From the Horse’s mouth
They say that there is no better way than to hear it from the horse’s mouth. Vijay Mulbagal from class of 2006 was here to dissipate some first hand “gyan” about Diamond, the strategy firm he works for and his experiences so far.
The interaction was more of a reality check and he addressed a lot of critical issues of importance to consulting wanna bees. I really liked the way he put across a couple of thoughts—important ones being that not everyone is cut out for consulting and there is a huge world outside consulting.
I personally feel that Management Consulting as a career is highly overrated at ISB. This is partly because of the phenomenal number of “Consulting types” produced by the previous batches and partly because of the outstanding work done by the current and previous year's Consulting Club.
Vijay did a good job of explaining the hardships related to consulting and the frequent travel associated with the job. It reminded of just about the same time last year when I was in the US handling a couple of assignments and shuttling between Chicago and San Francisco umpteen number of times---looks glamorous but its really really tough.
He also went over the pros and cons associated with working for a small firm. This was again something I could relate to well. Although, the unstructured informal atmosphere used to bug me a bit in my previous job, I found a lot of comfort and flexibility in working for a smaller firm. I don’t think you can get that in the McKinsey’s of the world—but you make a trade off between this and the glamour that comes with working for a top shot---
Vijay also mentioned that grades and only grades are not very important. It’s the overall package that matters---
The one very good thing about ISB is that all the alums are extremely helpful and co-operative. They take time out of personal visits to be with us and go out of their way to help us. I hope we can continue to do the same when we are alums—This is the one of the important ways alums can add value to the ISB experience.
The interaction was more of a reality check and he addressed a lot of critical issues of importance to consulting wanna bees. I really liked the way he put across a couple of thoughts—important ones being that not everyone is cut out for consulting and there is a huge world outside consulting.
I personally feel that Management Consulting as a career is highly overrated at ISB. This is partly because of the phenomenal number of “Consulting types” produced by the previous batches and partly because of the outstanding work done by the current and previous year's Consulting Club.
Vijay did a good job of explaining the hardships related to consulting and the frequent travel associated with the job. It reminded of just about the same time last year when I was in the US handling a couple of assignments and shuttling between Chicago and San Francisco umpteen number of times---looks glamorous but its really really tough.
He also went over the pros and cons associated with working for a small firm. This was again something I could relate to well. Although, the unstructured informal atmosphere used to bug me a bit in my previous job, I found a lot of comfort and flexibility in working for a smaller firm. I don’t think you can get that in the McKinsey’s of the world—but you make a trade off between this and the glamour that comes with working for a top shot---
Vijay also mentioned that grades and only grades are not very important. It’s the overall package that matters---
The one very good thing about ISB is that all the alums are extremely helpful and co-operative. They take time out of personal visits to be with us and go out of their way to help us. I hope we can continue to do the same when we are alums—This is the one of the important ways alums can add value to the ISB experience.
posted by Venkat @ 4:27 PM
4 Comments:
At 8:38 AM,
Anonymous said…
Hi Venkat,
FYI .... at the risk of increasing the appetite for grades among consulting wannabes ..... whatever the consulting firms might say, the truth is that except for may be Diamond Cluster and a few other boutique consulting firms, grades are the numero uno and the single most important criterion for the top firms. They might shortlist people on diversity and extraordinary extra curriculars, but the ones that make it finally will, in all probability, will be the ones with good grades and among them the ones who prepare well.
Ram
At 9:44 AM,
Anonymous said…
i do subscribe to that. i think, it finally boils down to the grade function. but yes, who wants to work 14 hrs a day! its a mad life.
- mama
At 4:48 PM,
Venkat said…
Thanks for ur comments Ram--i guess most people understand the fact that you wont go very far in the "Top Two" as they call them without grades--the whole point is that there are many lucrative "Non consulting " careers outside of ISB--moreover interview prep the consulting way doesnt hurt---What do you think?
At 12:52 AM,
Anonymous said…
Precisely ... there are lots of opportunities apart from just consulting.
Preparing for consulting interviews using frameworks helps in developing a mental structure with which you can analyze different kinds of problems. It will also help you connect things that you will learn from the different subjects together.
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