I worked for only 6 months before I got my MBA. I had other experiences and projects that made me come to the conclusion to get an MBA when I did, but I don't have a lot of formal experience. I worked at a start up for 6 months in marketing and learned a lot. After my MBA, I got a job (which I currently have) at a huge biotech company and am a product manager. I have been here for about 6 months now. I really enjoy it here, but I've always wanted to get into consulting. When looking at the top company career sites, it seems like they are only looking for people right out of college, currently in an MBA program, or people who have many years of experience. Does anyone have any advice on how I can get into management consulting? Or would it be best to get more experience first? Thanks for your help.

Just try to stick where you are for more than 6 months for a change would be my advice - anything less than 1-2 years at a job looks like you either suck at it or don't know what you want.

I'm more than a little curious to know where you took your MBA - which BS accepted you on the basis of only 6 Months working experience, and even that in a start up.

Something seems amiss here.

An MBA is a significant investment of time and money, and is intended to allow experienced professionals to put their knowledge into a formal context while also giving them technical knowledge and frameworks in areas they may not yet have real depth in. The investment is justified in the accelerated career trajectory it enables (or typically enables) and most MBA alumni would be looking for a transparent return on their investment - i.e. a significant step up in remuneration or move into a new, lucrative career. I am therefore a little confused as to why you have taken an MBA after 6 Months of experience of limited value and application, who accepted you to take an MBA with so little experience, and why after this investment of time and money you are now doing a job you could have achieved as a graduate entrant?

First question: If you always wanted to get into consulting why didn't you use your time at business school to land a role? You're only fresh out of b'school so you could make the switch if you network like crazy and use a lot of initiative. But - and it's a big but - times are hard and you need to be bringing subject matter expertise, industry or functional expertise, and a track record of success to be considered.

Realistically you'd struggle to get into a consulting firm with two six months stints you've done pre- and post-MBA because you've yet to demonstrate success or longevity in a role. If you were to submit your CV to a consulting firm most likely they'd look at it and think (a) job-hopper, (b) indecisive (as baykus says).

What do you offer to a prospective consulting employer? Enthusiasm? Energy? Drive? Great! But so does everyone else fresh out of university or business school. What you need to do now is build up industry and sector expertise and / or functional expertise, preferably both. You need to stick at a role for long enough to talk about it credibly. You need to show you've achieved demonstrable, quantifiable success, and taken responsibility for making a positive impact on your business (e.g. a number of projects or improving the ways of working, boosting sales, managing client relationships etc.)

You need to be able to demonstrate the ability to think and get things done, i.e. critically assess a problem, ask the right questions, conduct appropriate analysis, formulate insights and recommendations, plan a course of action, execute it brilliantly and take multiple stakeholders with you on the journey.

Harness your energy, enthusiasm and drive, and get stuck in! Push yourself outside of your comfort zone and go for it in your current company. You'll make mistakes, that's OK, it's how you'll learn. It's also how you'll fill your boots with war stories of things you've done, what worked, what didn't, how you'd do things differently, how you overcame difficult situations etc. and really understand how organisations behave, and the internal and external drivers of value.

Only then will you be in a position to be taken seriously by consulting firms.

Thanks for your helpful responses. As I mentioned before, I had other experiences that helped me get into an MBA program (along with a good gpa/gmat). I started and ran a small business, and I created/marketed a couple successful apps with a partner. I was just saying I only had 6 months in a formal job position before I got into the program.

You are right, I should have tried harder to get into consulting right out of school; however, I was offered a product management position in web/mobile at a huge company, so I wasn't going to turn that down. Why would I get my MBA with such little experience? Well, it got me a MUCH better job right out of school and it is going to help me advance much more quickly. After learning what I did in the program, I've come into this job with a ton of confidence and have already been involved with many high level decisions. I know getting an MBA with little experience is unorthodox, but it has really helped me a lot and I do not regret it at all. @marsday, I'm not currently at a job I could have gotten out of undergrad; this is actually an MBA level job that I wouldn't have even been considered for without an MBA.

The only reason I posted this topic is because as I mentioned, I always thought consulting would be a good way to get experience in a lot of different industries. I'm very happy in my current job, I was just curious to hear from some of you about how to break into consulting after an MBA without a ton of industry experience. So from your responses, it absolutely makes sense to get a lot of experience in a specific industry, and then it will be easier for me to get into consulting. I appreciate your responses.