Is Management Consulting Right For You?

Join Isaiah as he discusses how PhDs can enjoy a challenging and rewarding career in management consulting

Here’s a quick rundown of this week’s episode…

• First, Isaiah describes what a management consultant does
• Next, Isaiah explains why management consulting firms seek out PhDs for their top positions
• Finally, Isaiah reveals how your PhD-level skills align perfectly with what is needed to succeed as a consultant

From This Week’s Show… 

What Is Management Consulting?

If you want to transition into industry, there are many career tracks to choose from: Research and development, clinical science, project management, and sales and marketing.

But what many PhDs don’t realize is that their skills and experience also fit into the world of management consulting.

Management Consultant sits at number 11 on CNN Money’s Best Jobs in America, and is projected to have a 10-year job growth rate of almost 22%.

Why Management Consulting Firms Seek Out PhDs For Their Top Positions

Management consultants help businesses improve their performance or assist them in achieving their organizational objectives.

Companies come to consultants with a business problem that they need to solve, including a need to reduce annual costs, identify competitors in the marketplace, or improve production efficacy.

As a PhD, you are in high demand for these roles.

Medical, tech, and user experience fields are advancing at exponential rates and this has pushed many management consulting firms to hire PhDs.

These companies have found that PhDs in particular know how to troubleshoot and develop tractable strategies.

The PhD-Level Skills Needed To Be A Management Consultant

Another reason to consider a career in management consulting is that the consulting world is highly team oriented.

If you felt isolated in your little corner of the academic silo and are starving for a highly collaborative environment, then look no further.

Consultants traditionally work in teams – with a partner or director leading the client relationship and selling the work and a project or engagement manager leading the day-to-day activities of the team.

The project team’s mandate is to clearly define the problem that the client wants to solve and to solve it in a structured and predictable, yet creative and compelling way.

This can take anywhere from 3 weeks to 9 months or longer.

You don’t need to be a finance expert, master business jargon, or have a background in business to be hired as a management consultant.

What you do need are social skills, some comfort with quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis, and a willingness to get out of your comfort zone in a structured and purposeful way.

If you’re ready to start your transition into industry, you can apply to book a free Transition Call with our founder Isaiah Hankel, PhD or one of our Transition Specialists. Apply to book a Transition Call here.