Management Consulting: A Complete Guide to the Industry

I'm just about to complete my Ph.D. in Computer Science and have previously spent a number of years working for Andersen Consulting (Technology practice). Lately, as I see my Ph.D. time finishing, I've been contemplating a career move into Managment Consulting and thought I'd have a look at this book. I cannot tell you how completely accurate I find their view of consulting, it completely fits in with my experience of the industry. So you may ask, that given I already have experience in consulting in the big 5, why would I be attracted to this book, well I'm interested in moving out of purely technical roles and into more business design and strategy consulting and thought this book would help inspire questions within myself as to whether this *type* of consulting suited me.The book achieves that and also gives you an excellent and *truthful* account of what consulting is really like.Read this book!!

I've read them all - Wet Feet, Vault, HBS, Naficy - and this book is the one that helped me the most. Naficy is anecdotal and dated at this point; HBS is written for Harvard students and contains recruiter info that pertains only to them; Wet Feet is just superficial; and although Vault has some useful content, Management Consulting has all of the same info plus much much more. Don't bother with the others - just get this book.

This book is fabulous! Twitchell and Biswas have produced a book that will accelerate your consulting job search. In a single volume, they have provided everything you will need to land a job in consulting. Just glance at the Table of Contents and you will quickly realize how comprehensive the book is: 1) The Management Consulting Industry; 2) The Consultant's Work and Lifestyle; 3) Insider Perspectives on Consulting; 4) Planning Your Consulting Career; 5) Mastering the Case Interview; 6) Negotiating Your Offer; and finally 15 Essential Frameworks, 100 Case Questions and 10 Sample Answers, and a Directory of 50 Firms. Unlike Wet Feet Press and The Vault Reports, which require you to buy multiple books to get a complete picture, this book provides everything you need to learn about the consulting industry and master the case interview in ONE VOLUME.And if you're looking for a personal, insider's perspective, you can't beat this book. Not only do Biswas and Twitchell provide insight into their own experience as consultants, they have also devoted close to 100 of the 300 pages to original essays written by the founding partners and managing directors of the world's top consulting firms: McKinsey, Booz-Allen, Bain, BCG, Monitor, Mercer, Mitchell Madison, Arthur D Little, Andersen, Watson Wyatt Worldwide, The Wilkerson Group, Vertex, and many more... It is truly an impressive list - and surely, if you're planning to interview with any of these firms, you had better read up on what they've written!I know there are a lot of books out there on consulting, but this is by far the best I've seen yet. As the Worldwide Managing Director of Bain said about the book, "Management Consulting is a must-read!"

Biswas and Twitchell serve as your personal career coaches, guiding you through the various steps required to secure a consulting job with carefully conceived strategies and refreshing objectivity. The book serves as a useful map to the industry, but in an unusual approach, the authors begin first by encouraging readers to think hard about what exactly they are committing to and why. They outline the various issues to be considerd incuding types of consulting, travel time, work hours, and industry complaints, all in an effort to make sure that individuals are approaching their search with an accurate set of expectations. I found this kind of impartiality greatly enhances the credibility of their insights. In addition, the chapter entitled Perspectives on Consulting written by leading consultants, is particularly helpful because it helps shed light on "consulting personalities" and highlights the type of thinking that is valued across various firms. But most impressive is the the meat and potatoes chapter on the The Case Question. This section offers the most succinct explanation of the traditional consulting interview I have read - it manages to reduce this dreaded process to its essential components and arms the reader with a list of critical tools to organize and attack the questions in only 20 pages. The book also inlcudes 15 frameworks and 100 case questions to practice with. Management Consulting: A Complete Guide is an info-packed game plan and I strongly recommend the book to anyone who not only needs to get up to speed quickly but hopes to land the job!

That is all I can say to the authors of this book!Five months ago, I wanted to make a career switch. Since I like troubleshooting and problem solving, and, to be frank, I needed a higher salary if I was to continue living in San Francisco, I thought consulting might be a good avenue to pursue.My first interview was with Deloitte and Touche, and ... I BOMBED IT. Although I had talked to several of my friends who were in or had been in consulting, and even a business professor at UC Berkeley (where I went to college), I was ill-prepared for the CASE INTERVIEW.I agree with another reviewer (Carlsbad, CA) that case interviews may not be the best tool for recruiting consulants. Afterall, how many consultants (outside veterinary consultants) really need to know how many kittens there are in the USA? HOWEVER, until the PREMIERE consulting firms stop using them to gage how one thinks under pressure about an unfamiliar problem, then you cannot beat Biswas and Twitchell's "Management Consulting: A Complete Guide to the Indusrty" and Wet Feet Press' "So You Want to be a Management Consultant" for preparation.{I guess where I disagree with Carlsbad, CA's review is that this book (or any book) written as a guide to a recruiting process and the industry as a whole, should not and cannot be faulted for the problems in the recruitment process or in the industry. I am thankful that this book covered the case interview so well -- since that is exactly what I faced when I was looking for consulting jobs. Moreover, unlike the reviewer from Carlsbad, CA who is a business professor and a part-time consultant, I now do consulting full-time. While there are times I don't enjoy working long hours, I cannot fault this book for telling me about the often grueling lifestyle -- although I can certainly fault the industry for it.}Now, if you have the money, I suggest that you buy both this book, and the Wet Feet Press book. But if you don't have money to burn, I would definitely buy Biswas' and Twitchell's Guide first for two reasons: 1) it offers realistic qualifications about the grueling consulting lifestlye, and 2) it has great essays by reknowned consultants.These two parts will help you to answer questions from recruiters about your personal lifestyle requirements (are you willing to travel, are you willing to be away from home, are you willing to work 60-80 hours a week consistently), and it always helps to know the names and histories of renkowned consultants (like John Wilkerson, who has an essay in this book) when discussing your future as a consultant.More importantly, you have to decide whether Management Consulting is the right career for you (The sections about lifestyle (work requirements) and by renowned consultants will help you answer that question).When I was done interviewing, I had four offers to consider from some great firms! While I can't say that all of it was due to reading this book or Wet Feet Pr