Is MBA important for a Management Consulting Career

Significance of MBA for building Career in Management Consulting 

"It is extremely valuable to have the education that an MBA provides if one’s goal is to venture into management consulting," Karrie C. Prehm, founder and CEO of Global Regulation Advisers Corp., a Florida-based consulting firm. 

Consulting is a lucrative profession for MBA degree recipients, who typically earn six-figure salaries if they work in this industry. It is a prestigious career choice. As a consultant, you will spend your career helping companies in your area of expertise, with the vibrant nature of work coming from the companies and their intriguing problems. 

Management consultants are experts who are trained to solve complex problems, devise invaluable strategies and improve the financial and operational health of their clients’ organization. Most management consultants help their clients solve specific.  The job of a management consultant is to discover the root causes of whatever issues a client faces and use that information to come up with a fix. The consultant must then present his or her proposal to the clients and tell them how to solve their leadership quandary. 

An MBA does not guarantee success as a consultant. The competition in management consulting is extremely intense and top companies tend to set a high task completion standard. Specific consulting skills developed in an MBA include:

• Business problem solving
• Communication skills across industries, platforms, media, and departments
• Analysis of business situations and issues
• Presentation skills
• Corporate strategy skills

Why one should pursue MBA for building Management consulting career?

Although an MBA can be an advantage in landing a consulting role, it doesn’t guarantee anything. To succeed as a consultant, there’s another important factor to consider— experience.

• Whether you're working in IT, business strategy, sales, HR, cost optimization and efficiency, or beyond, current consultants who want to upscale their careers or shift from one specialization to another (e.g. from technical IT work to strategy and general management) will find this course useful.
• Some consultants with years of real-world experience choose to get their MBA degrees for several reasons. For one, an MBA on its own warrants a higher salary; an MBA degree plus real-world experience allows for both better monetary benefits and a position higher on the corporate ladder.
• Also, if a consultant wants to move to another firm, an MBA may make sense. This is particularly true if you’re targeting a firm that’s more selective than your current firm or if your target firm places heavy emphasis on an MBA. Some top firms, like BCG, even sponsor their high performing associates who want to pursue MBA degrees.
• If you already have a consulting background, an MBA is usually unnecessary, but it could help you garner the respect of those unfamiliar with the industry. Moreover, clients will be more confident in your abilities if they know you have both experience and education.
• Many recruiters will have set up recruiting systems to target the best schools – making the process really efficient. Similarly, the success ratio from a target MBA program is usually higher, so recruiters will need to spend less time and money finding the candidate they want.
• If you have an MBA – especially from a top-tier school – you’re demonstrating that you have acquired the basic skills and characteristics necessary to succeed as a consultant, like multi-tasking, a results-oriented approach, and the ability to prioritize. 
• In comparison to candidate who may have a somewhat random background i.e. a joint degree in English and politics; a summer internship with the Department of Education; work experience with Teach for America – their application might make the admissions board think ‘why does this person want to do consulting?’.
• It’s common knowledge that MBA students make valuable connections during their program. Many of your peers will become experts, leaders, and business owners in their chosen industries. Meaning the firm you land a position at, could eventually have access to these people as clients in the future.

So if you are interested in an initial consulting career with a major management consulting firm you should focus on getting an MBA from one of the top-name schools.

Also Read : MBA Admission in India