Management Consulting 101

I speak with my Stanford classmate, Mike Peng. He studied chemical engineering at UT Austin and started his career at McKinsey before coming to Stanford GSB. In this episode, Mike decodes management consulting and the allure of MBB: McKinsey, Bain, BCG. What exactly do consultants do everyday? What are the hours like? What are the pros and cons of the consultant lifestyle? Mike speaks with so much candor and talks through his frameworks of figuring out his dream job and experimenting along the way. I’m so excited for you to hear this conversation, let’s dive in. *************************** 🍿 WATCH NEXT: 28-Year-Old Congressional Candidate: A New Voice in Politics [Joby Bernstein]    • 28-Year-Old Running for Congress [Joby Ber...   -Decoding Wall Street: Investment Banking & Private Equity [Jennifer Hwang]    • Decoding Wall Street: Investment Banking &...   Dare to Dream: Sequoia Managing Partner’s Career & Life Strategies [Roelof Botha]    • Roelof Botha: Career & Personal Lessons fr...   From Newsroom to Classroom [Glenn Kramon]    • Life Lessons From Stanford MBA Writing Pro...   From India to Stanford MBA [Vishal Sahoo]    • From India to Stanford MBA: How He Did It   From College Dropout to Stanford Startup Entrepreneur [Katherine Gruneisen]    • College Dropout to Stanford Startup Entrep...   U.S. Army Commander, NCAA Academic All American Football, and Stanford MBA [Terry Baggett]    • U.S. Army Commander to Stanford MBA   Life after Harvard Business School & Corporate Girlie Advice [Emily Carrolo]    • Harvard Business School: 1 Year Out [Emily...   2+2 Deferred Stanford MBA Admit [Grant McNaughton]:    • Admitted Into Stanford MBA at 21 Years Old...   MBA Application Tips: He Applied 2X and got Into Stanford, Harvard, and MIT: Ty Greenberg:    • He Succeeded The Second Time Applying (MBA)   From Finance to 3x Founder, Hot Takes on Stanford Curriculum, & MBA Life with a Toddler [Chad Janis]:    • Finance Growth Equity and Startups: He's D...   The Tea on Harvard Business School & Venture Capital Breakdown [Ayushi Sinha]:    • The Tea on Harvard Business School (HBS) &...   -Dual Degree at Stanford & Harvard, MBA Application Tips, & Journaling Your Why [Gabriela Forter]:    • How She Got Into Harvard 2X (Harvard Busin...   -Why He Chose Stanford over Harvard, MBA Application Tips, & Life in the U.S. Military [Jae Yu]:    • From U.S. Army to Stanford's Business Scho...   Product Manager Interview Tips, Early Career Lessons, & LinkedIn Life [Emily Tang]:    • Interview Tips for Product Managers   MY FREE ONLINE GUIDES: 🙋🏻‍♀️ 100+ MBA Interview Question Prep: https://shop.beacons.ai/cherie.brooke... 🎓 MBA M7 School Comparison Document: https://shop.beacons.ai/cherie.brooke... LET'S CONNECT 🤳🏻 Instagram -   / cherie.brooke   🌍 My website - https://www.cherieluo.com 📱 TikTok -   / cherie.brooke   ✍🏻 My Substack - https://cherieluo.substack.com/ 👩🏻‍💻 Linkedin -   / cherie-luo   Ｘ Twitter -   / cherie_luo   ⌚️Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 02:30 Podcast begins 02:50 Cherie’s first TikTok video 03:58 Why Cherie became a creator 04:48 What does Cherie’s IG explore page look like? 05:35 What does Mike’s IG explore page look like? 06:05 Mike introduction 07:55 Career exploration 11:36 What is management consulting? 13:52 Day in the life of a management consultant 15:38 Pros and cons of management consulting 17:45 Hours as a management consultant 19:20 “Eating the frog” 20:08 The need to prove yourself 23:00 The lifestyle of a consultant 25:35 Mike’s best consulting trip 26:12 McKinsey, Bain, BCG 27:16 Can you break into consulting outside of schooling? 28:18 Advice to aspiring management consultants 32:10 What surprised Mike about consulting? 34:07 Why Mike chose to get an MBA 35:54 Is an MBA needed to progress in consulting? 37:35 How to stand out applying to business school 38:51 Mike’s favorite class at GSB 40:24 Mike’s short and long term goals 41:25 What is a search fund? 42:17 Why does Mike want to start a search fund? 44:32 What has Mike learned about himself the last 5 years? 46:40 What has Cherie most enjoyed about business school? 49:29 Closing thoughts ABOUT ME Hello friends, thanks for watching! My name is Cherie and I'm a content creator, Stanford MBA student, & former LinkedIn senior product manager 👋🏻 I share personal career stories on Cherie's Corner Podcast via YouTube and Instagram, so you can learn from my friends and our successes and failures, all while owning our authentic selves and living happier lives. Music produced by Sammy Signal https://open.spotify.com/artist/2Hsyk...