PREMIUM SEARCH Search by job title, geography and build a list of executive contacts
For undergrads considering a career in government, a stint in consulting could be a valuable (and lucrative) springboard. Peter Sullivan, Booz Allen Hamilton's U.S. director of people services, says Booz Allen offers recent grads the opportunity to work at the intersection of the private and public sectors through positions in the consulting firm's government practice.
At on-campus recruiting events, he's looking for polished, self-aware candidates who are comfortable with numbers. Sullivan spoke recently with BusinessWeek.com reporter Kerry Miller. An edited excerpt of their conversation follows:
Peter Sullivan Booz Allen Hamilton
What's the biggest difference between Booz Allen and other consulting companies? We have a very successful strategy consulting business, of course, just like Boston Consulting and Bain and McKinsey, but we have a very large government practice, the largest in the world. We do a lot of work for the Centers for Disease Control and other government agencies. Our corporate clients are very interested in that work and come to us because of it, because they know we understand how the regulatory world is reshaping itself. And we are also finding more and more, particularly at the undergraduate level, there's a lot of passion around working in the public sector. The FBI and the CIA are two of the top 10 ideal employers among undergraduates right now (see BusinessWeek.com, 5/4/06, "Hello, Mickey"). Who would have thought that 10 years ago, right? "Government bureaucracy, oh my God! Keep me away." But now they're very much of interest to students.
That means we can offer a pretty broad set of opportunities—I would argue broader than most other consulting firms—that can manifest themselves in different ways. For example, if I can look in the eyes of a student and say, "Gosh, do you want to run for office? Do you want to run for governor or senator or even something higher? Come to Booz Allen. I can expose you to the best commercial strategy consulting practices and also give you rotations in government so you can start building your network and start understanding how the government works."
Is that something that the company understands, that people often aren't in consulting for the long haul? Well, we know, it's no secret. Most people come into consulting with a two- to four-year time horizon. I did, and I've been with the firm now for a decade. But most people don't approach a consulting firm on campus thinking partnership. They think, "Consulting is a great springboard to the next step in my career." And it is, and that's okay. I wouldn't shout it from the rooftops, but we know this. But a lot of them settle in and think, "You know what? I kind of like this." And those are the folks that stick around and become principals and partners.
And what does that career path look like? We have essentially five titles. We have consultant, which is what undergrads go into right out of college. One can spend up to 4 years as a consultant, and then typically a consultant will go to business school. We will sponsor high-performing consultants and pay for their business school. They certainly have to come back, though. When they come out of business school, they're associates. Then people get promoted to job manager, which is senior associate, within 2 to 2½ years. They can be a senior associate for 2 to 3 years, then principal, 2 to 4 years as principal, and then partner.
Do you offer internships for students who are still in college? We do. Typically it's going to be people between the junior and senior year, and those internships are exclusively on our public-sector side, which involves more transformational consulting, as opposed to the strategic work that we do on the commercial side. We only offer MBA-level internships on our commercial side.
What does the recruiting process look like for undergrads? It depends on if you're going to be consulting in a commercial group or a public-sector practice. In our commercial group, we have just a few schools that we target, and the schools align to our office footprint: for example, Columbia for New York, SMU for Dallas, Northwestern for Chicago, and Howard University, for our McLean (Va.) office. We also get unsolicited résumés that we consider, and we've hired undergrads from Wharton, as well, and had good success there. For the government sector, we typically focus on schools generally in and around Washington, D.C.—Maryland, Virginia, George Washington, Georgetown, Penn State.
What are things that you're looking for in applicants? Basically, we're looking for a great school, and we're looking for a good performance at that school in the form of GPA. We're looking for someone who wasn't just a student, someone who dabbled in leadership—student government or athletics. Someone who appears to be pretty well-rounded. We'd also love to have a quality internship, but we know those are challenging to get.
What kind of technical skills are you looking for? We are a fairly analytical firm, and so I'd probably rather see courses that show this is someone who's comfortable in a quantitative environment: statistics or econometrics or applied math. Being comfortable with regression analysis, that's always a plus. Someone who's very comfortable in Excel, who has taken some business courses or has had an internship that suggests they were exposed to a lot of different functions across a business.
Any advice on how to do well in the interview? I think people need to prepare, and they need to know the basics of the company. If during an interview, when I give them a chance to ask questions and they ask me a question whose answer is available on our Web site, they have just missed an opportunity. I want their questions to be insightful. I want to see that they're using their time wisely and not asking a question like, "Do you have an office in Boston?"
Are there any red flags that would come up in that interview stage that would make you think a person isn't the best fit for Booz Allen? Using the word "I" too much during the interview, when clearly they were doing things that should be "we"—that's someone who I might kind of raise an eyebrow to. We really like people who are self-aware. For example, if I ask them, "Tell me about yourself," I don't want you to start with where you were born. I want you to give me the 30-second script on who you are, what your brand is, and how you found yourself to be in the seat that you're in right now.
What would you say is the most common mistake that students make during the interview process? There's a fine line between confidence and arrogance, and some students do come off as a bit arrogant. I think it's a bit of a sign of the times. Five years ago people happened to be a bit more humble. But these are good times to be a student looking for a job. Folks that had one or two offers five years ago now have three or four from all four major firms: Booz Allen, Bain, BCG, and McKinsey (see BusinessWeek.com, 10/27/05, "Recruiters are Slugging It Out").
And what really makes the difference between the really good applicants and the really great applicants that are good enough to get an offer? I think it probably comes down to professional maturity. Sometimes even though they're just 22 years old, there are folks that are just mature beyond their years. You can see it. They ask insightful questions. They're not nervous. They're polished. I don't know what it is that makes them so, but they just have this professional maturity that is beyond their years. That's important because they're going to be dealing with clients, important clients, senior clients, and they need to represent the firm effectively.
Search over 1700 programs and find course work that will help your career. Programs range from strategy, consumer/buyer behavior, sales management, negotiation, project management to a complete MBA. All instruction is accredited and delivered online by leading universities.
Search the eLearners.com directory of over 1700 programs and find course work to help your career. All instruction is accredited and delivered online by leading universities.
Search the eLearners.com directory of over 1700 programs and find IT course work to help your career. Programs range from Mastering IS Solutions, Computer Network and Distributed Systems to degrees in Technology Management.
MBA Insider
Printer-Friendly Version
