Management Consulting

So although I have no plans to go into management consulting ($ is tempting) I was just reading up on it.  The learning curve for me from where I've come since last year has been tremendous.  Last year this time I had no idea what consultants did.  I have a friend who is a consultant for Capgemini and I was like "wait... so do you work at _______ or do you work for Capgemini?"  I couldn't wrap my head around the whole thing.

Then I believe either last year or earlier this year Conde Naste' hired McKinsey to audit their portfolio.  The only reason this was big news for me and my industry (Luxury Retail) is because there were many articles written in the NY press about how Anna Wintour, the Editor of Vogue, was worried about losing her job.  That's a different story in and of itself because Vogue would be stupid to fire Anna now.  In any event, so yeah that's when I was like "Oooohh that's what McKinsey does."

But now that I know more about consulting, I would advise ANY and EVERY ONE thinking about getting and MBA to research this profession.  There's no way you can go into business school and not know what consultants do.  One important reason is that you want to have something to talk to your friends about.  As you progress through the application process and meet new people you'll inevitably meet those who want to go into consulting.  By knowing the basics, you'll be able to have an intelligent conversation with them.

Also - by researching what consultants do and how they think, the GMAT will make more sense and it will be easier to break down!  I kid you not.  So here is the basic website I was perusing just now about Management Consulting.  I was also on Bain's website looking at some of their case studies through this widget they have:  Bain Consulting.  I promise that if you go through these resources you'll understand why b-schools want people who think a certain way!

That's it for now... I'll update you on Day 2 of SMX tomorrow and I'll also tell you why I am up at this hour!  My schedule is messed up because of work I had to do late last night - for work!  Ugh...