I recently went through all rounds in BCG applying for associate , there were several persons in the end all but one were CFA lev 2-3 candidates. I, CFA lev 2 candidate, finally was allowed to go and the other guy, CFA level 3, took the opportunity in BCG. Although I do not think that CFA matters for successful employment in consulting but it was clearly a door opener. Also I wrote problem solving test in Mckinsey yesterday. The same picture all but one girl were from finance and enrolled in CFA, the girl was from marketing.
Consulting work has its pros to be sure, I just wouldn’t enjoy being in a hotel 4 days a week.
CFA has long been common in investment consulting.
for someone reason i think he’s talking about management consulting (i.e., McKinsey & Boston Consulting Gruop), not investment consulting
I worked with someone (w/ CFA) who came over from Monitor Group, which is mostly strategy and management consulting. So, there are CFA holders in management consulting as well, although they may also end up working in the asset management arms of these places. Ex: McKinsey has it’s own fund that is run for the benefit of employees/owners.
There are several branches in the aforementioned companies, two of them: corporate finance and strategy consulting. I applied for both. Well, they pay for MBA (selectively) after two years. They still have bonuses and they still have contracts but they told me structure of business change from 70% strategy : 30% operational+ due dilligence to 70% operational : 30% strategy. All this is good taking into account abscence of investment performance in the market. The guy which performed in interviews better than me is employed by City as an investment analyst and he decided to leave City in favour of BCG.
artvandalay Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Consulting work has its pros to be sure, I just > wouldn’t enjoy being in a hotel 4 days a week. If you’re good enough, you can more or less pick which project you want to go on in consulting and therefore basically pick what kind of schedule you want (and travel vs no travel). However, it is hard in this environment because there are less clients out there (therefore less options) than there used to be.
Hi YeeS_Mos, You said you recently took the Mckinsey test. I am having that very soon. Can you give me in idea about it? Thanks, Mimi
hi mimi, i t is 26 questions for 75 minutes. The test was difficult and they prohibit use of calculators so you need to use paper to calculate average compound growth and etc. That was painful for me. The questions deal mainly with marketing staff and changes in market shares, i.e. you need to find - growth; - change in market share; - profit margin; - best/worst performing segment; I do not remember details of questions of test which was almost three weeks ago. Majority of questions is quantitative with tricky calculations and different from CFA format. They should send to you sample 13 questions which is not representative of real test. IMHO there is a need to practice more for this test and subsequent cases. Try search internet because there should be downloadable books with tests and cases.
So most of the other interviewers were CFA candidates? Working in management consulting you will never gain the work experience to obtain the charter. I think back in 2003-present there is clearly an interest in asset management. All the top students wanted to be associated with finance and the CFA is clearly a door openner to asset management firms.
hey for those of you interviewing with consulting firms: what’s your background? straight out of school (UG or MBA?) or experienced? thanks!
experienced 4-5 years
Re: CFA candidates move to consulting You’re not kidding. I got a call today from a headhunter >> looking at an on site interview next week
Thanks YeeS_Mos, Is it possible to give me a brief on cases as well. Sorry for asking too much. I searched the net a lot. Just found one more sample test and nothing else. Thanks, Mimi
I failed test per McKinsey letter so I did not see actual cases.
After two years of equity research associate work (post MBA), I am now considering a move to either corp finance (IB) or management consulting. Based on what I hear from friends who are in consulting, the collegial team-oriented work along with better career development options are clearly differentiated from the IB world where the relatively hefty bonuses are supposed to compensate for the lack of mentorship/development (especially at the analyst/associate levels). I know in ER, unless you are working for an analyst who happens to be a mentor, you’re pretty much left to fend for yourself in terms of your own career progression and reputation, etc… In general, I think the IB world is shrewder with the potential for more upside at junior levels than their consulting counterparts. Does this jive with what you guys know about the difference between the two paths? Any thoughts on this kind of transition would be interesting…