One of the more memorable parts of the consulting recruiting process was witnessing people attempting to network with consulting firms. What stood out was that people didn’t seem to have a commonsense understanding of networking best practices. Consequently, I witnessed some networking maneuvers that were simply bad form. I thought I had buried those amusing memories in my past, but this summer students have been seeking to network with me, and so now I’m experiencing some of these less than optimal networking tactics from the other side. Hence, I thought it would be helpful to highlight 6 pieces of tactical guidance for networking with consulting firms.
1. Do Not Make the Conversation About How You Deserve Consulting
I am really amused how often networking conversations start with something along the lines of “I want to go into consulting because it meets my salary expectations” or “consulting is the best next career step for me”. I believe that these statements come up here and there because so much of networking is casual conversation (coffee chat, phone with a friend, etc.). However, even in a conversation with a personal friend, such comments are self-defeating, because they don’t connect with the actual interests of any firm while also coming off as entitled.
2. Emphasize Your Potential to the Firm
What can inspire a more productive conversation with a consultant or recruiter is helping them understand how you might be an asset to the firm. For you, this means being able to succinctly refer back to your strengths that highlight your value in general, and to this consulting firm specifically.
Generally speaking, strengths fall under three categories:
- Skills – e.g. accounting, finance, data analysis
- Knowledge – e.g. understanding of the aerospace industry
- Experience – e.g. managed a $100 million-dollar joint venture
By highlighting your strengths, it allows the people you are networking with to view you as a high potential success story who they will be much more eager to help. As a result, you are more likely to have a productive networking experience that results in:
- Insightful information collection
- Being routed appropriately to someone that can better explain your opportunities in a firm of interest
- Referral to a recruiter
- Being made aware of an alternative opportunity that might be a better fit for you
3. Ask Questions That Show You Did Your Homework
Show up to every networking event having done the work to understand the firm, and ready to seek further clarification about a certain detail or perspective that isn’t readily publicly available. Showing that you have some understanding about the firm highlights that you are a serious candidate, which will likely lead to a more productive networking experience.
4. Be Prepared to Highlight How You are Prepared for Consulting’s Hardships
I have been in quite a few consulting networking events where the key point of conversation was checking how ready people are to endure consulting’s hardships, in particular the long hours, frequent travel, and simply being plugged in 24/7 when on an engagement. If you aren’t well suited for that (for example, due to commitments in your personal life), then consulting might not be a good fit for you to begin with and this will be exposed during the networking events. However, if you are well suited to endure consulting hardships, be prepared to highlight this when the question gets asked. For example, a former college athlete can highlight how the grueling hours of practice combined with academics to perform at the highest levels shows the grit to muster through consulting’s toughest days.
5. Be Prepared to Highlight How Consulting Fits Your Long-Term Career Goals
I have noticed that networking sessions are also pulse checks to see if potential candidates have long term viability in the firm. It is commonly understood that most people don’t go into consulting to stay in consulting. However, despite this, hiring someone only to watch them leave within a year is not in any firm’s interests given the amount of money that consulting firms invest in training and development. Obviously, candidates can’t read the future either. The best way to manage this while networking is simply to be able to tell a story about how robust consulting experience really fits with your career goals, be it becoming COO at a client or Partner at the firm.
6. Identify Opportunities for Follow on Action
It is okay if you go to a networking event and no follow-on action is offered by the person you spoke to. It doesn’t necessarily mean the engagement went badly. The person might just be tired from a long day of work, or the networking engagement was all about small talk to see how people do in social settings in the first place. However, it is important for you to use your emotional intelligence to feel out if a conversation is going well enough that you are in a position to ask for follow on action. The most appropriate follow on action to ask for is a referral to talk to other people within the firm that could possibly answer your more nuanced questions. I personally think it is bad form to ask for an internal recommendation or recruiter referral, even if it is your friend. This is because most firms already have incentive mechanisms in place for people to conduct an internal referral if they like a candidate.
Conclusion
Ultimately, no matter how many Olympic medals you have won or patents you have filed in your name, it is important to network as a consulting candidate. Hopefully, the 6 guidelines highlighted above will help you network more smartly while avoiding some common mistakes.
Hall Wang is a dual degree MBA and Master of Public Policy graduate from Georgetown University who will be matriculating into a major management consulting firm in the fall. He has worked at America’s most innovative companies including Blue Origin and Facebook, as well as having done two combat deployments as a US Army Officer.
Image: Unsplash
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