Consultants put on clothes depending on their management consulting firm, on the occasions they participate in and the people they’re dealing with. Continue reading this post to get familiar with dress codes consultants follow.

Some scientific researches support that clothes and accessories make a difference in how people perceive one’s capabilities and personality. People wearing thick, black-rimmed glasses are often labelled as “geeks”. Those who are not acquainted with the well-dressed man who just  got promoted to a managerial position will assume that he’s probably smart because of his getup.

These indicators are the reason why management consultants must be careful in choosing their clothes as they perform their duties and responsibilities. Since they interact with many people (including clients), they must ensure that they dress up accordingly. They are not only hired to provide solutions to business problems but also to promote the brand of their management consulting firm.  Below are three factors they consider on what clothes to put on.

Rules

Management consulting firms have their own rules on what clothes to wear. Some require their employees to wear suit for five working days while some implement the business casual policy on Fridays. Some companies do not have specific rules, but will let the consultants choose what they believe is most appropriate.

Occasions

When they are working at client’s premises, consultants usually put on suits and ties. Since they represent the company, they must project a professional image through their clothes, shoes, accessories and even scent. It would be too sloppy to show up in a meeting with the CEO or top management with jeans and polo-shirt on. Actually, this just does not happen in the real consulting world.

People

There are also clients who prefer consultants to dress casually when dealing with their employees to fit in. Dressing formally may cause aloofness between the two groups. Lew Sauder, the author of Consulting 101, narrated in this post that while he as in Ernst & Young, one of his clients said he would send the consultants home if they show up dressier than jeans.

Given the factors above, the dress codes of management consultants can be summarized into three. These are the following :

Formal Dress Code

This includes wearing a suit, a pair of pants or a dress skirt and for men, a nice tie. They must be cleaned and well-ironed. Accessories must not go beyond three pieces. The number of firms or clients who require consultants to strictly follow this on a daily basis has decreased in the last few years.

Business Casual Code

For men, this includes pressed collared shirts, cotton trousers and belt. For women, slacks and skirts with appropriate length paired with a dress shirt are acceptable. Ties and cufflinks are not required in this category.

Casual Code

This allows employees to work comfortably in jeans, informal shirts and blouses. However, clothing under this category must still be appropriate for office work. They can’t just show up with clothes used for cleaning the house, exercising or doing the laundry.

First impression may not necessarily last but it has a great impact on how others perceive a person. Since dressing smartly seems to be associated with credibility and professionalism, management consulting employees consider the three factors above before choosing the dress code perfect for the day.

If you’re an applicant who’s very particular with dress codes, research on what your target company requires. You can do so through the Internet but networking is better since you’ll get first hand information from different consultants. Don’t forget to check this post on showing a corporate image in consulting interviews too.

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Management consulting has two faces: one shows off the advantages and the other tolerates the disadvantages. These opposite forces make the position both gratifying and taxing. Continue reading this post to learn the pros and cons of the management consulting industry.

What Are the Advantages of a Management Consulting Career?

Below are the four most commonly cited advantages of working as a management consultant.

Compensation

The five-digit salary has consistently attracted new recruits and kept incumbents in the  industry. Depending on the size of the firm, the country, and the assigned responsibilities, new graduates who get hired usually receive a five-digit salary. In addition to the generous compensation, consultants receive allowances, insurance, and other benefits. During a time of economic crisis, this package is an incentive to many job seekers.

Skill Development

The responsibilities of a management consulting position will sharpen a consultant’s analytical, organizational, and communication skills. These capabilities are utilized on a daily basis and therefore improve with extended experience. Even if a consultant decides to leave the industry, he or she will be able to employ these enhanced skills in future positions.

Rewarding Experience

A consultant’s responsibilities can be summarized as an individual who helps an organization improve its efficiency and profits. The research studies and market segmentation and competition analyses are focused on company growth, which indirectly help thousands of employees. This goal gives consultants noble aspirations and they continually enhance their knowledge as the job is highly intellectual.

Wide Network

Consultants are assigned to work for different clients on diverse projects. Because of this, they can widen their network without putting forth much effort. Their connections, if properly nurtured, can lead to more opportunities, better employment, and lasting friendships.

What Are the Disadvantages of a Management Consulting Career?

The management consulting position also has disadvantages; four of which are listed below:

Long Hours

Because of the nature of their job, management consultants work long hours, anywhere from 60 to 80 hours per week. Their time is consumed with client and team meetings, interviews, workshops, problem solving, focused group discussions, and client communication. Hence, consultants need to work extra hours to conduct analyses and evaluations so they can timely and expertly comply with a client’s demands.

Working hours do vary among firms, but in top-tier management consulting firms such as McKinsey, Bain, Booz, and BCG, expect to work over 60 hours a week on average.

Travel

One of the common misconceptions of aspiring consultants is that traveling is a glamorous part of a management consulting career. At first, traveling can be exciting, but when consultants realize how much of their time is spent on planes and in hotels, they miss the comforts of home. Traveling can also be exhausting; consultants  are constantly adjusting to a new environment, new culture, and diverse people. Furthermore, consultants do not have time for leisure and sightseeing during their trips because they are consumed with work.

Lack of Family Time

Because consultants spend a majority of their time working and traveling, they sacrifice time with their families. When they come home after work, their family has finished dinner and the kids are already asleep. Because of the demands of the job, missing birthdays, anniversaries, and other family gatherings is a common occurrence. Consultants need optimum discipline to manage their time.

Stress

The research, analyses, and heavy workload can cause stress for any management consultant. In addition, consultants frequently deal with chaotic management and difficult employees. Consulting team members don’t always get along because of differences in perspectives and personalities.

If you add up all the disadvantages listed above, you will realize that it can be extremely stressful to be a management consultant.

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Management consultants have different preferences when it comes to sectors to work on, topics to research about and projects to be assigned in. But there are three success factors all of them must possess to carry out their tasks. Find out what these are.

Analytic Thinking

This success factor refers to the ability to understand the problem, break it into smaller parts and provide a structure for its resolution.

The management consulting problem presented by your client may be new or too complex for you. You may not have an idea about their industry or you may not have encountered their dilemma in books or in your previous cases. Hence, you must be smart enough to readily pick things up and elaborate it in your own simpler ways. At times, clients are not organized in presenting the actual situation so you must also have the ability to read between the lines.

To understand the problem better, break down the elements to get a full grasp of the situation. By analyzing the case in a step-by-step strategy, you’ll find out the affecting factors that cause the issue. For instance, if your client is threatened by the new product of his competitor, you can help him by conducting market researches, assessing the competition and evaluating advertisements.

Organization

In management consulting, you can make use of your organizational skills. This includes effective planning for a  course of action, timely implementation of plans and efficient time management. You need these capabilities as you’ll be bombarded with emails, reports and other information. Since you’ll be very busy with meetings, interviews and reports, you’ll wish for more than 24 hours a day.

Disorganization significantly affects productivity. When you are unable to coordinate scheduling, store information and consolidate information neatly, you’ll end up doing these tasks differently over and over again. This results to waste of time and energy. The minutes or hours you have spent on these simple tasks could have been allotted for major concerns. Being unsystematic may also lead to confusion, which might worsen the stressful work-life balance issues of consultants.

Communication

If you want to work for a management consulting firm, you must have the ability to express yourself in a clear manner. You will be interacting with your client, your client’s employees and other consultants; hence, be flexible enough to adjust your language according to the person you’re dealing with. Top management will more likely expect you to be formal and professional while frontline workers would appreciate a friendlier disposition. You must be emotionally intelligent to help you in this aspect.

Excellent written communication skills is also valued in management consulting industry. Since you are expected to come up with researches, reports and presentations, you must have the ability to concisely and eloquently express your thoughts in words. Remember that these documents will be circulated from one person to another. Your client might even keep your output for decades. Thus, your reports must be carefully crafted so people would easily understand and appreciate your analysis and recommendations.

Recruiters start assessing applicants with these three skills as criteria in mind. They see to it that the fit interview questions they ask include experiential and situational cases to be able to gauge your natural abilities.  If you’re pursuing a career in consulting, try to develop these three critical success factors as early as possible.

What are management consultants hired for? Does their presence mean the executives are incapable of resolving their own issues and analyzing their own systems? Why are consulting teams hired for hundreds of thousands of dollars for a list of recommendations? Read this article and understand their role in organizations.

What Exactly Do Consultants Do?

The consultants offer industry knowledge and specific solutions through their skills and expertise. They are mainly concerned with the operations, management, strategies and structure of an organization. They often assist and support organizational leaders in identifying options, making key corporate decisions, generating recommendations, implementing objective solutions and providing additional resources. They are often sought for sound advice with the primary aim of improving client’s business performance, maximizing profits and accelerating growth.

What Does a Typical Workday Look Like for a Management Consultant?

A typical workday for a management consultant is often varied as the consultancy jobs are project-based. Certain projects may be based in one site alone or across several locations. Also, a consultancy job may vary in length of service depending on the firm, client demands and consultancy type. Consultants can also either work as individuals or as a team.

For neophyte consultants, tasks often involve:

• Formulating a research plan, carrying out the research and data collection
• Analysis and interpretation of the collected data
• Using frameworks
• Facilitating workshops and running focus groups
• Interviewing management staff, employees and stakeholders
• Preparing business presentations and proposals

On the other hand, senior consultants are adept at:

• Identifying issues and forming hypotheses
• Leading projects and programs
• Formulating and carrying out solutions as well as recommendations
• Managing a team of analysts
• Ensuring client needs and expectations are met

What Can Consultants Bring to the Organization?

Management consultants are hired to help organizations improve their performance. This is possible because of the following:

Competencies and Expertise

Consultants have undergone rigid recruitment process. They went through resume screening and testing. They have undergone intensive review of consulting case frameworks to do better in the interview rounds. No one is hired without being able to prove he or she has the knowledge, skills, abilities, experience and commitment to do any kind of management consulting job. Apart from this, their functional expertise in a particular area such as technology, human resources, virtual management, etc. makes them credible enough to advise top management on what needs to be done.

Wealth of Experience

Consultants also bring with them the best practices they have observed in their previous projects. Their relationships and interactions with clients from different business sectors back them up in readily identifying areas for improvement and in determining applicable, effective solutions. Consultants can instantly do system benchmarking for the client based on their rich experience.

Objectivity

Consultants look into processes and routine activities of client employees with careful analysis. Further, because there are no personal strings attached between the consulting firm and the client, consultants can come up with unbiased proposals based on numerical data, research studies and gathered facts. It’s not difficult for them to propose heartbreaking layoffs or salary adjustment.

Why Do Management Consultants Sometimes Get Criticized?

Management consulting also get a slice of criticism from the people around them. These usually spring from any of the three factors explained below.

Fear

The mere presence of consultants in the company trigger fear among employees. Company officers get insecure because it would appear they’re not working hard enough to find solutions to their own problems or to recommend strategies for system improvement. The rank and file employees get scared of the possibilities of manpower downsizing and employment termination. Some are apprehensive because management consultants might reveal proprietary secrets. Others feel unready for any kind of organizational change they will bring to the company.

Expensive Professional Fee

A project from top tier consulting firms such as McKinsey, Bain, Booz and BCG costs several hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not more. Senior consultants easily charge clients a four-digit fee an hour for their services. On top of this, consultants enjoy other benefits such as free travel expenses, medical insurance and other allowances. These perks are definitely a great cut off the client’s budget. Hence, many question if hiring them is worth it.

Impractical Solutions

Another reason why management consultants are often criticized is because of their lack of implementation of their recommendations. Sometimes their short stay in the company doesn’t provide them with a possibility of implementing their solution. As a result, critics say that consulting recommendations are not always practical.

One of the common problems in management consulting agencies is the work-life imbalance of its employees. The nature of their job compels them to work for longer hours, a clear indication that there is less time to prioritize the simple pleasures in life. If you’d like to pursue a career in this field, find out how you’ll manage this issue.

The coin has always two sides. In the field of management consulting, employees enjoy a number of attractive benefits but they must also accomplish milestones for their clients by all means, even if it implies staying at the office for more than eight hours a day – and it does so almost every day. To elaborate this idea, below are the happy and sad sides of the consulting industry.

Compensation and Benefit Package vs Time

One of the motivating reasons why thousands of applicants would go for a management consulting position is the money that puts lavish food on the dining table and pays the costly bills. The annual base salary estimate for the fresh graduates ranges from $45,000 – $60,000, depending on the country and the size of the firm. This excludes the signing and year-end bonuses, the health care insurance, the reimbursed travel expenses and other promising incentives. Expectedly, the starting rate is higher for those who have earned a master’s or graduate degree and those who have relevant experience. The salary gets even more attractive on progression to senior levels.

However, this perk comes with a price so expensive that the monthly salary cannot even afford – demand for time in the office. Most management consultants have to work for 60-80 hours in a week because of the project requirements. At times, the regular working hours are only consumed by client and team meetings; hence the need for more hours to seriously study and analyze information. More often than not, consultants end up with bulky wallets and wealthy bank accounts without sufficient time to do their hobbies, go shopping and enjoy what they earn.

People Exposure vs Family Bonding

Another perk consultants get from working at management consulting firms like McKinsey, Bain, Booz and BCG is the opportunity to meet a variety of people – from dynamic colleagues bringing in different cultures and work orientation to business-minded clients coming from different areas. This exposure doesn’t only hone their social interaction skills to the fullest, it also widens their professional network. The chatty enjoys every conversation, the observant has so much things to ponder and the impatient learns to wait.

On the other hand, because of the demanding schedule with other people, consultants have less time for their loved ones. They often end up missing their friend’s birthday bash or their weekend getaways with their kids or cousins. They feel so caught up with their work they’re unable to spend time with their family. Oftentimes, they need to travel for a few days in a week, making their absence at home more inconvenient and distressing to others.

Challenging vs Stressful Opportunities

Many applicants love the intellectual challenges of a management consulting position. The thinking aspect may drain most people but for those who are interested in a consulting career, going through numerical data, analyzing graphs and charts, generating options for problems and recommending strategies to top management are exciting sources of energy. Management consulting firms give their employees opportunities to learn and master new skills in every project. Consultants have to learn quickly and to be motivated enough to keep up with others.

Unfortunately, because of the prolonged hours of brain-utilizing, the responsibilities cause headaches to consultants. Stress becomes a constant companion with the deadlines they need to meet, difficult people they have to discuss with and long hours they have to endure. Only a few people are graceful under too much stress. This explains why the turnover rate in management consulting companies is quite high.

Venturing into Management Consulting?

If you’re embarking in this field, you should seriously consider the yin-yang situations cited above. The job has its own wonderful opportunities paired with alarming threats. However, if you’d really like to give it a try, then go for it. Many consultants who resigned from consulting firms would never trade their experience for anything else in the world. Sure their resumes look even more credible but on top of that, the learning process they underwent was priceless.

Here are some suggestions on how to maintain balance in management consulting.

Accept the Situation

Accept that work-life balance is hard to attain when you’re a consultant. This doesn’t really solve the problem but nevertheless, being aware lessens your unrealistic expectations. Distress occurs when the ship doesn’t sail as smoothly as you expected it to. Knowing the truth at least conditions you to prepare for work-loaded days.

Establish Boundaries

Do not be a family person and a consultant at the same time. For instance, during weekends, do not go on a family picnic with a laptop so you can check emails and continue making reports. Learn to draw a line between work and play. For a consultant with a hectic schedule, this may be too hard but still possible. It all boils down to your time management and organizational skills.

Make Use of Technology

With the advent of technology, communication has never been easier. While on the train to visit a client in another province, why don’t you bring your wireless Internet connection and check your e-mails along the way? When you take a break from work, why don’t you call your partner and kids and have a little chat about their whereabouts? When you’re often physically away from home, your family doesn’t have to feel you’re also emotionally absent.

Refuse, If You Have to

If you have valid reasons, you may say “No” to certain requests or demands. Your colleagues will most probably empathize with you. They understand that you have personal priorities as much as they do. In the same way, if your colleagues refuses for an important reason, respect their decision. Everyone in the management consulting team can always make a compromise.

Enjoy

Getting a summer internship program or being employed by a management consulting firm is a once in a blue moon opportunity. Though you’re expected to work hard, don’t forget the fun side of it. Love what you’re doing; it’s the perfect idea of combating negative forces at work. Get to know your teammates on a personal level. Know their stories and share yours, too.

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Emotional intelligence is a must for you to carry out the responsibilities of a management consultant. Your interaction with people every now and then requires your capability to handle your emotions in the most professional way. Read this post and know how important it is in the management consulting industry. 

Popularized by Daniel Goleman in 1995, emotional intelligence (EI) refers to the person’s extent of emotional awareness and control. The author said that it’s a primary predictor of success in the workplace. An indicator of this is the fact that there are many highly intelligent management consulting applicants who don’t get the job because they simply don’t have the ability to adapt to the nature of the consulting field. Some don’t last because they find it difficult to interact with people, they don’t understand the value of hard work and they can’t handle the pressure and stress. They have failed to develop the right attitude for the right situation.

As a consultant, you will be engaged in projects where you need to show a high level of emotional and social intelligence. For example, you might be sent to a client to help them restructure the organization. You will need to talk to different people, and quickly get along well with them so that they can help you with your project. You need to be emphatic and at the same time confident and decisive.

To go into this further, below are Goleman’s EI model’s four constructs, all of which are important in management consulting firms.

Self-Awareness

If you want to pursue a career in management consulting, you need to manifest this skill even before the start of the recruitment process. If you know yourself, you can easily assess if the job is meant for you. You can also readily answer the interviewer’s questions when asked about your strengths, weaknesses, abilities and limitations. Further, self-awareness is your key to self-development, a very important factor for any kind of job.

Self-Management

Signing an employment contract with a top tier management consulting firm like McKinesy and Bain will definitely bring heaps of changes to your daily activities. The pressure from analyzing organizational issues and generating recommendations for improvement will push you to your boundaries. This requires you to manage your stress under pressure.

Moreover, you will also be swamped with work; so you must exercise your drive to accomplish and achieve things. You might have to work on extended hours for consecutive days but if you understand the value of discipline and delaying self-gratification, you’ll appreciate the work results better.

Social Awareness

Since you won’t be working alone as a management consulting staff, you need to get a feel of the people around you. You can do so with empathy. Listen to your clients when they communicate to you. What are their non-verbal cues telling you? How about their facial expression and tone of voice?

This construct is also helpful when you analyze the unexpressed needs of your clients. For instance, the top management may instruct you to improve employee productivity through system review. But as you reach out to employees, you might realize that the pay, not the system, is the cause of inefficiency.

Relationship Management

As you climb the ladder of management consulting career, you must develop higher level of social skills. You will be tasked to coach, inspire and lead a team of juniors and interns. To be able to excellently perform this responsibility, you must know how to bring out the best in them. If there is conflict in the team, you have to spot and resolve it. You must handle them professionally and encourage feedback and open discussion. Doing these things will maintain smooth relations among the group members.

This kind of intelligence is not innate but acquired. Like learning a sports or language, it will take time for you to embed it within your system. So while you’re still preparing for a management consulting position, start preparing for the job cognitively and emotionally.

So you’re already confident of your emotional intelligence?

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Our clients often ask us this question: what are some common misconceptions about getting a job in management consulting? As always we will be honest with you and provide you a picture of the real world through the experience of our team. Read on…

The biggest misconception and often most ill-conceived reason cited for applying for jobs in consulting is this imagined constant world travel. Applicants think it is cool to be able to travel a lot. Even if you are traveling like this all over the world, it is fun for a few months and then just becomes a routine part of your job. Applicants are attracted to travel, which is fine, but that is not an appropriate motivation to consider this career. You are not in your home very often – and in considering motivation, it is important to think about the lifestyle, where you are and want to be… is being away attractive to your career path?

A lot misinformation is about the nature of the work. People think they will creating savings and personal impact independently and immediately… but it is a team effort, and your role changes throughout your career, so an analyst may not have client contact or see results individually. Will you be happy doing analysis or leading teams and project work streams? Be granular in thinking about your actual tasks. All firms are impact driven, but you may overestimate or romanticize your direct, personal impact. But you may never even know or see what impact you had. You will spend a lot of hours driving toward a solution, you present your solution and walk away. It may or may not be implemented. Will you be ok with that?

We hope that this blog post gave you some new insights about the consulting career. Head over and download our guide on how to land a consulting job to get more insights.

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Doing your research on the top management consulting firms is essential to deciding how and where you want to apply. In this article we will take a look at top 10 management consulting firms. Read more…

Research Behind the Top Ten

Vault.com, an industry-leading career intelligence site, recently published its 2012 rankings of the world’s top management consulting firms. The list offers few surprises, as the usual industry front-runners make a strong showing. Bain & Company, McKinsey & Company and The Boston Consulting Group dominate the top three, as they did in 2011. Booz & Company rejoins the top ten this year after placing 16th last year. That said, the only substantial surprise is the presence of the Monitor Group, ranked at number five, up from 25th place last year.

Coming Trends in Management Consulting

As 2011 comes to a close and the new year begins, a handful of trends are emerging in the management consulting field:

• A resurgence of corporate profitability in certain fields may see a spike in private-sector corporate demand for consulting services.
• As this demand for consulting services increases, hiring possibilities may also improve. While staff retention/attrition is worsening, the recruitment picture seems to be rosier than in recent, leaner years, with much of the hiring emphasis being on experienced consultants.
• Sustainability is having its day in the sun. All major consulting firms are taking sustainability seriously and are either already there or going there in the near-term.

The Top Ten

1. Bain & Company

For the second year running, Bain & Company is Vault.com’s pick for the top management consulting firm in the world. While not the largest and not the oldest firm, Bain is among the most prestigious global consulting firms because of the standards it set early in its existence. From the beginning, Bain chose innovative approaches, did not actively market themselves and often took no fees until they had proven themselves. Later, Bain aligned its incentives with client performance, sometimes taking equity in its clients’ companies instead of consulting fees. Having a stake in the client’s success was seen as an innovative business model.

Differentiating Bain from its major competitors are these kinds of innovative approaches as well as its pioneering position in private equity consulting and its specialization in M&A and organizational restructuring. To accomplish these kinds of aims, Bain hires consultants who have the ability to think conceptually and translate concepts into action. Flexibility is highly valued, as the opportunity for cross-training across industries is prevalent (even if at the expense of being able to specialize in a specific field).

Learn more about Bain & Company in ConsultingFact’s in-depth profile.

2. McKinsey & Company

Touting its ability and drive to do things differently, McKinsey sits nearly atop the heap of the world’s top-ten management consulting firms. Despite its big-name recognition, McKinsey operates at a fairly low profile, perhaps due to its controversial practice of non-exclusivity with clients. Emphasizing ideas as the most important engine of McKinsey’s operations, McKinsey offers a good starting place for new consultants but does not appear to offer an environment conducive to collaboration and teamwork because consultants are bound to secrecy about their projects (due to the non-exclusivity/possible conflicts of interest issues).

Similarly, the firm employs an “up and out” policy, whereby consultants need to advance upward in their career or leave the firm within a specific amount of time. This ensures a built-in turn-over rate that renews the firm’s staff at regular intervals (which may contribute to the constant stream of new ideas on which McKinsey runs), but which may foster an environment of “horizontal stagnation”, that is, consultants may be “promoted” by adding additional duties to their existing job. Essentially, a heftier workload without progressive responsibility or upward momentum but also not an invitation to leave the company.

Read on for ConsultingFact’s in-depth profile of McKinsey & Company.

3. The Boston Consulting Group, Inc. (BCG)

BCG still made it to the top 10 strategy consulting firms. Beyond its prestigious name and reputation, BCG is behind many of the industry’s best-known concepts, such as the “experience curve” and “growth-share matrix”. With these principles as its backbone, BCG values conceptual thinking and reasoning and places emphasis on continued growth and learning for consultants. As a Big Four consultancy firm, BCG competes head-to-head with much larger firms with greater name recognition but differentiates itself by focusing on, for example, fields like branding and marketing (in addition to more traditional disciplines).

Based in Boston with a global reach, BCG is widely praised as a solid place to work, offering among the most competitive compensation packages for consultants.

Read more in the ConsultingFact in-depth profile of Boston Consulting Group.

4. Deloitte Consulting LLP

One of the “Big Four” accountancy firms and the second-largest professional services firms globally, Deloitte is well-respected and a massive name, major player in the management consultancy field. Its depth of expertise among its over 40,000 employees is virtually unparalleled. Focused primarily on human capital, strategy and operations and technology across multiple industries, Deloitte leads its competition in terms of aggregate revenue, growth and market share.

In short, Deloitte is a giant, and as such, can offer an expansive career trajectory to consultants, who will have the opportunity to take advantage of Deloitte’s global presence and its sheer size and scale. The downside is that an organization of this scope can be hampered by layers of bureaucracy and unneeded complexity that develop naturally when a firm reaches these proportions.

5. Monitor Group

Monitor Group has leapt into Vault.com’s top-ten firms this year. Its smaller size versus other, bigger firms against which Monitor competes head-on coupled with its global footprint makes it an agile and dynamic firm. A flexible consultant can join what is undoubtedly an innovative organization that is not saddled by too much legacy structure, in part because of its size and in part because it, like many firms, was affected by the economic crisis and has adapted to current economic conditions. Though based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Monitor Group has a presence in every corner of the world – again, much like larger, better-known consulting firms.

As Monitor Group places a premium on getting sustainable results for its international array of clients, having a presence in key locations is key to capitalizing on its expertise and information. The firm has been lauded for its pro bono service and for its collaborative, feedback-oriented, lessons-learned corporate culture, which is one of its strongest distinguishing factors. Monitor Group itself characterizes its placement in the Vault rankings as being due to “morale and momentum”.

6. A.T. Kearney

Headquartered in Chicago with more than 50 offices worldwide, A.T. Kearney has a storied history that is tied up in the history of one of the industry’s oldest and best-known consultancies, McKinsey, from which Kearney split off in the 1930s. In the early days, Kearney focused on manufacturing and operations, which has expanded across industries and practices. This history imbues Kearney with a sense of long-standing tradition and culture, which has been cited as a bonus in terms of being a good place to start out as a management consultant.

History could also be seen as a handicap in terms of innovation. Like most large consultancy firms, Kearney has broad cross-functional, cross-industry focus areas in which consultants can expect to work. Its distinguishing offering is The Global Business Policy Council, which Kearney created as a strategic service designed to cater to the world’s top CEOs and business-minded thought leaders. The Council brings together leaders from the corporate, government and academic disciplines to foster discussion about issues relating to all these groups, such as globalization, foreign direct investment and offshoring. Kearney offers three separate strategic services to these leaders as a part of this council.

7. Oliver Wyman

Based in New York with 55 international office locations, Oliver Wyman operates across industries all over the globe. Oliver Wyman is part of a larger group of professional services companies, which contributes to its cross-functional, multinational presence. This network of affiliated companies deepens the pool from which expertise is drawn, which adds value to the consulting services offered by the Oliver Wyman Group. Known as a firm that values ideas and creativity, this is a place where driven, hungry, internationally-minded consultants will thrive, as they will be expected to travel extensively and put in a lot of extra time.

8. The Cambridge Group

More than anything else, The Cambridge Group aims to help clients attain higher growth rates and profit margins. In large measure, the big factor that differentiates Cambridge from other consultancy firms, particularly those that specialize in economic services, is its insistence that demand supersedes supply in terms of importance. This drives the firm’s focus on identifying profitable demand opportunities and optimizing processes and pricing. The Cambridge Group claims to provide its clients actionable insight and growth blueprints as opposed to more general plans and recommendations. Its size and scope make this attention to detail possible. As a small, Chicago-based firm with just two offices, the firm is small enough in scale that a consultant can expect to work hands-on with analysis and growth strategy from the get-go while being on-board as the firm itself grows.

9. Analysis Group, Inc.

Headquartered in Boston with ten offices in the United States and Canada, Analysis Group is highly regarded for its commitment to delivering economic and financial analysis and strategy across sectors. Employing these specialties, Analysis Group, as a place to work, is reportedly collegial and has a small-firm feel in what is actually a much larger company. Unlike larger, global firms, the primary focus on economic and financial consulting creates room for specialization and carves out a solid reputation in its areas of expertise. Given this emphasis at the Analysis Group, potential consultants with strong analytical and academic skills have an edge.

10. Booz & Company

Widely touted as a great place to get started with a career in management consulting, Booz is a company whose global presence, wide areas of expertise and emphasis on wholesale organizational change (“discontinuities”) will ensure that a new or mid-career consultant never sees a shortage of opportunity. The firm pushes its consultants to learn and contribute and demands a lot (a heavy workload) but supports its hires with its team-oriented structure, training and intelligent staff and subject-matter experts from whom to seek advice.

On the prestige front, Booz is recognized, respected and highly visible with its focus on an exceptionally vast landscape of fields. The firm’s big name will be a draw, as will the chance to work across industries in a global environment. Detractors state that the firm suffers from some internal inertia following the spin-off of one of Booz’s former core businesses – government consulting. The firm still enjoys legacy prestige, despite distancing itself from its biggest differentiator, and has moved more firmly into specializing in business-transition consultancy (the aforementioned discontinuities, when a business moves from one major focus to another).

Learn more about Booz & Company in ConsultingFact’s in-depth profile.

Your Career

For a comprehensive guide to your own career in management consulting, download our guide on how to land a job in management consulting. ConsultingFact.com offers guides for resumes, cover letters, case interviews, case frameworks, and other material that will help you land a consulting job in one of the top 10 strategy consulting firms.

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Vault.com recently released its annual consulting survey on top 25 consulting firms in Europe for 2011. The survey was conducted among 2000 European consultants of all levels based on scales, such as prestige, quality of life, overall diversity, selectivity, business outlook and leadership. Read more about the results…

Top 10 European consulting firms in terms of overall performances all scored beyond 6.5 out of 10. Bain & Company European topped the 2011 rank by 8.579. It is also awarded as the best consulting firm to work for in Europe. Bain has long enjoyed fair reputations in quality of life style where it excelled McKinsey and was the major factor it took the crown. Coming after Bain is BCG and Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, respectively scoring 8.390 and 7.596. Before Vault’s ranking, BCG was also on Fortune’s“100 Best Companies to Work For” which focus on, a cooperative culture, extensive training, employee development, progressive benefits, and a commitment to social-responsibility initiatives.

The Top 10 European Consulting Firms Rankings 2011 winners are: Bain & Company, The Boston Consulting Group, Ronald Berger Strategy Consultants, Booz & Company, Oliver Wyman, OC&C Strategy Consultants, Accenture, A.T. Kearney, Monitor Group, PRTM.

Vault.com also made separate list for each scale. For the prestige scale, McKinsey & Company unsurprisingly championed the rank with a score of 8.780 out of 10 and remained as the most prestigious consulting firm for consulting career seekers. Although today’s candidates lay more emphasis on work-life balance, everyone still wants to have big names brought by McKinsey (and of course McKinsey itself) on resumes. BCG, Bain and Booz closely follow McKinsey ranking from the 2^nd to the 4^th.

Apart from the Big 3 who dominated most of the top positions on Vault’s ranking, it is also important to mention smaller boutique consulting firms who did very well. Candesic, for instance, is a big winner for quality of life scale. Listed on top 25, Candesic took top spots in several fields in term of quality of life. It is considered as the top firm for flexible hours and flexible employment. Its career supervisors are considered extremely amicable, approachable and most helpful for freshmen consultants. It encourages and forms very cooperative and friendly working atmosphere for all employees to grow and develop together. Notably, Candesic employs a phenomenal ratio of women consultants, making male and female employee ratio 1:1.

If you are seeking a career in management consulting yourself, then consider downloading our guide on how to land a job in management consulting. ConsultingFact.com offers guides for resumes, cover letters, case interviews, case frameworks, and other material that will help you land a consulting job.

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This article is a continuation of the career preparation series which aim at giving a comprehensive knowledge of world’s top management consulting companies. The more you know about these top companies, the less nervous and more confident you will be. Read more in this article…

BCG Overview

BCG, namely, The Boston Consulting Group or, is a top management consulting firm with business presence in 41 countries around the globe. It stayed on Fortune Magazine list “Best Companies to Work For” for 5 consecutive years. BCG is considered as one of the elite management consulting firms and a key player in management strategy industry. It is ranked 2nd in the most recent Fortune list.

BCG was founded by Bruce D. Henderson who graduated from Vanderbilt and Harvard Business School. When BCG was formed, it is a one-man consulting corporation with one-telephone. Henderson scheduled an employee stock ownership plan in 1975, and employees took the company independent from The Boston Company. The process of share buyout was completed in 1979.

Noted Consulting Tools

Over decades, BCG elites have developed numerous models and approaches for business strategy formation and case analysis. Among these tools, Growth Share Matrix and Advantage Matrix perhaps are the most famous ones.

Growth Share Matrix is used to figure out which SBUs (strategic business units) has potential to bring high ROI and which ones need strategic adjustment for better capital allocation. The Matrix summarizes business units as “Stars”, “Cash Cows”, “Question Marks”, and “Dogs”. According to different category, business leaders can allocate different amount of cash to obtain an optimized investment portfolio.

Competitive Advantage Matrix is a new version of Growth Share Matrix. In the 1970s, BCG realized that growth share matrix was very much limited. It failed to take into consideration of a number of factors such as outside financing and business unit intercourse. The Advantage Matrix was then developed, consisting of two dimensions: competitive differentiation and unique competitive advantage.

Interview Process

BCG specific interview processes may vary by location but in general the process is divided into 3 parts: personal background check, case study interview and a Q&A session. There are usually two rounds of case interviews, with three separate interviews in the first round and two additional ones in the second, according to BCG official career guide.

Throughout the interview, BCG aims to find out whether you can fit in the corporation and how you would fit in.

The personal background check is done by experience interview. For instance, BCG might ask you to describe past experience about how and how much you impact in teamwork. Interviewers might also ask you to say something about how you tackle difficulties in tasks to check your problem solving skills. Also you might be queried about why you want to work at BCG etc.

In case study interview, you will be given a case to demonstrate your problem solving ability. Most cases are very much like a real project that requires your unique insight for solutions. You might be doing this interview together with the interviewer. Remember, BCG does not expect you to give an exact answer but a well-grounded solving process because there’s no single best answer to these case studies.

In the last section, you will have the opportunity to ask questions about BCG, i.e. working environment or anything you are interested in. This section shows BCG’s openness and sharing spirit. If you are the one BCG looking for, it would like you to know as much as you want and their interviewer will be more than happy to explain.

If you want more tips on how to prepare for consulting interviews,then download a free guide. ConsultingFact.com offers guides for resumes, cover letters, case interviews, case frameworks, and othermaterial that will help you land a consulting job.

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