Transition from Finance to Consulting - Any advice?

Question

Hello, I’m considering a move from finance into a consulting role (preferably strategy consulting) and would like to understand how consulting firms view finance professionals transitioning into their field. What should I be prepared for in terms of skills, expectations, and potential challenges?

If you have work experience in both fields I would love to hear your thoughts and also challenges that came up during the transistions.

Thanks!

Answer 1

[Q] How are finance professionals valued by consulting firms and will I be prepared for it?

Hi, there

Nice to exchange with you. Interesting question. I don't have experience in the finance industry but let me try to tackle your question based on my experience having worked with professionals with stories like yours.

I split your question into 2: A) How finance professionals are valued by consulting firms and B) will I be prepared for it?

A) How are finance professionals valued by consulting firms?

In my experience, Finance background is extremely valued in consulting firms. The reason is that the more a consultant progresses in the career, the more the analyses, the conversations and the decisions land into financial metrics. For example, one can survive as a Business Analyst (BA) with little knowledge about financial concepts because 1) he/she will end up receiving some trainings to be more used to them and 2) more senior consultants will be there to help translating the BA's high-level analyses to P&L and Cash-Flow projections. That goes the opposite way for more senior roles (you must master the basics). Therefore, bringing solid knowledge in Finance will make you have more senior responsibilities and conversations sooner. Your team will likely entrust you with reviewing the premises and calculations and even making recommendations based on your expertise with finance.

B) will I be prepared for it?

Having said that, if you are thinking about getting ready for an interview and also performing during your first months, I would suggest you taking a look into 3 things (in case applicable):

Communication: make sure you can consistently deliver top-down communication throughout the entire interview.
FIT: guarantee you have detailed stories in a storytelling fashion (e.g., STAR method)
Strategy: practice case interviews to make yourself familiar with different types of case questions related to different industries

Needless to say, you will be expected to make your Finance experience appear and shine during the case interview.

In case you need anything, please don’t hesitate to reach out!

Best of luck

Anderson