Best major for a kid who is interested in consulting

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Aside from IB, Consultants have some of the highest starting salaries out of undergrad. That’s what most young kids are chasing. Most go into Consulting knowing that over 3-4 years they will kill themselves, travel over 50%, some will travel every Sun to Thurs, but they learn a ton, gain outstanding training, and then pull the chute on an exit strategy to go into the field or industry they want.

The travel perks are amazing for single 20 somethings. You build up hotel points, air miles, rental car points. Everyone took a lot of fabulous trips. And sometimes instead of going home on Thursday groups would go to Mexico for the weekend then back to the client site on Monday. If you like to travel it's a huge perk.

[Anonymous]

Applied or computational math, statistics, economics or any major with ability to do some maths, from a top school.

[Anonymous]

DS is a recent grad with a job in consulting with a physics major from a top school. The math has helped him land interesting projects and not sit on the bench.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aside from IB, Consultants have some of the highest starting salaries out of undergrad. That’s what most young kids are chasing. Most go into Consulting knowing that over 3-4 years they will kill themselves, travel over 50%, some will travel every Sun to Thurs, but they learn a ton, gain outstanding training, and then pull the chute on an exit strategy to go into the field or industry they want.

The travel perks are amazing for single 20 somethings. You build up hotel points, air miles, rental car points. Everyone took a lot of fabulous trips. And sometimes instead of going home on Thursday groups would go to Mexico for the weekend then back to the client site on Monday. If you like to travel it's a huge perk.

Yeah and then they go onto HBS & complain about their grad school debt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aside from IB, Consultants have some of the highest starting salaries out of undergrad. That’s what most young kids are chasing. Most go into Consulting knowing that over 3-4 years they will kill themselves, travel over 50%, some will travel every Sun to Thurs, but they learn a ton, gain outstanding training, and then pull the chute on an exit strategy to go into the field or industry they want.

The travel perks are amazing for single 20 somethings. You build up hotel points, air miles, rental car points. Everyone took a lot of fabulous trips. And sometimes instead of going home on Thursday groups would go to Mexico for the weekend then back to the client site on Monday. If you like to travel it's a huge perk.

On the corporate card? How does that help you when you leave?

[Anonymous]

People with high IQ and ability to see patterns tend to do well in consulting, often better than industry experts who can't see out of the box due to long term proximity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aside from IB, Consultants have some of the highest starting salaries out of undergrad. That’s what most young kids are chasing. Most go into Consulting knowing that over 3-4 years they will kill themselves, travel over 50%, some will travel every Sun to Thurs, but they learn a ton, gain outstanding training, and then pull the chute on an exit strategy to go into the field or industry they want.

The travel perks are amazing for single 20 somethings. You build up hotel points, air miles, rental car points. Everyone took a lot of fabulous trips. And sometimes instead of going home on Thursday groups would go to Mexico for the weekend then back to the client site on Monday. If you like to travel it's a huge perk.

Yeah and then they go onto HBS & complain about their grad school debt.

Short term pain for long term gain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aside from IB, Consultants have some of the highest starting salaries out of undergrad. That’s what most young kids are chasing. Most go into Consulting knowing that over 3-4 years they will kill themselves, travel over 50%, some will travel every Sun to Thurs, but they learn a ton, gain outstanding training, and then pull the chute on an exit strategy to go into the field or industry they want.

The travel perks are amazing for single 20 somethings. You build up hotel points, air miles, rental car points. Everyone took a lot of fabulous trips. And sometimes instead of going home on Thursday groups would go to Mexico for the weekend then back to the client site on Monday. If you like to travel it's a huge perk.

On the corporate card? How does that help you when you leave?

Yes we got to keep our points and miles on the corporate card. Of course you don't keep it when you leave. I'm pointing out why it's attractive to people while they're doing it. It definitely appeals to a certain type of personality. If you're an introverted home body, this isn't the life for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And you really can’t be a an effective consultant until you’ve had experience first, how can a 21-year-old consult a business on their practices when they have no business experience themselves?

Most consultants worked in the field first and get paid big bucks later to consult with that expertise they obtained.

Tell me you know nothing about management consulting, which is clearly what OP is inquiring about.

+1. Obviously talking about a company like McKinsey. The only reason kids would want to do this is to make 6 figures right out of undergrad, and get a big name on their resume.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aside from IB, Consultants have some of the highest starting salaries out of undergrad. That’s what most young kids are chasing. Most go into Consulting knowing that over 3-4 years they will kill themselves, travel over 50%, some will travel every Sun to Thurs, but they learn a ton, gain outstanding training, and then pull the chute on an exit strategy to go into the field or industry they want.

The travel perks are amazing for single 20 somethings. You build up hotel points, air miles, rental car points. Everyone took a lot of fabulous trips. And sometimes instead of going home on Thursday groups would go to Mexico for the weekend then back to the client site on Monday. If you like to travel it's a huge perk.

On the corporate card? How does that help you when you leave?

Yes we got to keep our points and miles on the corporate card. Of course you don't keep it when you leave. I'm pointing out why it's attractive to people while they're doing it. It definitely appeals to a certain type of personality. If you're an introverted home body, this isn't the life for you.

I take that back you keep your miles and points even when you leave. They are on your personal profile not the corporate card.

[Anonymous]

Depends what kind of consulting.
Accenture or Deloitte - IT, Systems engineering, Comp Sci, minor in Business, Finance or Communications

McKinsey - Finance, Business

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aside from IB, Consultants have some of the highest starting salaries out of undergrad. That’s what most young kids are chasing. Most go into Consulting knowing that over 3-4 years they will kill themselves, travel over 50%, some will travel every Sun to Thurs, but they learn a ton, gain outstanding training, and then pull the chute on an exit strategy to go into the field or industry they want.

The travel perks are amazing for single 20 somethings. You build up hotel points, air miles, rental car points. Everyone took a lot of fabulous trips. And sometimes instead of going home on Thursday groups would go to Mexico for the weekend then back to the client site on Monday. If you like to travel it's a huge perk.

On the corporate card? How does that help you when you leave?

Yes we got to keep our points and miles on the corporate card. Of course you don't keep it when you leave. I'm pointing out why it's attractive to people while they're doing it. It definitely appeals to a certain type of personality. If you're an introverted home body, this isn't the life for you.

I take that back you keep your miles and points even when you leave. They are on your personal profile not the corporate card.

I was client facing for over a decade. I have lifetime platinum status at SPG (Marriott, Westin) and I’m still using my airline miles 12 years after I switched to an “in house” role.

It’s a super fun way to spend your 20s if you like the “work hard / party hard” culture. You get to see the corporate culture at many clients up close and meet a lot of senior execs at big companies. It’s like a management development/ mentorship program on steroids if you invest the time to get to know your clients. I got face time presenting to COOs and CFOs of F500 companies in my 20s. I was able to see dozens of career paths up close and worked for a large software company, an oil and gas company, a pharmaceutical company, a large chemical company, and several cabinet level federal agencies.

Contrary to the belief that consultants are all Office Space jerks coming to drive efficiency and fire people, I’ve spent the bulk of my career implementing systems that automate the administrative drudge work so accounts and HR people can focus on the parts of their job that actually require human decisions and expertise. Designing and implementing accounting systems that cross multiple countries and corp divisions is not something a company can do “in house”.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Aside from IB, Consultants have some of the highest starting salaries out of undergrad. That’s what most young kids are chasing. Most go into Consulting knowing that over 3-4 years they will kill themselves, travel over 50%, some will travel every Sun to Thurs, but they learn a ton, gain outstanding training, and then pull the chute on an exit strategy to go into the field or industry they want.

The travel perks are amazing for single 20 somethings. You build up hotel points, air miles, rental car points. Everyone took a lot of fabulous trips. And sometimes instead of going home on Thursday groups would go to Mexico for the weekend then back to the client site on Monday. If you like to travel it's a huge perk.

On the corporate card? How does that help you when you leave?

Yes we got to keep our points and miles on the corporate card. Of course you don't keep it when you leave. I'm pointing out why it's attractive to people while they're doing it. It definitely appeals to a certain type of personality. If you're an introverted home body, this isn't the life for you.

I take that back you keep your miles and points even when you leave. They are on your personal profile not the corporate card.

I was client facing for over a decade. I have lifetime platinum status at SPG (Marriott, Westin) and I’m still using my airline miles 12 years after I switched to an “in house” role.

It’s a super fun way to spend your 20s if you like the “work hard / party hard” culture. You get to see the corporate culture at many clients up close and meet a lot of senior execs at big companies. It’s like a management development/ mentorship program on steroids if you invest the time to get to know your clients. I got face time presenting to COOs and CFOs of F500 companies in my 20s. I was able to see dozens of career paths up close and worked for a large software company, an oil and gas company, a pharmaceutical company, a large chemical company, and several cabinet level federal agencies.

Contrary to the belief that consultants are all Office Space jerks coming to drive efficiency and fire people, I’ve spent the bulk of my career implementing systems that automate the administrative drudge work so accounts and HR people can focus on the parts of their job that actually require human decisions and expertise. Designing and implementing accounting systems that cross multiple countries and corp divisions is not something a company can do “in house”.

Administive "drudge" work currently done by humans. Yes, you are firing people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And you really can’t be a an effective consultant until you’ve had experience first, how can a 21-year-old consult a business on their practices when they have no business experience themselves?

Most consultants worked in the field first and get paid big bucks later to consult with that expertise they obtained.

This! The associates/recent grads aren't the ones with the knowledge/experience. They have a more senior person who is the face of the project and leading the way. The most junior people take notes, develop summaries, analyze data, draft slides, handle coordination/logistics, etc. until they actually learn something. But it is a very intensive way to get quickly up to speed on a business/industry and the experience is a good stepping stone.

[Anonymous]

Op, you have this backwards. It's like you asking, "For a career, my kid wants to be an expert. How do I make this happen?"