I'm seeking some advice on how to maximise the utility of the professional experience I will gain during my undergraduate years with regard to becoming a strategy consultant. Which type of experience is more attractive to a prospective employer in your opinion?A series of summer internships throughout my undergraduate degree in the consultancy industry?OrSetting up as a freelance hospitality business strategy consultant focusing on sme's? (I have a background in hospitality management and I am very familiar with the industry.) Thanks for any and all input!

Japes,Don't be naive with regard to your chances of being taken seriously as a 'freelance consultant', given that you are still a mere undergrad student. With no knowledge of the hospitality sector, I would humbly submit that 'having a background in it' doesn't necessarily make your advice worth paying for. Guess who else has a background in hospitality management? ...Hospitality managers.

Thank Dan, I appreciate your honest and direct opinion.I understand your sceptical position; however I am a trained chef with international and michelin guide experience. I have also turned several struggling businesses around during my time in general management.I accept that I am a 'mere undergrad', however Universities do not hold a monopoly on knowledge and what I have to offer a client is more than the sum of my academic experience.Regarding the value of my advice, due to the fact that I will mainly be seeking to accrue experience as a consultant, I will be in a position to offer a very reasonable hourly rate to my clients for a valuable service.On the subject of the original question, which type of professional experience do you think would be most attractive to a prospective employer?

[quote]On the subject of the original question, which type of professional experience do you think would be most attractive to a prospective employer?[/quote]That's a pretty robust rebuttal and sounds like impressive (or at the very least impressively spun) experience.My personal view would be that you should give the consultancy a go as it would a) be valuable business experience that many other prospective consultants simply wouldn't have, b) you might end up making a serious go of it and end up running the business full-time after graduating, and c) I would hope that many consultancies would respect this experience (and certainly, I wouldn't look down on it when it came to interview time.)Others may have a different view.EC

So it sounds like you were in the workforce from a young age and are now undertaking an undergrad degree as an adult...?I have only worked in small/boutique firms, and am not entirely qualified to speak of how larger firms would view this, but I would have imagined most like their grads young and malleable. This wouldn't rule you out of course, depending on your school, degree subject and the level/tier of firm you're aiming at, just perhaps something to bear in mind.

Yes, that is accurate. I have been in full time employment from the age of 16 and I am now 24.My main ambition after I graduate is gaining admission to a top business school in order to study for an MBA. I am studying economics and philosophy at Trinity College Dublin (Not a world class institution, but it is Ireland's best) I have been led to believe this combination will prepare me well for the GMAT examination. Any advice on how to maximize my options at the MBA stage would be very welcome, especially on ways I can begin to make my business school applications more appealing by gaining certain kinds of knowledge or experience now.I hope taking an alternative and more challenging route to developing my professional experience would not be counter productive with regard to applying to the larger firms. It would be interesting to get some more perspectives on this matter. How would this type of experience be received at the types of consulting firm that you are familiar with? I am torn between consultancy and becoming an entrepreneur and at this stage I would like to keep my options open and gain experience relevant to both career trajectories.

Would you mind helping me to contextualize your advice by answering a couple of questions?What is the size and type of firm that you work for?Are you responsible for assessing applicants?Where are you based?Many thanks, your input is well appreciated.

Good school and good degree subject. Should at least get you in the yes pile at mid-tier strategy firms/practices, if you have some relevant internships under your belt. The rest will be up to you and your characteristics.Sounds like you have the hospitality experience. Why double down on it? If you could get in, it seems to me like a summer in a consulting firm would give you a much more rounded cv. Also, nothing about your current cv suggests you know the first thing about excel models and professional powerpoint decks. These are the pots and pans (if you'll allow the analogy) of the strategy consultant. Internships very often lead to full job offers in consulting anyway.As regards your MBA ambitions, you'll need good business experience before getting into a good MBA. If you're thinking MSc in management from a business school, I'd perhaps be wary of your age and the fact you might want to get into grad programmmes ASAP.Last piece of advice, don't go down the 'I broke from convention and went down the more challenging route, therefore my achievements have more merit' path. People don't like to hear people say this about themselves. You clearly took a mature decision to put yourself back at the level of peers much younger than you are. People might look at your cv and suspect humility (a much-appreciated trait these days); don't ruin it for them...

You are definitely right, an internship at a reputable firm would be invaluable. Luckily MBB target Trinity for recruitment and McKinsey give internships to Trinity students. Do you not think that a small portfolio of freelance work would help to differentiate me from the mob of ambitious young talent and help to improve my chances of securing an internship at a top firm? I have some good ideas that would be profitable if nothing else.Its true, perhaps I should exercise some patience. The top firms want relevant experience in the graduate workforce in their graduate recruitment criteria. Perhaps I should purely focus on getting an internship at a top firm as the first step to acquiring the level of professional experience required to get into a top business school.The decision to return to study was a logical one. My career progression was more or less capped at a certain level. Hospitality is an underpaid, monotonous and stultifying industry and I will be glad to move on from it, however I will take a number of transferable skills with me into my new career. I would never directly say 'I broke from convention and went down the more challenging route, therefore my achievements have more merit' path', however surely there is no harm in very subtly alluding to it whilst keeping the maintenance of an air of humility a priority. I am not a 'typical undergraduate' and I am of the perspective that defining and perhaps accentuating this fact could be of some benefit to my career progression.

If you fee like you need to point that out to people, it says little of your regard for other people's intelligence. Let them decide what constitutes a meaningfully atypical graduate. Worse still, if you put yourself in the race between those who overcame the odds to get where they are, or have something 'different' to offer, you'll likely lose out, as others will have far more interesting, challenging and unconventional backgrounds than you.

Ok, I'll take that on board.How do you propose I should position myself to gain a competitive advantage In the jobs market, apart from pure academic ability? Or is it that the market is so competitive that it is impossible to gain any kind of advantage on any level?