Why Trying to Pivot to a Consulting Career through an Online MBA Might Not be the Best Idea

MBA consulting recruiting season starts every fall. For a few falls now, in my capacity as a volunteer career advisor, I have had to uncomfortably tell incredibly intelligent MBA students from highly respected schools that they are utterly ill-informed about entering the consulting profession. It isn’t that they did anything wrong per-se or that they suffered from a less than stellar academic instruction. The common thread with this group is that they all went to an exclusively online MBA program.

I want to highlight what online MBA students are missing that makes them less prepared for consulting compared to full time or even part-time MBA students. I do want to put out a disclaimer that in no way am I questioning the academic or career value of online MBAs. I am commenting purely on recruiting for a post-MBA consulting position.

The Consulting Career Landscape

When I talk to online MBA students, the first thing that strikes me is that they are unaware about industry dynamics. They don’t know what careers in consulting firms look like and what are trending consulting career trajectories. What they think they know is often a jumble of ideas cobbled together from a combination of websites, stories heard, and social media. At best, their perceptions lack context and at worst, they are flat out outdated or simply wrong. Without having a grounded career understanding, online MBAs come to me unable to coherently decide if consulting is the right career opportunity to meet their professional and personal goals.

In-person MBA students don’t acquire most of their consulting industry knowledge from the classroom. They generally learn about it through formal campus based recruiting events, their Consulting Club, or the constant pressure to network and talk to lots of consulting professionals. None of the online MBA students I talked to have access to the on-campus consulting events, Consulting Club programming, and they do little if any networking because they have never felt the pressure. Admittedly, it is much harder to network without access to consulting alumni who often make themselves available to Consulting Club members.

Firm Selection

Not only does every firm have its own culture and key activities that can vary drastically from one firm to another, but practices within each firm can also vary. What’s more, firms and practices are constantly changing, so what was said 5 years ago may be completely out of date. Yet, since online MBAs aren’t formally plugged into on-campus consulting resources, it is hard for them to know what is going on at firms to determine which consulting firms are a good fit for them (if any). The online MBA students I talk to are rather well versed on what they have seen on reddit or blogs, which is often outdated or lacks meaningful context. Hence, online MBA students often apply with much less understanding as to whether a particular firm is right for them.

Getting Your Application Noticed

For most MBA students, they won’t get an interview offer unless they have done some level of networking with practitioners at the firm, be it via Consulting Club events or backdoor channels. Without access to a Consulting Club, online MBA students have to resort to backdoor channels which are incredible hard to find out about. Firms are constantly changing their recruiting processes and sometimes they vary by office.

Behavioral and Case Interviews 

It is possible for an online MBA student to get an interview offer without networking if they have an interesting resume. Wow factor items like prestige work experience (e.g. CIA analyst or Google employee), outstanding extracurricular activities (e.g. Olympic or professional athlete), or significant academic achievements (e.g. major publications or research), may get someone an interview at a highly competitive firm. However, since online MBA students don’t have access to a pool of 2^nd year students and alumni who work with the Consulting Club to coach interview skills, they are at a distinct disadvantage. Though there are some good YouTube videos about consulting firm interviews, nothing beats live guidance and feedback from people who have already trained up for and passed a consulting interview.

The Bottom Line

Online MBAs may be great for certain people, but at least in its current manifestation, it is a bad idea for prospective consultants. Best case scenario is that an online MBA graduate manages to enter the consulting profession with a false set of expectations. Worst case scenario could be that an online MBA candidate fails to get an interview due to being poorly equipped to score one.

Hall Wang is a dual degree MBA and Master of Public Policy graduate from Georgetown University who has recently matriculated into a major management consulting firm. 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: Pexels

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