Do You Need an MBA for a Management Consulting Career?

Consulting is a prestigious career choice. Many graduates and professionals are lured by the intellectual challenges and financial rewards. So how do you become a management consultant and why do so many people feel that an MBA is essential?

Basic Educational Qualifications for a Consulting Career

Generally, a management-consulting role requires a university degree. While graduates from almost any kind of discipline occupy this role, a degree in business, economics, finance, engineering, mathematics and other programs that are Quant focused, gives the candidate a competitive edge.

Contrary to popular belief, an aspiring consultant does not need an MBA to break into this industry. Even a postgraduate degree is not a requirement, but the additional qualification tends to come handy during day-to-day operations.

An MBA does not guarantee success as a consultant. The competition in management consulting is extremely intense and top tier firms tend to set a high task completion standard. So aside from basic educational qualifications, you should be a self-starter and a quick learner.

Why Most Aspiring and Professional Consultants Get an MBA

While it is optional to get an MBA prior to consulting, many aspiring and even current consultants opt to get an MBA.

Additional Know-how

The core courses in MBA include accounting, finance, marketing, management, operations, statistics, and microeconomics. A master's degree in business administration will help you have a better grasp from a general-management perspective, which is critical to consulting.

MBA curriculum is designed to teach you the baseline skills necessary to succeed as a consultant. Typical MBA programs also include training in soft skills, such as leadership and negotiation, ethics, and communication skills. MBA coursework trains students on handling real life issues that contemporary organizations face. With internships and experiential learning, MBA students get the practical understanding on how Business works. This is handy while offering recommendations to clients.

Larger and Diverse Network

MBA also offers the opportunity to expand your network, which means increasing potential opportunities. Business schools organize several networking events as part of alumni meeting and career service initiatives. The student body clubs are categorized based on job functions, and consulting club is a popular fixture in most top Business Schools. Often, information about consulting openings is first passed to Consulting Clubs before the career service team. Access to this information is vital in a competitive consulting space, and with a widespread Alumni network in top consulting firms, MBA students have a distinct advantage.

According to the data provided by schools, Harvard Business School has 77,778 alumni, Stanford 17,620, Duke’s Fuqua School of Business boasts 15,605 alumni, and Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Management has 13,693 alumni on their network. With a large alumni network, the diversity of consulting companies that share job openings with the Business School increase. The diversity is not limited to the size of the consulting companies. Consultants interested in working at growth economies like China, Brazil, India and South Africa can leverage the Alumni Chapters in these countries.

Confidence

According to statistics released by the Graduate Management Admission Council in January 2013, MBA graduates, especially those from top–tier universities have no difficulty landing a job despite the intense competition. The study revealed that 92% of 2012 business school graduates around the world were able to find employment just after three months of graduation.

Confidence lies in awareness. Self-confidence simply means knowing the extent of your capabilities.

With top consulting companies recruiting MBAs every year, the confidence in MBA program is bound to increase. Another reason for this trend is the emphasis on case studies. With this teaching methodology, an MBA student is aware of the different business practices, and strategies that top Businesses have adopted over the years. The analysis of decision and a highly involved classroom discussion opens up various perspectives among the students.

Students are better prepared for consulting job interviews. An integral part of these interviews is “Case interview” where the interviewer describes a challenge - strategic or business, along with the necessary facts. The candidate has to solve the problem within a short period, and display her problem solving and analytical capability.

An MBA program from top consulting focused programs like Kellogg, Insead, Harvard, MIT, and Stanford would help the candidate stand out during the application review process. These programs offer several modules and hands-on learning experiences in consulting.

Higher Salary

Despite the economic downturn, many companies value the skills that an MBA bring to the table. That’s why even consultants with years of real-world experience opt for MBA programs. One reason is the increase in salary. Business school applicants in the U.S. expect that their current pay would increase by 140% after an MBA. Consulting job function fetches the highest salary with the numbers ranging from $45,500 to $192,000