms.
- Big Four accounting firms: Deloitte, EY, KPMG, and PwC operate sizeable management consulting practices in strategy, technology, risk, and other business areas.
- Tech-focused firms: Accenture, Booz Allen Hamilton, Infosys, and Wipro draw from their deep digital expertise to help clients innovate and improve performance across a broad range of industries.
- Boutique consulting firms: These are small consulting firms that specialise in specific functional areas or operate in a local geographic region. Examples include Kin + Carta, Teneo and Plural Strategy.
MBB and Big Four strategy arms are considered particularly competitive, given their strict CV requirements and small intakes. Meanwhile, Big Four consulting divisions tend to focus more on implementation work than strategy.
However, if you are interested in consulting, it's important to apply to as many firms as you can to practise case interviews.
The long hours, hard work and extensive travel typically associated with management consulting pay off in the form of generous compensation and lucrative exit opportunities.
Because management consulting values analytical ability over industry expertise, it's an attractive career for students from a wide variety of backgrounds.
There are a few other types of consulting firms:
- Industry consulting: healthcare, operations, public sector etc.
- Human capital consulting
- Internal or in-house consulting
- Political and economic consulting
These firms work on specific types of cases, while the first set of firm types are generalist in nature.
MBB vs Big Four (management consulting practice)
- Type of work: Whilst most firms now offer strategy, operations, and technology work, the Big Four have acquired smaller agencies to provide more services.
- Project set-up: Big Four projects can end up being much larger than MBB.
- Salary: MBB typically charges more for their services and hence pays more than the Big Four (can be more than double).
- Culture: MBB is focused on consulting, while the Big Four have different divisions, so more of a mix of people.
- Size of firm: The Big Four are larger than MBB.
- Work-life balance: Quite similar. Weekends are usually respected, but hours can be long, there's lots of travel, and flexibility is required.
- Prestige and exit opportunities: While both choices are well respected, MBB is known for a competitive hiring process and excellent training. Many MBB consultants go on to top business schools and C-suite positions in FTSE 500 companies.
MBB and the Big Four strategy arms screen CVs strictly. The CV review scores yours against what they look for.