MBB Consulting Demystified: Mike Peng

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 [Job...  
-Decoding Wall Street: Investment Banking & Private Equity [Jennifer Hwang]    • Decoding Wall Street: I-Banking & Pri...  
- Dare to Dream: Sequoia Managing Partner’s Career & Life Strategies [Roelof Botha]    • Roelof Botha: Sequoia Managing Partne...  
- From Newsroom to Classroom [Glenn Kramon]    • Lessons from New York Times & Stanfor...  
- From India to Stanford MBA [Vishal Sahoo]    • From India to Stanford MBA: Vishal Sahoo  
- From College Dropout to Stanford Startup Entrepreneur [Katherine Gruneisen]    • From College Dropout to Stanford Star...  
- 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 [...  
- 2+2 Deferred Stanford MBA Admit [Grant McNaughton]:    • 2+2 Deferred MBA: Grant McNaughton  
- MBA Application Tips: He Applied 2X and got Into Stanford, Harvard, and MIT: Ty Greenberg:    • He Applied 2X and got into Stanford, ...  
- From Finance to 3x Founder, Hot Takes on Stanford Curriculum, & MBA Life with a Toddler [Chad Janis]:    • Entrepreneur's Hot Take on Stanford C...  
- The Tea on Harvard Business School & Venture Capital Breakdown [Ayushi Sinha]:    • The Tea on Harvard Business School & ...  
-Dual Degree at Stanford & Harvard, MBA Application Tips, & Journaling Your Why [Gabriela Forter]:    • Dual Degree at Stanford & Harvard, MB...  
-Why He Chose Stanford over Harvard, MBA Application Tips, & Life in the U.S. Military [Jae Yu]:    • He Chose Stanford over Harvard & Life...  
- Product Manager Interview Tips, Early Career Lessons, & LinkedIn Life [Emily Tang]:    • How to Interview as a Product Manager...  

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...