Careers in consultancy are sometimes of interest to our PhD students and graduates. Some firms particularly target applications from PhD students. McKinsey, BCG, Oliver Wyman, Charles River Associates; Compass Lexecon; Cornerstone Research and others have specific interest in PhD qualified applicants. Some firms offer insight days and special events for PhD students.

Events

We provide opportunities for you to find out more about working in specific sectors and meet recruiters. Book and keep up to date with events and vacancies on CareerHub.

Background reading

Careers information about management and specialist consultancy, events; lists of firms; explanations of jobs roles; news; and vacancies is available on our website.

Inspiring role models

There are many LSE PhD graduates working in management consultancy, two examples, one quant, one qual:

Zhong Zhong Chen (LSE PhD International History, 2014), Project Leader in Boston Consulting Groups’s Dubai Office

Zhong completed his PhD in International History at LSE with a thesis on Eastern European-Chinese relations during the Deng Xiaoping era. During his PhD, he published in academic journals and was granted visiting fellowships to the Freie Universitaet in Berlin and Peking University in Beijing. His current work focuses mostly on regional economic development as well as large-scale public sector transformations. In 2019 he was promoted from Strategy Consultant to Project Leader. In the past, he has served clients in the shipping, consumer goods as well as defence sectors. Before BCG, he worked as a Strategy Consultant at Monitor Deloitte, also based out of the Dubai office. During his time at LSE he gained internship experience at Independent Diplomat, the Canadian Embassy in Berlin, as well as Oliver Wyman.

Amy Challen, (LSE PhD Applied Econometrics 2013), Engagement Manager at McKinsey and Company in London moved to a Management role at Shell

Amy holds a Bachelors degree in PPE from Oxford, a Masters in Economics from Free University in the Netherlands, and a PhD in Applied Econometrics from LSE. She has also completed visiting graduate work at Princeton and Sciences Po Paris and worked for seven years as a full-time researcher at the Centre for Economic Performance at LSE. She had not considered careers in consulting, and first heard about McKinsey after receiving an email from LSE Careers in 2011 about McKinsey’s Insight programme, which takes PhD students for three days to learn about consulting. After gaining a place on this course, she was encouraged to apply for a full-time role and received an offer a few months later. She joined McKinsey as a Junior Associate in August 2013, and worked on a variety of projects and industries and functions, including banking, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, telecoms and consumer. She was seconded to QuantumBlack, an advanced analytics consultancy that is part of McKinsey, which gave her an opportunity to apply the econometrics she learnt in academia in a business context. After five years at Mckinsey, she moved to Shell as a Manger, connecting data science with business opportunities.

What next?

Unsure about your next steps and need to talk through your career ideas?

Confidential one-to-one careers consultation appointments are available every week – book with the PhD Careers Consultant Catherine Reynolds now. Good luck with your career thinking and remember we support you whatever direction you’re considering!