I'm a fairly recent university grad (May 08). I'm currently working for a private investment firm that primarily does Venture Capital deals, but we also do look at some middle market Private Equity deals. I'm interested in moving to management consulting in an entry level associate type position...would obviously love BCG, Bain, McK but the smaller firms like Monitor and Parthenon are also very appealing.Would my experience over the last 6 months since graduation be appealing to the top consulting firms considering my main competition would be college seniors? Also, what is the hiring cycle like? Do the big firms make a number of off-cycle hires?Thanks in advance for the input.

I don't think any firms make off-cycle hires for entry level roles...and you've just missed the applications deadlines for all the firms, by about a month.Your experience is pretty good though, so your options are:a) wait it out until next year and then apply for entry level roles for Sept 2010.b) try to get a (sponsored) MBA and then join as an associatec) carry on in PE for a lot longer and then perhaps try to join as a specialist.It's all quite a lot of effort, though, just to join MC. Why not carry on in present job for a few more years - surely you'll be able to leverage that experience into loads of different opportunities then?

I'm in a similar situation and a headhunter(Specializes in IT im afraid) friend told me to look into Mars, Accenture and McKinsey as they hire all year round(apparently)Also Bain have been talking about opening up the intake in march and BCG in the summer(Apparently)Also try QudisHope this helps

I'm not sure why you would want to jump ship from PE after just a few months working in it. If it's a case of 'the grass is greener' then you are most likely wrong. The experience you can get in PE probably far outweighs entry-level consulting. My advice would be to stick it out for a couple of years, then if you can face taking a pretty big pay cut move to consulting as consultant (not an analyst). You won't have missed out on any 'years' progression-wise, but will have a breadth of experience that will stand you in good stead.

A bunch of firms are still recruiting.

Deloitte, PwC, ACN, Pa, Booz, Spectrum, somebody else perhaps.McK, however, don't afaik.

Big difference between VC and lower-mid market PE. If you can get into a top tier strategy firm then you will be much better positioned to move into large cap PE in a few years time + still have broad exit options.

Oh, and Mercer as well.Probably Hewitt.

fsd, you aren't quite right - Deloitte has filled up their consulting places, PwC's deadline was yesterday.

M-mm, yeh, I've checked, deadline for strategy is today. They're still open for 'economics' though.I thought Deloitte's deadline is sometime around February. Otherwise it's unwise to recruit people on a first-served basis so early. But okay.

Dan- You pretty much hit the nail right on the head. I was extremely lucky to stumble into PE out of college to day the least. The firm I work at is small, but from what I know it is still rare to have this kind of opportunity coming directly from school. That said, part of me does feel like I missed out on the "natural progression" if you will, especially considering that I know consulting is a strong feeder to large PE firms.

Don't listen to this crap. I just moved to Blackstone PE recently and interviewed with all top 10 PE firms globally. I asked them specifically what the trend is regarding recruitment e.g. do they prefer consultants, small cap PE or bankers. All of them mentioned that 95% or more nowadays is recruitment from banking, they need people who can build a complex model who can put a deal together who can structure financings. For real portfolio investments restructurings usually consulting firms are hired...Don't go into consulting with the dream to go to PE! Its pointless

I see. And all the PE funds who relied on highly leveraged financial engineering are doing very well, aren't they.Read a f*cking newspaper, dimwit. Preferably a broadsheet.