A Talk With Booz Allen's MBA Recruiter

With the economy booming, it's a good time for consulting firms—and a good time for MBA grads. Hiring is up at Booz Allen Hamilton, which ranked 15th on this year's Universum survey of where MBAs say they'd most like to work. Peter Sullivan, who as "director of people services" oversees MBA and undergrad recruiting at Booz Allen, recently spoke with BusinessWeek.com reporter Kerry Miller about job opportunities for undergrads (see BusinessWeek.com, 7/31/06, "A Jumping-Off Point, And More"). Miller and Sullivan also spoke about Booz Allen's MBA hiring efforts, which focus primarily on the firm's commercial practice. Here's are edited excerpts of that conversation:

What is the major difference between Booz Allen and its commercial-sector competitors?
I would say we have more collaborative culture than most of our competitors in the way we work with our clients. If there was a strategy engagement that was 10 weeks long, all four major firms— Boston Consulting (Boston Consulting), Bain, McKinsey, and Booz Allen—would come up with a great piece of strategy work. But we are more likely to say to a client, "Look, here's a strategy. Everyone buys in. The meeting went well. Here's what we think you're going to need to With the economy booming, it's a good time for consulting firms—and a good time for MBA grads. Hiring is up at Booz Allen Hamilton, which ranked 15th on this year's Universum survey of where MBAs say they'd most like to work. Peter Sullivan, who as "director of people services" oversees MBA and undergrad recruiting at Booz Allen, recently spoke with BusinessWeek.com reporter Kerry Miller about job opportunities for undergrads (see BusinessWeek.com, 7/31/06, "A Jumping-Off Point, And More"). Miller and Sullivan also spoke about Booz Allen's MBA hiring efforts, which focus primarily on the firm's commercial practice. Here's are edited excerpts of that conversation:

What is the major difference between Booz Allen and its commercial-sector competitors?
I would say we have more collaborative culture than most of our competitors in the way we work with our clients. If there was a strategy engagement that was 10 weeks long, all four major firms— Boston Consulting (Boston Consulting), Bain, McKinsey, and Booz Allen—would come up with a great piece of strategy work. But we are more likely to say to a client, "Look, here's a strategy. Everyone buys in. The meeting went well. Here's what we think you're going to need to operationalize this strategy." And we'd be willing to stick around with a reduced team for a few weeks to help make that strategy real.

That aspect of things is a tad less strategic, admittedly, but I think there's value in it. Because you know what, I probably won't work for Booz Allen forever, and at some point, 10 years from now, I'm going to have a great idea. I'm going to take it to my boss, and she'll say, "Oh, that's great, go do it." And if I've had a rotation where I've actually done it before, I'm probably going to be a better-rounded manager.

You went to Kellogg (Kellogg), and the firm's original partners did as well. Is that one of your big recruiting campuses?
Yes, definitely. Kellogg, Columbia (Columbia), Wharton (Wharton), Chicago (Chicago), Harvard (Harvard), MIT (MIT), Stanford (Stanford), Michigan (Michigan), would be our core schools. We also recruit at a few others, like Tuck (Tuck), Darden (Darden), NYU ...

See Full Version