Tuesday, December 15th, 2009

Is economics a good major to enter management consulting or private equity?

I’m planning on majoring in economics, but considering business, for my bachelors degree. Is econ good for a top consulting firm? What about something in private equity, venture capitalist?

Economics is certainly a good choice but the top management consulting firms hire people from all types of majors. Ultimately they want people who have shown strong analytical skills. You can get this from economics, business, finance, bio-chem, engineering, etc…

For private equity, most of the top firms prefer to hire people with experience. Investment and commercial banking are the best places to start if you want to move into private equity. The best majors for banking are similar to the above — anything with strong analytics.

And one last piece of advice — major in something for which you have a passion. Not only will you enjoy it more but you will get better grades and improve your attractiveness to employers.

(PS — I was a philosophy major and was hired by a top-tier consulting firm out of college and now I’m a partner at a top private equity firm.)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 15th, 2009 at 6:20 pm and is filed under economics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “Is economics a good major to enter management consulting or private equity?”

Hubris252 Says:
December 15th, 2009 at 11:46 pm

For consulting you might want to consider double majoring in business and economics, for private equity or venture capital you should consider a finance major.
References :

jalanrosh Says:
December 16th, 2009 at 12:04 am

Economics is certainly a good choice but the top management consulting firms hire people from all types of majors. Ultimately they want people who have shown strong analytical skills. You can get this from economics, business, finance, bio-chem, engineering, etc…

For private equity, most of the top firms prefer to hire people with experience. Investment and commercial banking are the best places to start if you want to move into private equity. The best majors for banking are similar to the above — anything with strong analytics.

And one last piece of advice — major in something for which you have a passion. Not only will you enjoy it more but you will get better grades and improve your attractiveness to employers.

(PS — I was a philosophy major and was hired by a top-tier consulting firm out of college and now I’m a partner at a top private equity firm.)
References :

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