Careers in Consulting Event 10/11

What’s an ‘un-panel’? Find out on Thursday evening, October 11th, when we immerse you in the world of consulting without the formal structure that characterizes many career presentations. Instead, you can chat with consultants, ask what’s on your mind, and gain first-hand perspective to complement what you’ve learned from Vault, Spotlight on Careers, and other helpful resources. Register by tomorrow to join more than 40 consultants and recruiters from 18 organizations, many of them hiring at Tufts right now.  Tips to succeed in the consulting job search.
 
Consulting is a broad term. Many students think it means strategy or management consulting; however, the industry is far more diverse. You’ll see this diversity when you study the backgrounds of the alumni and the firms who are coming to Careers in Consulting. Be open to this breadth, rather than limiting yourself. This advice comes directly from consultants themselves. Consulting firms have distinctly different practice areas and clients. Do you enjoy quantitative work but have no interest in Wall Street? Take a look at Cambridge Associates which offers investment consulting for a range of clients from nonprofits to government agencies. Putnam Associates has branded itself as “consultants to the pharmaceutical and biotech industries.” For technology types, Exeter Group specializes in IT consulting (though the Recruiting Director, also stipulates that they’re open to liberal arts students and encourages all majors to review their postings).

 There are dozens of opportunities posted on Jumbo Jobs. For a quick search, click on Campus Interviews and Resume Drops. Many students have a basic knowledge of marketing and the “marketing mix” or 4Ps (product, price, promotion/distribution, and place). Whether or not you’re interested in marketing as a career, this model offers a useful framework for your job search and, in particular, the networking aspect. Promotion is the P we’re talking about here; it represents all the communications and channels that a marketer engages to create positive awareness of a product. Think broadly of “product.” It means more than a tangible entity like clothes or technology. Consider that marketing is used to promote services, ideas, and even people (a political campaign, for example). Recognize a connection between marketing and job search? It’s all about what happens leading up to the deal itself.

Now, let’s think of you attending Careers in Consulting on Thursday evening. Here we have a phenomenal marketing forum. Employers are marketing their brand to you, and vice versa. Think of this evening as a time to create positive awareness of yourself as a potential candidate. One of the most common and grievous errors that job searchers make is to mistake a marketing opportunity for a sales pitch. Sales is more transactional; it happens only after an individual has been convinced to put money on the table or cast a vote in the polling booth or support a charity. To move into sales mode when the situation calls for marketing is akin to a high school junior touring Tufts and trying to get a commitment from admissions. The timing’s not right. Remember this when you’re networking and focus instead on how to begin differentiating yourself (again, borrowing marketing techniques to build a “unique selling proposition”). Employ multiple channels. Dress so you look like you’d easily fit into a corporate environment. Modulate your speech and adjust your language, from dorm quality to workplace. Most importantly, take a cue from consultants coming to campus who have offered their advice to you. Over and over, they offer you the key to your own differentiation. “Do your homework,” they say. Think of your own skills, knowledge, and experience and how it would be useful in a particular job and company. Then, set yourself apart with intelligent, well researched questions that demonstrate how thoroughly you’ve studied position requirements and a specific organization, from culture to practice areas. Good luck with your marketing campaign. See you Thursday night!