Anonymous wrote:The short answer is that Fortune 100 / C-suite clients want to feel like they are getting the “best and the brightest” for what they are paying.

The unspoken reason is polish and presence. Consulting is a client-facing job and college grads that come from privileged backgrounds or have gone through the 4 year “interacting with rich people” boot camp are a better fit for the culture of most consulting companies. Entry level consulting with a big name brand company is like Pharma Sales for smarter and slightly less attractive people.

The practical reason is the curriculum. My spouse went to an Ivy and I didn’t, but we had the same major. His non-core classes and experiences were different and more suited to client facing work. My school encouraged us to participate in competitions where we built things with our hands. My spouse was taught how to make a research poster and present it at conferences.

We had a couple sales people from AI startups coming in for a presentation. The sales guys are model caliber and I scheduled follow up call to walk through some functions. If they are fat + balding, I probably opt for play around ChatGPT 4 on my own.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why bother paying $100K to U Penn grad when you can get Penn State guys for $60K?

The difference is in polish-ness.

Maybe is an actual word like poise?

But really you mean class markers and mannerisms.

Not exactly. You are describing some rich lady out of Jane Austen book.
It’s the ability to contribute to a topic effectively, listens and grasps the concept, and not hording the conversation.

It's the ability to project competence even when there is none. It takes a combination of arrogance and polish for a 22 year old working their first real job to convince a 450 year old who has been in an industry for longer than the consultant has been alive that they are an expert

Call me old school, but I call that lying. If you can’t walk the walk, what’s the gain in projecting competence?

How many 23 year old consultants are actually competent?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why bother paying $100K to U Penn grad when you can get Penn State guys for $60K?

The difference is in polish-ness.

Maybe is an actual word like poise?

But really you mean class markers and mannerisms.

Not exactly. You are describing some rich lady out of Jane Austen book.
It’s the ability to contribute to a topic effectively, listens and grasps the concept, and not hording the conversation.

It's the ability to project competence even when their is none. It takes a combination of arrogance and polish for a 22 year old working their first real job to convince a 450 year old who has been in an industry for longer than the consultant has been alive that they are an expert

If the 40 year old cannot form effective relationship with junior talent, their organization will fail.

Are consultants talent now?

If you are so excellent but you won’t take a job on my team, what difference does it make?

Who is your team, buddy? Consulting is all leeches and reputation laundering. All your “tasks” should be done in-house.

I disagree. I’ve worked in client facing and in-house roles for a large consulting company for 20+ years. Large IT projects require skills most companies don’t have in-house. You may have an accounts payable department, but do they know how to configure a new accounting system and convert data into it? Most back office staff are great at doing their function efficiently, but don’t have the skillet to scope and manage a large project. Being at a consulting company, our leadership often forgets that back office is so lean we don’t have any bandwidth to spare for special projects. They also forget that back office is typically sourced differently and has a different career path that does not reward them for innovation and project management skills.
I will stereotype that most back office people are great at knowing what they do, but not necessarily why they do it or the business impacts down stream. They are also often terrible at communicating business requirements. This is true at my own company as well as my clients. A good consultant can help determine the actual business need and streamline the process instead of “paving the cow path” aka just doing the same thing in a new system.

Most companies can benefit from outside perspective. Being stubborn and refusing to ask for help does not bode well for being an innovative, efficient company or department.

The short answer is that Fortune 100 / C-suite clients want to feel like they are getting the “best and the brightest” for what they are paying.

The unspoken reason is polish and presence. Consulting is a client-facing job and college grads that come from privileged backgrounds or have gone through the 4 year “interacting with rich people” boot camp are a better fit for the culture of most consulting companies. Entry level consulting with a big name brand company is like Pharma Sales for smarter and slightly less attractive people.

The practical reason is the curriculum. My spouse went to an Ivy and I didn’t, but we had the same major. His non-core classes and experiences were different and more suited to client facing work. My school encouraged us to participate in competitions where we built things with our hands. My spouse was taught how to make a research poster and present it at conferences.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why bother paying $100K to U Penn grad when you can get Penn State guys for $60K?

The difference is in polish-ness.

Maybe is an actual word like poise?

But really you mean class markers and mannerisms.

Not exactly. You are describing some rich lady out of Jane Austen book.
It’s the ability to contribute to a topic effectively, listens and grasps the concept, and not hording the conversation.

It's the ability to project competence even when there is none. It takes a combination of arrogance and polish for a 22 year old working their first real job to convince a 450 year old who has been in an industry for longer than the consultant has been alive that they are an expert

Call me old school, but I call that lying. If you can’t walk the walk, what’s the gain in projecting competence?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why bother paying $100K to U Penn grad when you can get Penn State guys for $60K?

The difference is in polish-ness.

Maybe is an actual word like poise?

But really you mean class markers and mannerisms.

Not exactly. You are describing some rich lady out of Jane Austen book.
It’s the ability to contribute to a topic effectively, listens and grasps the concept, and not hording the conversation.

It's the ability to project competence even when their is none. It takes a combination of arrogance and polish for a 22 year old working their first real job to convince a 450 year old who has been in an industry for longer than the consultant has been alive that they are an expert

If the 40 year old cannot form effective relationship with junior talent, their organization will fail.

Are consultants talent now?

If you are so excellent but you won’t take a job on my team, what difference does it make?

Who is your team, buddy? Consulting is all leeches and reputation laundering. All your “tasks” should be done in-house.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why bother paying $100K to U Penn grad when you can get Penn State guys for $60K?

The difference is in polish-ness.

Maybe is an actual word like poise?

But really you mean class markers and mannerisms.

Not exactly. You are describing some rich lady out of Jane Austen book.
It’s the ability to contribute to a topic effectively, listens and grasps the concept, and not hording the conversation.

It's the ability to project competence even when their is none. It takes a combination of arrogance and polish for a 22 year old working their first real job to convince a 450 year old who has been in an industry for longer than the consultant has been alive that they are an expert

If the 40 year old cannot form effective relationship with junior talent, their organization will fail.

Are consultants talent now?

If you are so excellent but you won’t take a job on my team, what difference does it make?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why bother paying $100K to U Penn grad when you can get Penn State guys for $60K?

The difference is in polish-ness.

Maybe is an actual word like poise?

But really you mean class markers and mannerisms.

Not exactly. You are describing some rich lady out of Jane Austen book.
It’s the ability to contribute to a topic effectively, listens and grasps the concept, and not hording the conversation.

It's the ability to project competence even when their is none. It takes a combination of arrogance and polish for a 22 year old working their first real job to convince a 450 year old who has been in an industry for longer than the consultant has been alive that they are an expert

If the 40 year old cannot form effective relationship with junior talent, their organization will fail.

Are consultants talent now?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why bother paying $100K to U Penn grad when you can get Penn State guys for $60K?

The difference is in polish-ness.

Maybe is an actual word like poise?

But really you mean class markers and mannerisms.

Not exactly. You are describing some rich lady out of Jane Austen book.
It’s the ability to contribute to a topic effectively, listens and grasps the concept, and not hording the conversation.

It's the ability to project competence even when their is none. It takes a combination of arrogance and polish for a 22 year old working their first real job to convince a 450 year old who has been in an industry for longer than the consultant has been alive that they are an expert

If the 40 year old cannot form effective relationship with junior talent, their organization will fail.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why bother paying $100K to U Penn grad when you can get Penn State guys for $60K?

The difference is in polish-ness.

Maybe is an actual word like poise?

But really you mean class markers and mannerisms.

Not exactly. You are describing some rich lady out of Jane Austen book.
It’s the ability to contribute to a topic effectively, listens and grasps the concept, and not hording the conversation.

It's the ability to project competence even when their is none. It takes a combination of arrogance and polish for a 22 year old working their first real job to convince a 450 year old who has been in an industry for longer than the consultant has been alive that they are an expert

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
https://www.thedp.com/article/2023/09/penn-careers-consulting-finance-wharton-college-post-graduate-outcomes

Statistically more than 50% of U Penn undergrads go to finance and consulting because these companies recruit early in senior year.

If it is really all just brainless work then why they go after top students with high entry salary when they can pay less and get it done by less talented but still capable college grads?

What’s your question?

People are always saying that new consultants add no value and do menial work so why consulting companies waste their money on luring top students in when they can hire anyone and pay less for that work?

Because lots of those places are up or out, and they want to grow their own.

Why Penn versus Penn State? It’s like fishing - you go where the odds of catching a big fish are higher.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why bother paying $100K to U Penn grad when you can get Penn State guys for $60K?

The difference is in polish-ness.

Maybe is an actual word like poise?

But really you mean class markers and mannerisms.

Not exactly. You are describing some rich lady out of Jane Austen book.
It’s the ability to contribute to a topic effectively, listens and grasps the concept, and not hording the conversation.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why bother paying $100K to U Penn grad when you can get Penn State guys for $60K?

The difference is in polish-ness.

Maybe is an actual word like poise?

But really you mean class markers and mannerisms.

+1

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why bother paying $100K to U Penn grad when you can get Penn State guys for $60K?

The difference is in polish-ness.

Maybe is an actual word like poise?

But really you mean class markers and mannerisms.