Myth vs Reality: Management Consulting
If you're looking for structure and training this is the place for you. But if you got a vision...take your talents elsewhere
Ah, so you think you want to be a consultant (at least for a summer). You’ve come to the right place. After my summer at McKinsey and Company I’ve broken down some myths and realities as well as some of my central takeaways.
🚨Disclaimer: The following insights are drawn specifically from a summer at McKinsey. I do not claim to know the specifics of life at any other consulting firm. Take my thoughts with a grain of salt. 🚨
With that out of the way, let’s answer a question that still baffles most professionals: what exactly does a consultant do?
Here’s my definition.
A consultant solves complex problems for clients through a combination of educated prediction, discussion, and presentation.
The day to day includes consists of being deep in the sheets (excel 👀), creating slide decks, problem solving with a team and meeting with clients. Traditional cases include growth strategy, solving an organization problem, and conducting a transformation for a client company.
I believe every summer should start with a hypothesis. Mine this summer was “After experiencing government cyber, I may like the faster pacing, more direct impact, and greater resources of a private sector job in cyber.”
After 10 weeks of testing, here’s how my mini hypotheses panned out:
1. Consulting is just powerpoint and excel. ❌ MYTH
In the olden golden days this may have been true. But nowadays consultants are using python, pandas, and a variety of different digital platforms to conduct their work. Bob Sternfels, Global Managing Partner at McKinsey, predicts that in ten years that consulting will be more about programming and data management than anything else. And although I like to joke that consulting is a catch all career for any Political Science major, I ended up working with a team of 4 PhDs in Electrical Engineering (talk about imposter syndrome). As AI becomes a more integratable part of every workplace, expect to doing much more than slide design at a modern consulting job.
2. Consultants solve complex, impactful problems. ✅REALITY
If you think about it, there’s a reason why clients outsource problems. The challenges are either
so complex they require extra help,
about internal company challenges (the drama is real),
or require a decision no one wants liability for.
To put it harshly: you’re being thrown straight into a fire. Fun right? It actually can be and with a good team, can be an unforgettable bonding experience. It’s what keeps so many brilliant people at firms like this. It’s also what makes them run for the hills after two years.
3. You can do whatever you want in consulting. ❌ MYTH
It’s true, most big consulting firms touch every industry and client you can think of. That doesn’t mean you have access to them. I surprisingly discovered this summer that your assignments are largely decided by PDs rather than personal choice or expertise. As a summer intern you have no choice over what area you work in. BAs highlighted that within a year at the firm, choice increases as you start to develop your personal networks at the firm and maybe even align with a practice such as cybersecurity or public service. However, big firms do encourage generalist training for at least the first two years and as such often randomize assignments. Cases are also dependent on the available clients which have been at a low in a post covid world. If you have a specific topic (such as health or policy) you want to consult in you may be better off going to a boutique firm or straight into that industry.
4. Consulting hours are crazy. ✅REALITY
Look it’s no investment banking, but this is not a 9 to 5 job. Although, it depends on the case, I found myself in the office on average from 8 am to 8 pm from Monday - Thursday. Some of my fellow interns spent multiple nights working until 1 to 2 am and others could get out at 5 pm. However after, Friday at 5 pm weekends are protected. In many ways, consulting echoes the energy of a quarter system as you sprint towards deadlines and then have dedicated rest time. At the end of the day, if your priority is work-life balance and a reasonable, you may be better of looking for roles in SWE etc.
5. You can travel the word as a consultant. ❌ LOWKEY MYTH
Yes, I too dreamed of spending the week working in Barbados, and the weekend living it up in New York. I must have conveniently forgot that you also have to work. Through talking at colleagues at the firm, I learned quickly that whether it’s Indianapolis or Paris, work is work. The difference is really which Hilton you’re spending the day at. With long cases there may be chances to explore a new city but there is also an equal chance that city is in rural Ohio rather than Croatia. The best opportunities for travel are actually in between cases, when you are (and physically could be) “on the beach.”
6. Consultants make decisions ❌ MYTH
Consultants advise decisions. Perhaps one of the things that’s most frustrating is that at the end of the day, despite the amount of work you do, consultants are not decision makers—clients are. Colleagues echoed that their toughest cases were when their hard work seemed to be for nothing as clients made decisions completely against advice. Sometimes this may be for the best but it also means there is a cap to your impact as you move up the organizational hierarchy.
7. You learn a lot of transferrable skills in consulting. ✅REALITY (kind of)
I’m coming out of this summer with much improved excel skills (ask me about pivot tables 😤😤), familiarity using PCs (instead of my dear MacBook Pro), and problem solving. I’m also coming out with of a lot of niche knowledge in a specific industry of energy…which I will most likely never use again. So while the skills I learned are somewhat transferrable to any future job I may have , the knowledge is not.
So, should you be a consultant?
To this I offer you the first two words every consultant learns: it depends.
Personally, I validated much of my initial hypothesis. This corporate job matched a pace I enjoyed with a variety of resources for training and a feeling of directed impact. But I also found myself missing the mission orientedness and knowledge depth of my cyber policy work (more to come on this in my overall New York reflections).
Here’s what I will say. If you spend a summer at McKinsey you will be working with quality people, doing impactful, narrow work, and be receiving concrete training. You will leave the summer with new friends, and skills and a likely job offer. You will also have to build grit, sacrifice some of your work-life balance, and accept your lack of agency in your work.
If you are still mulling over a passion, this may be one of the best places in the world to waffle. But if you have a vision, and the drive to work within your own structure, take a risk and bet on yourself.
Good luck and godspeed.
—DG