Consulting After an MBA: How to Land an Internship or Job
Breaking into consulting after an MBA is a top goal for many business school students, whether they’re pivoting from another industry or looking to build on prior consulting experience. Securing a summer internship or full-time offer at a top firm like McKinsey, Bain, or BCG is a critical step toward achieving that goal.
Today, we bring you the second installment in our two-part series on consulting careers and business school. In the first part, we explored how current consultants can craft standout MBA applications. Now, we focus on the next challenge: how MBA students—career changers and former consultants—can land consulting internships and full-time roles after graduation.
B-Schooled podcast host Chandler Arnold sat down with Will Bachman, a Columbia MBA and former McKinsey consultant, to discuss the strategies that maximize a student’s chances of success. Will, now the co-founder of Umbrex—a network of independent management consultants—shared more practical insights for those pursuing a career in consulting after an MBA.
Curious about your chances of getting into a top B-school? Contact us to talk strategy with a free 15-minute advising session with an SBC Principal Consultant.
More Than Just Good Grades: Show Initiative
While academic performance is important, it’s not what sets candidates apart in the consulting recruiting process. According to Will, “Doing well in your classes is barely even table stakes.” The real differentiator is demonstrating agency by taking on meaningful extracurricular projects.
One of the best ways to do this? Start something. “For example,” Will suggests, “if you’re interested in the oil and gas sector, start a podcast interviewing executives in the industry. By the time interviews roll around, you’ll have 15 episodes under your belt, and by your second year, you’ll have 50 or 60. That’s a clear demonstration that you’ve built industry relationships, have sales ability, and have learned something.”
If podcasting isn’t your thing, consider writing a blog, launching a newsletter, or conducting independent research and publishing your findings. The key is to have tangible evidence of your interests and initiative. As Will emphasizes, “It is always a hundred times more powerful to show than to tell.”
Consulting After an MBA: Master the Essential Skills
Mastering key consulting skills is essential if you’re serious about consulting after an MBA.
Consulting firms seek candidates who can structure problems, analyze data, and communicate insights effectively. Will highlights the importance of mastering core consulting skills, such as:
- Excel and PowerPoint: These tools are fundamental in consulting. “Know how to build a great deck,” he says. “A well-structured, visually compelling presentation is a consulting firm’s currency.”
- Slide-writing and storytelling: Consulting documents should tell a clear, compelling story. “Being able to create a well-structured deck that has a beginning, middle, and end is a critical skill.”
To help MBA students evaluate and improve their consulting skills, Umbrex offers a free Consulting Skills Self-Assessment Toolkit, which Will recommends as a useful starting point.
For Non-Traditional Candidates: Show That You Can Think Like a Consultant
One of the biggest challenges for candidates pivoting into consulting after an MBA is proving their ability to think and work like a consultant.
If you’re coming from a non-consulting background and want to pivot into the industry, Will advises creating “samples of work as if they were consulting assignments.” For example:
- Conduct a market assessment of an industry niche and present it in a consulting-style slide deck.
- Perform due diligence on a company and create a strategic recommendation report.
- Develop a merger strategy for a real or hypothetical acquisition.
“These are the kinds of projects that demonstrate your ability to think and communicate like a consultant,” he explains. “If I were a partner interviewing candidates and someone said they create a 20-page PowerPoint every week on a different topic, I’d hire that person in a minute.”
For Former Consultants: Differentiate Yourself with a Specialization
If you have pre-MBA consulting experience, your challenge is distinguishing yourself from the sea of other applicants with similar backgrounds. Will suggests focusing on industry or functional expertise: “If you’re interested in supply chain consulting, don’t just say it—prove it. Go to industry conferences, start a blog, interview experts, or create a database of top supply chain methodologies. Take action.”
He also advises leveraging the MBA experience to deepen your expertise: “Your business school classmates are an incredible resource. If you want to go into supply chain, interview the students who worked in that field before business school.”
Relationships Matter—Make the Most of Your MBA Network
Building relationships is a critical component of success in consulting after an MBA. Beyond academic and professional development, business school offers a unique opportunity to build lasting relationships.
Beyond academic and professional development, business school offers a unique opportunity to build lasting relationships. “If I could go back and do one thing differently,” Will reflects, “I would have spent less time studying and more time getting to know my classmates.”
Chandler echoes this sentiment: “During your first year, you have this magic ticket to invite anyone to coffee, and they won’t think you’re hitting them up for anything. They’re just open to meeting new people.” Whether it’s starting a podcast featuring classmates or setting a goal to have lunch with a new person each week, the relationships built in business school can be invaluable down the line.
Start Before You’re Ready
When asked to share his most significant career advice, Will offered this simple yet powerful mantra: “Start before you’re ready.”
“Time goes much faster than you expect,“ he says. “Don’t wait for the perfect moment. Just start. If you want to walk across Spain, go do it. If you want to learn a language, open Duolingo right now and start. Five minutes a day, compounded over time, is incredibly powerful.”
He also stresses the importance of side projects: “Beyond your job or coursework, always have a side project that you’re passionate about. Organizing an event, starting a newsletter, writing case studies—these activities build skills and connections in unexpected ways.”
For students eyeing a consulting career, Will’s insights reinforce a core principle: success is about showing, not just telling. Whether you’re pivoting into consulting after an MBA or looking to land a post-MBA offer, the key is to take the initiative, build meaningful relationships, and actively demonstrate your problem-solving and communication skills. Remember, in the consulting field, it’s not enough to say you can do the work; you need to show it.
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Did you know Stacy Blackman Consulting is the only MBA admissions firm with former AdCom officers from all M7 business schools and beyond? We offer multiple services to meet your MBA application needs, from our All-In Partnership and Interview Prep to hourly help with essay editing, resume review, and much more! Contact us today for a free 15-minute advising session to talk strategy with a Principal SBC consultant.
Here’s a snapshot of the caliber of expertise on our SBC team.
Ashley
Ashley is a former MBA Admissions Board Member for Harvard Business School (HBS), where she interviewed and evaluated thousands of business school applicants for over a six year tenure. Ashley holds an MBA from HBS. During her HBS years, Ashley was the Sports Editor for the Harbus and a member of the B-School Blades Ice Hockey Team. After HBS, she worked in Marketing at the Gillette Company on Male and Female shaving ...
×Pauline
A former associate director of admissions at Harvard Business School, Pauline served on the HBS MBA Admissions Board full-time for four years. She evaluated and interviewed HBS applicants, both on-campus and globally. Pauline's career has included sales and marketing management roles with Coca-Cola, Gillette, Procter & Gamble, and IBM. For over 10 years, Pauline has expertly guided MBA applicants, and her clients h ...
×Laura
Laura comes from the MBA Admissions Board at Harvard Business School (HBS) and is an HBS MBA alumnus. In her HBS Admissions role, she evaluated and interviewed hundreds of business school candidates, including internationals, women, military and other applicant pools, for five years. Prior to her time as a student at HBS, Laura began her career in advertising and marketing in Chicago at Leo Burnett where she worked on th ...
×Andrea
Andrea served as the Associate Director of MBA Admissions at Harvard Business School (HBS) for over five years. In this role, she provided strategic direction for student yield-management activities and also served as a full member of the admissions committee. In 2007, Andrea launched the new 2+2 Program at Harvard Business School – a program targeted at college junior applicants to Harvard Business School. Andrea has also served as a Career Coach for Harvard Business School for both cu ...
×Jennifer
Jennifer served as Admissions Officer at the Stanford (GSB) for five years. She holds an MBA from Stanford (GSB) and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Jennifer has over 15 years experience in guiding applicants through the increasingly competitive admissions process into top MBA programs. Having read thousands and thousands of essays and applications while at Stanford (GSB) Admiss ...
×Erin K.
Erin served in key roles in MBA Admissions--as Director at Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley and Assistant Director at Stanford's Graduate School of Business (GSB). Erin served on the admissions committee at each school and has read thousands of applications in her career. At Haas, she served for seven years in roles that encompassed evaluation, outreach, and diversity and inclusion. During her tenure in Admissions at GSB, she was responsible for candidate evaluation, applicant outreach, ...
×Susie
Susie comes from the Admissions Office of the Stanford Graduate School of Business where she reviewed and evaluated hundreds of prospective students’ applications. She holds an MBA from Stanford’s GSB and a BA from Stanford in Economics. Prior to advising MBA applicants, Susie held a variety of roles over a 15-year period in capital markets, finance, and real estate, including as partner in one of the nation’s most innovative finance and real estate investment organizations. In that r ...
×Dione
Dione holds an MBA degree from Stanford Business School (GSB) and a BA degree from Stanford University, where she double majored in Economics and Communication with concentrations in journalism and sociology. Dione has served as an Admissions reader and member of the Minority Admissions Advisory Committee at Stanford. Dione is an accomplished and respected advocate and thought leader on education and diversity. She is ...
×Anthony
Anthony served as the Associate Director of MBA Admissions at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he dedicated over 10 years of expertise. During his time as a Wharton Admissions Officer, he read and reviewed thousands of applications and helped bring in a class of 800+ students a year. Anthony has traveled both domestically and internationally to recruit a ...
×Meghan
Meghan served as the Associate Director of Admissions and Marketing at the Wharton MBA’s Lauder Institute, a joint degree program combining the Wharton MBA with an MA in International Studies. In her role on the Wharton MBA admissions committee, Meghan advised domestic and international applicants; conducted interviews and information sessions domestically and overseas in Asia, Central and South America, and Europe; and evaluated applicants for admission to the program. Meghan also managed ...
×Amy
Amy comes from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania where she was Associate Director. Amy devoted 12 years at the Wharton School, working closely with MBA students and supporting the admissions team. During her tenure at Wharton, Amy served as a trusted adviser to prospective applicants as well as admitted and matriculated students. She conducted admissions chats with applicants early in the admissions ...
×Ally
Ally brings six years of admissions experience to the SBC team, most recently as an Assistant Director of Admission for the full-time MBA program at Columbia Business School (CBS). During her time at Columbia, Ally was responsible for reviewing applications, planning recruitment events, and interviewing candidates for both the full-time MBA program and the Executive MBA program. She traveled both internationally and dome ...
×Erin B.
Erin has over seven years of experience working across major institutions, including University of Pennsylvania, Columbia Business School, and NYU's Stern School of Business. At Columbia Business School, Erin was an Assistant Director of Admissions where she evaluated applications for both the full time and executive MBA programs, sat on the admissions and merit scholarship committees and advised applicants on which program might be the best fit for them based on their work experience and pro ...
×Emma
Emma comes from the MBA Admissions Office at Columbia Business School (CBS), where she was Associate Director. Emma conducted dozens of interviews each cycle for the MBA and EMBA programs, as well as coordinating the alumni ambassador interview program. She read and evaluated hundreds of applications each cycle, delivered information sessions to audiences across the globe, and advised countless waitlisted applicants. ×
Kate
Kate served in the MBA Admissions Office at Columbia Business School for over five years. In her capacity as an Associate Director, Kate advised applicants daily and reviewed hundreds of applications per cycle. She was also an applicant interviewer, a liaison to other offices within the School, and a CBS representative at events around the world. Kate managed several recruiting and operational projects for the Admissions Committee. After Columbia Business School, Kate transitioned into cam ...
×Holly
Holly worked as a member of the NYU Stern MBA Admissions team for seven years and holds an MBA from NYU Stern. In her tenure as Director of NYU MBA Admissions, Holly worked closely with admissions teams from Columbia, Michigan Ross, UVA Darden, Cornell Johnson, Berkeley Haas, Yale SOM, and Duke Fuqua on recruiting events domestically and internationally. On the NYU Stern admissions committee, Holly conducted interviews, planned and hosted events, and trained staff on reading and interviewi ...
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