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[Guest]

Thankyou to Tom and those whom have contributed for this great website.

I am currently a postdoctoral fellow (PhD in math) working at a major North American university. After doing a great deal of homework, I have begun to think about moving into a consulting role for both personal and professional reasons. I am primarily interested in midsize to larger firms (Australia or North America) with significant international exposure and a broad applications base. As I have begun looking into such firms, it appears that the hiring process is fairly rigid with application deadlines aligned with university schedules. Though I should say I have not found direct evidence on these firms website stating this, it seems to be floating around in a lot of places. Is this the case? I am keenly interested in making this change but am not sure if the application timelines are rigid as suggested, rolling every few months, or open. For example, is it possible to apply to such firms in January with the intention of looking for a position in the July-August timeframe?

Any thoughts or advice?

Thankyou

[alee228]

Hi Bill,

Thanks for joining the Consulting Forum!

I think you're asking two related questions:
1. do consulting firms have a rigid hiring process?, and
2. is it possible to delay your start time? For example, apply in January with the intention of starting in July-August

I'll give you my thoughts below, and I'd be interested to hear from others.

1. Hiring process

Each consulting firm will have a slightly different hiring policy. However, take McKinsey as an example.

I understand McKinsey hires in two different ways:

1. The milk round - They have an annual milk round. That is, they have a formal hiring process targetted at top students from top universities.
2. Experienced hires - they also interview experienced hires, and I understand that these interviews are done in batches. So, if you apply today and they like your application, they will likely hold your application until they have enough suitable applicants to do a batch of interviews. However, it is worth noting that if you apply as an experienced hire during the milk round then your application (even if quite impressive) may fall through the cracks.

2. Delayed starting time

If your intention is to delay your starting time, then I would suggest that you hold this information to yourself until you get an offer. Interviewing with consulting firms is very competitive so your primary objective should be to get offers. If you get an offer, then you have bargaining power to negotiate a suitable start date.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,
Tom

[mike0shores]

You can seek a professional advise from some agencies like The Career Foundation (www.careerfoundation.com)