What I Really Look for When Hiring New Consultants (And What Graduates Are Seldom Told)

Every recruiting season, graduates enter consulting believing the same story: that success comes from perfect grades, polished credentials, and preparing to get a stack of certifications. It’s the story many firms still cling to. But after years of hiring and leading hundreds of consultants, I can say with confidence: the people who thrive in this field rarely fit that narrow mold.

If you’re fortunate enough to attend a top‑tier school, that’s great but the degree alone won’t carry you, lean into the soft skills your environment won’t automatically teach you. Get a part‑time service job. Learn to deal with difficult people, unpredictable situations, and real‑time pressure. A semester waiting tables will do more for your consulting career than raising your GPA from a 3.5 to a 3.8. I can truthfully say I have never cared about a GPA, it is not the whole story.

The strongest consultants I’ve hired over the years are often the ones who were underestimated early on. Many are somewhere on the spectrum, myself included. They think fast, speak fast, and process the world at a velocity that doesn’t always translate into neat test scores or tidy interview answers. They’re not always the best standardized test takers, and they don’t always come from the schools that make recruiters feel safe. But they see patterns others miss. They solve problems others avoid. They learn at a pace no certification can measure.

Some of the most capable consultants I’ve brought onto teams came from community colleges or nontraditional paths. Perhaps they did get into the top tier school but had to work the late shift at McDonald’s, balanced trays as a waiter or waitress as they had to meet the financial aspects of school. There is no better predictor of consulting success than someone who has worked in the service industry while going through school. If you can handle a dinner rush with a difficult 5 top of power drinkers, you can handle a client.

When I meet a graduate with no work experience at all, I pause. Not because they lack intelligence, but because consulting is a contact sport. It demands resilience, humility, emotional intelligence, and the ability to read a room under pressure. Those skills aren’t taught in classrooms. They’re earned.

So here’s the truth new graduates rarely hear: consulting rewards those who can think independently, communicate clearly, and navigate complexity with both competence and resilience. If you bring that, you’ll go further than any degree can take you. If a client wanted to hear the same thing they have already heard from their staff they would not be hiring you. 

The school of hard knocks is still very much a thing and academics is only one part of the equation.