After working at McMaster Carr and Mercedes Benz, Ashley Perkins (Ross, ‘20) entered her MBA program at the University of Michigan with a desire to transition to a career in management consulting. Using her past experience with career transitions and the help of the Consulting Club, Perkins scored a management consulting internship, and full-time offer, and now is Co-President of the Consulting Club. In this interview, Perkins shares her advice for career transition in business school, and how MBA students interested in management consulting can set themselves up for success.
MBASchooled: What did you do before business school? What attracted you to consulting?
Before business school, I was the Customer Experience Manager at Mercedes-Benz USA corporate store in New York City. I was excited when I took this role after spending a few years at HQ knee-deep in budget documents. It was an interesting position to be a corporate function in a luxury retail setting but I enjoyed it immensely. Essentially, I got to review customer experience data from our surveys, online reviews, informal Q&A, and focus groups to identify areas of improvement within our sales and service branches. Then, my team and I would ideate with each department area on slight changes to their processes, which we then implemented the change and tracked performance. As you can imagine, there are many similarities between what I did and what a consultant does so it was pretty natural that consulting would be the next step in my professional career.
MBASchooled: Can you share what your recruiting process was like for summer internships? What were some of the challenges you faced, and how did you work through them?
Stressful yet rewarding! I am a planner so I came into the recruiting season wanting to know as much about every firm so that I can then narrow down my interest to only a few firms. My well-being is important to me and with a heavy core schedule, on-campus leadership roles, recruiting events, and case prep on my plate, I did not want to fall into the trap of feeling ever-exhausted. Most students come in and want to attend everything by everyone but it is not realistic and very few walk away with meaningful insights. Once I narrowed down my list to about 7 firms, I was able to begin building relationships with them in a way that felt more natural. That meant I could attend their events, have coffee chats, set up networking calls, and visit offices, which helped the firms know me by name, face, and industry interest. I felt comfortable asking to speak to consultants with a specific background such as “a Black, woman, senior consultant/manager, in retail,” to help me learn from someone with many similarities to me. This process worked well for me but I won’t have you fooled to think that I wasn’t still tired, insecure, or frustrated at times. I think more than having a personalized recruiting process is having a strong support network, and I am grateful for my friends, family, and classmates that were a part of mine.
MBASchooled: As a career switcher, what were some of the things you did to highlight to companies that you were a great candidate for their firm?
I’ve made several moves in my pre-business school career. I started off as a Teach For America corps member, then moved into operations at McMaster-Carr, followed-by customer experience at Mercedes-Benz. I had to get pretty creative when weaving my story so that the decisions I made came across as agreeable and innovative. In doing this, I pulled stories from each role that emphasized my strengths as a leader, a team-player, and an analytical decision maker. Using these three factors as my core, I was able to highlight experiences from each role to showcase my strength as a candidate.
MBASchooled: How did the expectations of what you thought consulting was going to be like match up to reality during your summer internship?
I came into my internship expecting a strong team environment, innovative approaches to solving business problems, a fair amount of travel, and meaningful and implementable feedback. Fortunately, my expectations for consulting aligned nearly perfectly with the reality of my summer internship. Unfortunately, I wasn’t on any travel cases this summer so I will have to wait for Full-Time to truly understand what business travel will be like but I am still very excited nonetheless.
MBASchooled: If an MBA student is interested in pursuing a consulting career, what are some things they can do in their MBA experience to put themselves in a position to transition into management consulting?
If you come from a non-business background, I recommend embracing your core curriculum. Throughout my case prep and coffee chats with firms, I was pleasantly surprised at how often I leaned on classroom learning to crack the case or make a point. Additionally, I would run for a position on your school’s consulting club board. During my first year, I was an Associate Vice President of Firm Relations and became very comfortable engaging with firms as we planned on-campus events together. The key is to create the balance you need to make the best of your recruiting experience.
MBASchooled: As President of the Consulting Club at Ross, how do you help your students prepare for careers in consulting?
I wouldn’t be able to help any students without the support and teamwork of my entire board and Co-President (Jordan Morris). Collectively, we provide weekly educational sessions, mock case/behavioral prep, an MBA 1 and 2 Forum, and countless coffee chats, resume reviews, and hugs (whenever necessary). We work closely with the Ross Career Development office to supplement their curriculum shared with all students interested in consulting.
MBASchooled: What’s your advice for helping aspiring consultants navigate the recruiting process for management consulting?
Be yourself! You will hear this a lot throughout the recruiting season because there are some students who play to an idea of a consultant they may have seen on television or read in books/blogs. I brought my authentic self to events and interviews and I found that I was welcomed by the practitioners at each firm. Aspiring consultants still have to do the work of case and behavioral preparation but it is very important to show who you are and what interests you have throughout this relationship building process.