The MBA Bet: >11,866.62

Yesterday the market closed at 11,866.62, after our lawmakers decided to put a gun to head of the American economy during the debt ceiling crisis. The market has been down sharply the past few days and just slipped under the 12,000 mark. In a lot of ways, I feel like our economy – I experienced … Read more

The Dark Side of Consulting Careers

Every top MBA program places a significant number of graduates in the consulting function.  The high salaries, variety of projects, and fast-paced work environment all encourage MBAs to propel themselves onto this career path.  And while these benefits would be enticing to any professional, every career path has its dark side.  During my three years as a management consultant, these were the aspects I liked the least and have made it very unlikely for me to return.

(Please note that my comments apply primarily to the larger management and strategy consulting firms, made up of the Big Three (McKinsey, Bain, BCG), the current Big Four (PWC, E&Y, KPMG, Deloitte), and the various spinoffs from the original Big Five (Accenture, IBM, Bearing Point, Cap Gemini).  A lot of smaller boutiques have actually built their consulting firms around directly addressing the points below)

Work Life Balance

In nearly all recruiting presentations by consulting firms, there will be a lengthy section about work life balance.  Some of the ones I saw showcased an extremely busy partner, who had an overwhelming work schedule, but managed to spend time with his family and had a great relationship with his kids.  Strange how most other career tracks don’t make such a hard sell…

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Feeling Old

The other night I was watching a recap show of American Idol on Hulu.  The theme for that specific episode was for each singer to perform a song from the year they were born.  Okay, I thought, this might be interesting. As the segment progressed, these were the thoughts that went through my head, in order: “Wait a minute, I … Read more

Somewhere I Belong

I recently went on vacation and the experience afforded me the opportunity to listen to my old “traveler’s iPod.”  The same iPod I would use for all of my consulting travel during my previous career.  When I traveled as a consultant, I would always try to sleep on the plane, and thus, I usually listened … Read more

Do Consultants Have an Edge When Applying to Business School?

When I graduated from college, I worked for one of the Big 4 consulting firms.  From the day we started, we were told that our ultimate goal was to go on to business school and hopefully rejoin the firm.  Based on my personal observations, there was not a single consultant, of those who applied, who … Read more

Is Education the Next Market Bubble?

I recently came across the above chart from Clusterstock’s Chart of the Day.  It shows the education “market” versus the rest of the market, during a period where we went through the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.  The question proposed by this chart is same one that was asked about real estate many … Read more