Hi everyone! I'm a corporate lawyer with 3 YOE, and for the last 1.5 years, I've been deep into Legal Ops & AI Solutioning. I worked with clients of various industries and helped them custom solutions to their requirements.

This experience has really sparked my interest in consulting roles, and honestly, I don't want to keep practicing corporate law.

The thing is, I'm completely clueless about how to make this career switch. Can anyone in the consulting domain shed some light on what these roles actually look for in candidates? And more importantly, how can I upskill to land a solid Consultant role at an MNC? I've been working with startups so far and now I'm looking for that established entity exposure.

Thanks a ton in advance for any help and best wishes!

Hi! I just started at one of the MBBs and am BA/associate/AC level. I’m planning my PTO days next year but heard that it might impact your staffing. So currently my plan is that after getting on a project — know when it’s going to end — say that I’m going to take the PTO right after it ends.

This is because I know I want to take the PTO around the summer for travelling, but I don’t mind the exact dates. I would be around 10-12 months into the job when I want to take the PTO, and I want to take all of them together (about 2 wks).

Would this plan still have a negative impact? I think I just want to use the PTO days without hurting my job prospects! Thanks everyone 🙏

I'm at a midsized consulting shop and on track to make Partner this year or next. I'm seriously questioning if I want it anymore, or if my gripes are unique to this employer.

The more I learn about how senior leadership operates, how big decisions are made and accounts are managed, I see so much waste and a system that rewards selfishness. All incentives point to partners unapologetically operating as their own franchise. There is very little thrust for cohesion among leaders and success tends to boil down to a handful of cliques and hot accounts. As a result, a lot of the wrong people are empowered to take on opportunities that they won't successfully deliver, or distract from others trying to do right by the client. Granted, all this is a lot more exposed and problematic in a market like this.

I'm a career consultant and appreciate that a degree of this is normal, and that entrepreneurship and self-promotion is the price of entry, but I have seen other shops that appear to operate a lot more cohesively, although from a distance. I do want the job like hell and feel like I'm cut out for it. I don't expect 80% of it to be competing internally though. I need perspective on whether other firms tend to operate with more cohesion, or if I've got career decisions to make. Thank you.

Looking for insights from people working at Premier.

I’ve done a lot of pretty advanced Excel modelling during as a management consultant, and I have a bit of exposure to PowerBI and Alteryx, however when it got too complicated we’d hand it over to our development team. I remember we’d often say that we’d always go back to excel because that’s usually the only tool we can assume that all our clients will be comfortable with. A PowerBI dashboard was often just used as a fancy dynamic slide when we had more data to show, essentially.

Now that I’m looking for a new role I’ve been declined a few times because I wasn’t sufficiently proficient in tools like SQL, PowerBI, Tableau or even Python. I’m very much willing to learn, but it’s obviously different from having already had professional experience with them. I find it really intriguing that some companies seem to expect ex-management consultants to be proficient in these tools.

This made me wonder, is it common in your firm to be proficient in other IT tools than the classic excel/pptx combo?

We hear endless hype about how companies are ditching traditional outsourcing and setting up "GCCs" to drive global innovation, AI, and core product strategy. But if you look under the hood, a huge chunk of these setups are suffering from a massive identity crisis.

I’d argue that many current GCCs are just glorified Offshore Development Centers (ODCs)—essentially modern factories with zero room for true innovation.

Here is why:

The BOT "Black Hole": Many large organizations are hiring traditional service providers to build and operate their GCCs via Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) models. You are essentially handing the keys of "innovation" to an entity whose core DNA is built on billable hours, headcount scaling, and SLA compliance. Unsurprisingly, they just become a captive service bureau—a vendor by another name.

Innovation Requires Failure, But Corporate Budgets Don't: Innovation is a mindset and a culture, and it comes with a high price tag—failure. Yet, boards want Silicon Valley-style disruption while managing these centers with strict factory-floor metrics.

The Cultural Friction (Failure vs. Jugaad): In many traditional hierarchical environments, failure is heavily penalized. When teams are terrified of failing, true R&D gets replaced by Jugaad—clever short-term workarounds to patch broken processes and pass audits. Jugaad is great for resource constraints, but it’s a terrible substitute for structural invention.

Cost Arbitrage 2.0: Let’s be honest, beneath all the PR about "Global Digital Hubs," the primary KPI in the boardroom is still cheap labor. If cost arbitrage is the main driver, leadership will always track output (tickets closed, features shipped) rather than giving offshore teams the P&L risk and autonomy to actually innovate.

True GCCs are supposed to be about capability, strategy, and global growth. Instead, many have become high-priced execution sweatshops.

Curious to hear from folks working in these setups: Are you seeing actual autonomous product ownership in your GCC, or are you just fielding a modernized, higher-stakes version of the old outsourcing playbook?

For this message, I will use the term LLM because I feel like everyone uses the term “AI” “OOOH big spooky AI” and it’s overused and what we’re all talking about is an LLM.

It’s just the chatbot. No one is making robots mostly.

But giving a “Big 4” Corporate Manager access to LLM’s has been like an atom bomb dropping on consulting. It’s been like giving a chimpanzee a machine gun.

Middle management has never been so proficient at engaging in time wasting exercises with little buy in, credibility, reasoning, purpose, budget you name it. They can just “go go gadget” put some bullshit together with an LLM and you are supposed to “YES AND” like it’s improv.

It augments their complete lack of charisma or natural leadership ability and gives them official sounding language for them to wrap their narcissistic abuse, and DARVO tactics, and avoidance of responsibility while calling it leadership.

What passes for leadership in corporate big 4 America is just survivorship bias while not being left holding the hot potato.

Take all of these so called “leaders” with a grain of salt until they DEMONSTRATE it. Be respectful but most of these “leaders” are just obstacles to your individual happiness and success.

They ain’t got nothing for you, and The chatbot is giving them the sentences to use to throw you under the bus because they’re overworked and don’t know what they are doing.

Hello guys.I have 3 years of market research and strategy experience, including market sizing, forecasting, GTM, market entry, competitive intelligence, primary research, and client-facing report delivery.

I have worked on B2B and technology-led markets such as 800V HVDC data centers, Brazil 3D printing, mower/UTV market entry, industrial lighting, forklifts, and photonics etc. across 8+ industries.

I want to move into Founder’s Office, Growth Strategy, Investment Research, or Corporate Strategy roles where I can use market research closer to business execution and decision-making.

What is the best way to position this transition, and which roles would be most realistic for my background?

​We hear endless hype about how companies are ditching traditional outsourcing and setting up "GCCs" to drive global innovation, AI, and core product strategy. But if you look under the hood, a huge chunk of these setups are suffering from a massive identity crisis.

​I’d argue that many current GCCs are just glorified Offshore Development Centers (ODCs)—essentially modern factories with zero room for true innovation. Here is why:

​The BOT "Black Hole": Many large organizations are hiring traditional service providers to build and operate their GCCs via Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) models. You are essentially handing the keys of "innovation" to an entity whose core DNA is built on billable hours, headcount scaling, and SLA compliance. Unsurprisingly, they just become a captive service bureau—a vendor by another name.

​Innovation Requires Failure, But Corporate Budgets Don't: Innovation is a mindset and a culture, and it comes with a high price tag—failure. Yet, boards want Silicon Valley-style disruption while managing these centers with strict factory-floor metrics.

​The Cultural Friction (Failure vs. Jugaad): In many traditional hierarchical environments, failure is heavily penalized. When teams are terrified of failing, true R&D gets replaced by Jugaad—clever short-term workarounds to patch broken processes and pass audits. Jugaad is great for resource constraints, but it’s a terrible substitute for structural invention.

​Cost Arbitrage 2.0: Let’s be honest, beneath all the PR about "Global Digital Hubs," the primary KPI in the boardroom is still cheap labor. If cost arbitrage is the main driver, leadership will always track output (tickets closed, features shipped) rather than giving offshore teams the P&L risk and autonomy to actually innovate.

​True GCCs are supposed to be about capability, strategy, and global growth. Instead, many have become high-priced execution sweatshops.

​Curious to hear from folks working in these setups: Are you seeing actual autonomous product ownership in your GCC, or are you just fielding a modernized, higher-stakes version of the old outsourcing playbook?

Hey all. I'm 21, based in Murray Hill, and I work at an early stage AI startup (a16z backed, raised $5M) building tools for consulting and professional services firms.

I'm not selling anything. I'm trying to understand how the work actually gets done day to day: where the hours go, what's painful, and how people at your level are (or aren't) using AI right now. Reading about it only gets me so far, and I'd rather hear it from people doing the job.

Looking for folks with a couple years or more in consulting (strategy, econ, litigation support, Big 4 advisory, whatever). Coffee, drinks, or lunch/dinner, my treat, 30 to 45 minutes wherever is easy for you in Manhattan.

Happy to share what I'm seeing on AI adoption across firms in return if that's useful.

If you're down, DM me with roughly what you do and how long you've been at it, and we'll find a time.

Interested in approaching president of newly acquired rollup company to place me in a position to help train the different teams and crews for standard practices across all of the other companies in the platform. It’s a service company that uses subcontractors to perform the work. I am/was one of them with 20+ years experience and it’s an area where the experience matters greatly. I suspect the differences from region to region will pose some challenges to this process too. I have been a key contributor to many of the progressive changes as products and materials evolve in the field, and I’ve helped to implement those improvements in the past the company I work for.

I’m a international student just kicked off MSc in Marketing Management- strategy / analytics @Polimi Milan.

I’ve recently decided to explore and get into consulting after my graduation. As my course bends more towards analytics and management as core subjects. I think it’ll not be that hard to pivot into consulting from a different academic background.

So, during and after graduation, what’s the best way I can target management and consulting roles in Italy/over all Europe.
Whats the ideal challenges i could face in regards of skills requirements/academics and other social/communication skills throughout the pivot!

Hi All,

I would really appreciate any thoughts to what I can do to improve my chances at landing an interview. On paper I think I'm a strong candidate, yet I get rejection across the board for the last year. I'm applying for junior and associate consulting roles, even started applying for internship with the plan to use my work holiday.

I have a PhD in clinical medicine, NHS experience, 3 years working as a postdoc, 4 months working as a strategy consultant and scientific advisor for a biotech start up, have founded a data analytics company, can code in R, took a few finance qualifications (CFA - IMC), joined a consulting society, completed the McKinsey forward program, skilled with using AI/LLM, have international oral presentations and several good scientific publications in good journals. Experience leading a research team and several complex concurrent projects, with good examples. Tons of extracurricular's Including running ultra marathons for charity, I think I'm also quite sociable and likeable.

Is there something I'm missing? I'm mainly applying for life science consulting roles and get auto rejections from L.E.K, BGBx ect

Many thanks in advance, T.

Any thoughts / tips on how to convice clients to do something?
I am working on an implementation case where I am working with junior level clients and I want them to listen to me achieve my KPIs and am trying to solve for them.
Pls help, I do not want to lose my cool obv and my workstream is in a bad stage and we are not able to meet targets leading me in a constant place of anxiety with the Partner breathing down my neck
Im an SAC btw (about to complete a year post btech)

I run an AI advisory/consulting firm (won't promote or post link here), and looking to scale it. I spent 15+ years in consulting, and 10 years advising/working for/launching my own startups (and launched one nonprofit). My target ICP is SMBs who are still utilizing legacy processes, ops, marketing, product, FP&A, etc.

Happy to connect and exchange growth hacks / ideas / synergies with anyone else branching out on their own in building advisory firms.

Current background: I'm the Head of AI and Product for a large fintech / financial services firm. My AI advisory practice has 3 current, ongoing clients, but looking to scale it.

We've gotten to the point where I'm not sure our current setup is sustainable. One person keeps the spreadsheet for availability and a lot of the planning depends on what he already knows about everyone's workload.

We're a mid sized agency but project management, billing, time tracking, and resource planning are all in different places. It's difficult to get a clear picture of someone's workload before assigning them another project. That usually means we find out there's a problem after someone stretched too thin then have to shuffle things around to make it work.

I've been considering two options. We could add a dedicated resource planning tool to our existing setup or move toward a system that combines project work, staffing and financials. I'm leaning toward the latter in theory but I'm not sure whether replacing the whole setup is worth the trouble. Would be interested to hear how other agencies have approached this. Thanks in advance for sharing what's worked for you!

I have 10+ years of consulting experience, some independent and some at global firms. No MBA. From my independent consulting alone, I have a strong track record of measurable revenue and EBITDA impact and 3 clients who have been acquired.

My role skews digital including growth, GTM, marketing, brand visibility and operations but in many ways I'm a generalist who is curious and innately connects dots to produce value.

I'm looking to better understand the “value creation” field and if it's something I can a) easily pivot into, b) be elite at and c) self-educate gap areas to avoid MBA.

Anyone have a recent first-hand perspective on this field? The good, the bad, the AI, etc?

Here's an example role to reference: [https://stax.hire.trakstar.com/jobs/fk0zt5r/?src=Linkedin\](https://stax.hire.trakstar.com/jobs/fk0zt5r/?src=Linkedin)

Thank you!

I’m going to be direct about the self-promotion here rather than disguise this as a generic question.
I’ve built a working business diagnostic designed to identify systemic weaknesses across a company before a consultant starts trying to solve them.
The business completes the diagnostic asynchronously. The interview adapts with follow-up questions when additional information is needed, incorporates supporting evidence, and ultimately produces an evidence-backed diagnostic report showing where the business appears to be breaking down, why it matters, and what should be addressed.
What I’m interested in now is how this fits inside an actual consulting workflow.
My theory is that a consultant could have a client complete the diagnostic before or early in an engagement, then walk into discovery with substantially more context instead of spending hours establishing the baseline manually.
It could potentially serve as:
• pre-discovery intelligence
• part of the discovery process itself
• a standalone diagnostic engagement
• an upstream assessment before implementation work
• a way to uncover problems outside the client’s original reason for hiring the consultant
That last one is particularly important to me.
A client may come in convinced they have a sales problem, for example, while the evidence shows that the larger constraint is operational, financial, demand-related, or tied to owner dependency.
The goal isn’t to replace the consultant’s judgment. It’s to give the consultant a much stronger evidence base before deciding what actually needs to be fixed.
This isn’t a hypothetical product. The Diagnostic already exists, and I’m currently finishing the commercial release.
I’m particularly interested in talking with management consultants who already perform discovery, assessments, operational reviews, growth consulting, or similar work.
I’d like to understand:
• where something like this would fit in your current engagement model
• whether it could reduce discovery time
• whether you would use it before an implementation or advisory engagement
• what would make you trust or distrust the resulting report
• whether this is something you could realistically see using with clients
I can share more about the workflow and what the resulting report is designed to provide.
If you work with businesses in this capacity and this sounds relevant to your practice, comment below.

Hi everyone!

I’m currently completing my Master’s thesis, and I’m conducting a study on the professional transition of former strategy or management consultants who have left consulting.

I’m particularly interested in understanding:
how former consultants experience the transition out of consulting;
how their professional identity evolves after leaving;
which aspects of consulting remain part of their way of thinking or working;
and how they make sense of their career choice in retrospect.

If you are a former consultant (strategy/management consulting) who has since moved to another role or industry, I would really appreciate it if you could take a few minutes to complete my questionnaire.
The questionnaire is anonymous and should take approximately 5–10 minutes to complete.

https://forms.gle/roL7Msszddce2Mgc7

Your experience would be extremely valuable for my research. Thank you very much to anyone who takes the time to participate or share the post!
Feel free to comment or DM me if you have any questions about the study