From PhD to Consultant: Top 10 FAQs Answered for Aspiring Management Consultants

Context for the article: Over the past 3.5+ years since I joined BCG in 2019, I have been fortunate to speak with numerous PhD candidates interested in pursuing a career in consulting. These conversations are a great way for me to learn about the latest cutting-edge research from current students and help them think through their next career step (paying it forward as I was given a lot of advice "back in the day").

I will not be able to have Zoom/phone chats with everyone that has reached out due to personal constraints this time. In lieu of a chat with me, I jotted down some of my opinions to 10 FAQs from these conversations with the hope that it helps provide a perspective from someone who transitioned from academia to consulting.

Note: This article is most relevant for current PhD students applying to management consulting positions. Please comment with additional questions that I may have missed!

#recruiting #phd #consulting

1. Tell me about your journey from PhD to management consulting. What motivated you to pursue management consulting? 

I trained as an academic at Caltech (BS) and MIT (PhD) with degrees in Bioengineering. Throughout my time as a student, I experienced the excitement of working in diverse, multi-disciplinary teams to develop new technologies in healthcare, especially those with potential to serve underserved communities.

During the 4th year of my PhD, I explored career opportunities including a postdoc, life science venture capital, and management consulting. I was confused so decided to apply for all of them. My PhD advisors were very supportive throughout my training and encouraged me to speak with professionals across these career choices.

What stood out about management consulting was that it offered a differentiated training opportunity to the "world of business" that I could couple with my decade of technical training. A company like BCG offers accelerated learning (akin to an "MBA on the job") with intellectually curious colleagues to solve challenging problems alongside executives at leading companies. Furthermore, consulting is a well-compensated profession with a lifestyle that includes travel and dining at nice restaurants – all attractive points coming from a PhD.

In sum, the combination of the learning opportunities and lifestyle are why I decided to pursue a consulting job after my PhD and are the reasons I am still here.

2. Why did you pick BCG among other consulting firms?

Before I get to the "why BCG", it’s important to know that I only applied to the Big Three firms ("MBB"). Since I wanted exposure to a variety of industries, it made sense to apply to large, global firms that could offer a breadth of experiences and opportunities to work with teams abroad.

After applying during the standard summer recruiting cycle for PhD candidates, I received 2 offers – from BCG and one from a direct competitor. It was tough to pick between the two firms. I spoke with 30+ people across both firms to understand the differences. The flavor of work and compensation/perks were similar, so it really came down to “THE PEOPLE” and how I felt during my 20 minute “coffee chats” with current consultants. I felt more comfortable during my interactions with BCGers from a variety of tenures across multiple offices. I had heard and can now confirm that BCG does well with training PhDs and providing them support to manage the transition from academia to the consulting world.

3. How does staffing work at BCG? How much control do you have when picking what projects to work on?

This is a complicated question (“it depends/varies” is the right answer), so I’ll do my best to comment on how it has worked for me.

Essentially, there are a pool of “sold” projects in the specific systems (e.g., West or South) that have needs for a certain number of Associates or Consultants and occasionally require prior experience in relevant topics or skills (e.g., Excel modeling, PhD in “bio-related” field).

At the beginning of your tenure (~ first 6 months), you can express interest in industry (e.g., Energy) or functional (e.g., Operations) practice areas. BCG will pair you with a more senior leader who works in that space of interest and/or is an awesome “people developer”. The “people developer” factor is KEY. You learn this job from other senior leaders. During the first year, it's more important to get “reps” and develop the broad consulting toolkit by working with great managers and teams. It's less critical exactly what you work on.

After 2 years (in the Project Leader role), you have more control on who and what you work with.

4. Do you leverage your PhD background as a Consultant?

Yes. I have intentionally pursued several opportunities where I can leverage my technical expertise in Bioengineering to serve large biopharma and synthetic biology clients. A few recent projects have required me to stay up to date on the latest scientific literature in a specific topic, and I have also published papers and attended conferences too!

But, that’s just me. There is no requirement or expectation to use your PhD background once you are at BCG because we are “generalists” coming in as Consultants. Many consultants come here to gain exposure to fields unrelated to what they studied. Initially, I did the same. During my first year, I worked on Energy-related projects and conducted diligences on companies in Industrial Goods and Chemicals.

5. I have a PhD in [X field e.g., Bioengineering, Chemistry, Education] - can I focus on projects in that field? When do you get to specialize at BCG?

BCG is large enough that we have the breadth and depth in almost every field I can think of. Yes, there is opportunity to focus on specific industries that you did your PhD in.

As mentioned above (see Q3), BCG Consultants are “generalists”, which means you don’t specialize coming in (note - there is a separate "Expert track" that is not covered in this article). At the Project Leader stage, you begin the journey of specializing in an industry and/or functional practice area.

6. What are the biggest challenges you faced when transitioning from your PhD to management consulting?

Three challenges I experienced are related to core differences between academia and consulting:

a. Style of verbal and written communication (bottom-up to top-down communication) – When writing a paper or PhD thesis, the introduction comes well before the results ("answer"). In the business world, a crisp executive summary with the “answer” first precedes details of supporting arguments and evidence. This applies to verbal communication as well. Instead of presenting through the details of what analysis you did or individual supporting points that build up to a recommendation, jump straight to what the recommendation or key take-away is. Then, dive into the details if asked.

b. Frequency of communicating with your manager – During a PhD, most students are driving their work independently with minimal daily input from advisors or their thesis committee members. This is different in consulting, where there are hard deadlines for deliverables and multiple levels of managers and client stakeholders to keep updated frequently. As a Consultant, you are likely giving updates to your Project Leader roughly 2-3 times in a day.

c. Flexibility with your time – PhD students generally enjoy more flexibility while driving their research. As a Consultant, your time is “owned” by the client (at least during the week), so there isn’t as much flexibility to work hours of your choosing.

7. What is your day-to-day like as a Consultant?

The details vary based on the project, but a typical day will have some or all these components:

• Morning huddle (BCG team only): Check-in with your manager and team on priorities for the day
• Work: Conduct analyses for your module (e.g., desk research, expert calls, build market model) and build output (often slides) with key recommendations
• 1:1 with Project Leader (BCG only): Align on key messages from your analysis and obtain feedback on slides
• Client meeting: Present BCG’s current hypotheses and recommendation based on analyses conducted to date
• Lunch: No set time, but often we get food delivered and eat together as a BCG team or with clients
• Work
• Project team meeting (BCG only): Present current hypotheses and recommendations to the full team for input
• Evening huddle (BCG team only): Check-in with your manager and team on priorities that need to get done by end of the day
• Break: Gym, dinner time
• Work
• Sleep

8. How often do you travel for work vs. work from home? 

It depends on what the project needs, where the client is, and ultimately also preferences of the team itself.

Between September of 2019 and March of 2020, I travelled 4 days / week almost every week to be in-person with the BCG team or with clients.

Now (for me), it is roughly 50% travel (to be in-person), 50% at home with the travel being ~3 days/week. I am flexible if more travel is needed for client workshops or brainstorming sessions with the project team.

9. How different are BCG offices from each other? How should that affect which ones I pursue? 

Different offices have distinct cultures and industry focuses. For example, the Bay Area (San Francisco and Silicon Valley) offices have a strong emphasis on technology.

When choosing an office location, consider where you want to live and the prevalent industries in that area, especially if working on local projects is important to you.

10. What other advice do you have as I prepare for interviewing at management consulting firms?

• Speak with consultants at various tenures across the firms you are interested in. Get their perspective on these questions and others on your mind.
• Prepare for the personal fit interview. Think about 2-3 experiences you can speak to in depth that showcase your ability to drive impact or overcome challenging situations as a leader and / or team player. Write details of these experiences on paper (see STAR method) and rehearse them out loud in advance.
• Practice cases with other serious candidates. Find a group of interested future consultants and leverage all the resources you can (many free cases online) to prep. I recommend hosting “case marathons” for ~ 3 hours where you and a group of others do 3 cases back-to-back. It helps simulate the intensity you will feel on interview day.

Aside from that, concentrate on completing your PhD, and who knows, maybe we'll meet on the other side!