The Consulting Workshop is designed to familiarize students with the consulting field and to prepare them to obtain and to succeed in consulting jobs. While most workshop graduates accept positions with consulting firms, the skills learned and friendships made in the workshop are valuable, whatever career path a member may choose to pursue.
The workshop is focused around three courses.
- Advanced Case Analysis and Effective Consulting Presentation (J420)
J420 is an intensive case-based course that focuses on the basic building blocks of consulting: analysis, presentation, and teamwork. Students take this course in the fall of their junior years.
- The Consulting Industry (X403)
X403 is the course designed to familiarize students with the consulting field and its constituent firms. It is focused around an August trip to meet with consulting firms in Chicago. During the August 2019 trip, Workshop members met with consultants at 14 leading firms – Accenture, Alvarez & Marsal, Bain, BCG, Charles Rivers Associates, Deloitte, EY, HealthScape, Keystone Consulting Group, L.E.K., McKinsey, Protiviti, PwC, and West Monroe Partners. (In the Falls of 2020 and 2021, the trips took place virtually due to COVID-19 and related restrictions.) Students take this course in their junior years.
- Structured Thinking and Interpersonal Aspects of Consulting (X404)
X404 is the course that prepares students to obtain and to succeed in consulting jobs. It is focused on the structured thinking that underlies case interviewing (and, more generally, consulting), and interpersonal skills – e.g., networking, working with clients, working in a cross-cultural environment, and change management – that contribute to success in the field. We also discuss ethical issues that arise in consulting. Students take this course in the fall of their senior years.