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<ul class="summary-list"><li>Consulting firms have faced increased employee turnover after layoffs and delayed start dates.</li><li>The industry still sees <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-get-hired-top-consulting-firms-bcg-mckinsey-pwc-2024-7">high application rates</a>, but its allure has waned for some workers.</li></ul>For one young woman who joined Accenture right out of college, consulting was a crash course in the corporate world. She became a whiz with tools like Excel and <keyword id="19974445" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="tableau" source="keywords">Tableau</keyword> and she learned how to speak to executives. Over her four years at the firm, though,she grew tired of the rote nature of her work. Plus, she said, she was often brought in just to validate a client's own thinking. "A lot of junior consultants don't realize how many of these projects are actually already what I call 'predestined,'" the woman, who requested anonymity to avoid jeopardizing her career prospects, told Business Insider. "There's an end destination, but you kind of have to go through the motions, and that's just super demoralizing for the people on the team." For decades, business students and MBAs looked to consulting because the work was high in pay and prestige. But a tough couple of years in the business, which have included <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/analyst-laid-off-deloitte-happier-work-culture-felt-toxic-2024-9">layoffs</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/college-grad-start-dates-at-consulting-firms-getting-pushed-back-2023-8">delayed start dates</a> for new hires, have pushed some consultants — even some who've been at it a while — to reconsider a business once synonymous with generous expense accounts and stability. <h2>The lure of other industries</h2>The declining appeal of the consulting industry is most evident in the number of employees leaving. Almost every <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/salary-of-consultants-accountants-big-4-deloitte-kpmg-ey-pwc-2020-7">major consulting firm</a> has seen more workers leave than join over the last two years, said Jason Saltzman, director of growth at <a target="_blank" href="https://www.livedatatechnologies.com/">Live Data Technologies</a>, whichcollects real-time employment data. And those who have been leaving are more seasoned than those who have left in years past. The tenure of departing consultants has increased by 7% in the last 18 months compared with the average over the prior decade. One perk of consulting was that veterans could often parachute into adjacent industries or perhaps eventually land plum roles with former clients. Now, some departing workers are being lured away by the cachet of the tech industry. Five former consultants told BI that they transitioned to startups or venture capital — after years at majorconsulting firms — in hopes of finding more fulfilling work. But perhaps an even more worrisome trend for consulting companies is that <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/consulting-has-a-gen-z-problem-2024-8">younger consultants</a> are starting to view them as a stepping stone to something better rather than a prestigious lifetime career. "My parents are both entrepreneurs, so I have a deep respect for founders who are taking big risks to bring their ideas to life," Jyothi Vallurupalli, a former <keyword id="19979918" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="mckinsey" source="keywords">McKinsey</keyword> consultant who is now an investor at venture firm Lightbank, told BI. "When I was leaving consulting, I realized VC would allow me to partner with passionate founders across various industries from the early days of their journeys, and I saw it as an opportunity to contribute to building something meaningful." After leaving McKinsey in 2023, Ezra <keyword id="23378831" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="gershanok" source="keywords">Gershanok</keyword> founded the sublet startup <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://liveohana.ai/?gad_source=1&amp;gclid=CjwKCAjw0t63BhAUEiwA5xP54RdqcZjXkUsYf92_WSBaB-nX6HYA1EY-berHwS54PiNjeadN76JnZhoC4WIQAvD_BwE">Ohana</a>. He's since launched a four-week internship for college students interested in consulting. "When I was an interviewer at McKinsey, one of the pillars that they would hire for was entrepreneurship," Gershanok said. Now, he and his team market these internships to students as a "here's how you could check that box in the interview process." But, he said, many of the interns ultimately want to stay at Ohana or look for other startup jobs. Gorick Ng, a Harvard University career advisor and author of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.gorick.com/unspokenrules">"The Unspoken Rules</a>," told BI that he's seen an uptick in the number of students who intern with consulting firms but choose not to return for a full-time role. He said some students would spend the bulk of their undergraduate years angling to land an internship at a big firm — preparing for interviews, attending information sessions, doing coffee chats, and networking with alums — only to learn once they got the internship that the work wasn't for them. Ng said many students soon realize that the thrill of landing a prestigious job often fades. What matters more is whether the work is appealing. "Is this a day-to-day that I would find fulfilling, and is this something that I can really see myself doing long term?'" Ng said. <h2>A rough time for consulting firms</h2>Even consultants who have been at it for a while are leaving the industry. <keyword id="23378830" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="matt-sternberg" source="keywords">Matt Sternberg</keyword> is the COO of Accelerant, a startup that connects insurance underwriting firms to financial institutions. Before joining the company in 2023, <keyword id="23378829" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="sternberg" source="keywords">Sternberg</keyword> spent a decade at Boston Consulting Group, a top-tier firm in the industry. He left the firm as a managing director and partner. Sternberg told BI that he's heard from former colleagues — including people who've been a partner longer than he had — who are inquiring about life beyond consulting. That's different from when he left in 2022, when there was a pandemic-fueled boom for consulting work. Now, people are "looking externally" more than they were in previous years, he said. Sternbergsaid that he felt his former industry was cutting staff too deeply in 2023, during what was a "really challenging year" for the business. "I worry they have started to erode their culture," he said, adding that some firms also pulled back on benefits. A recent post on Reddit from someone who wrote that they work for a Big Four consulting firm in London said one reason people might be tempted to give up on the industry is that remote work can make it harder to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.reddit.com/r/consulting/comments/1es6396/why_are_so_many_young_people_leaving_the/">connect with colleagues</a> — the main thing that made the job bearable, the poster said. "Constantly tapping away from in front of my screen on my kitchen table in a shared flat is more depressing than 1,000 cringe pizza parties," the person wrote. A cutback in perks like flights to client offices and expensed dinners also makes the work less attractive. <h2>Consulting is not the launching pad it used to be</h2>Consulting hasn't lost its allure for everyone, of course. That's clear from the number of applications the big firms receive. A McKinsey spokesperson told BI in July that the firm plans to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-get-hired-top-consulting-firms-bcg-mckinsey-pwc-2024-7">hire fewer than 1%</a> of those who apply. The company gets about 1 million résumés each year. Ernst &amp; Young received over 4 million applications in the past year and hired about 140,000 people, Irmgard Naudin ten Cate, EY's global talent attraction and acquisition leader, told BI in July. Yet even as many people try to add a big-name firm to their résumé, some outside the industryare these days less interested in attracting erstwhile consultants. Atli <keyword id="23378828" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="thorkelsson" source="keywords">Thorkelsson</keyword>, who helps startups recruit at the venture capital firm Redpoint Ventures, told BI that founders often looked to people with a consulting background for generalist roles, such as a chief of staff or someone who could be a sounding board for a startup CEO who might have agood idea but not a lot of business experience. But lately, Thorkelsson said, he's seeing "less excitement" from founders about workers who have consulting on their résumé than there had been around 2017 to 2018. Even as the industry's pull fades, giving up a lucrative job that can be tough to land isn't necessarily easy. "When I was transitioning out of consulting, consulting was actually still all the rage. It's like high prestige, high pay," the former Accenture consultant said. "That part was scary, to be honest." Do you have something to share about what you're seeing in consulting? Business Insider would like to hear from you. Email our consulting team from a nonwork device at <a target="_blank" href="mailto:deliverable@businessinsider.com">deliverable@businessinsider.com</a> with your story, or ask for one of our reporter's Signal numbers. Correction: September 20, 2024 — An earlier version of this story misstated the name of the company where Matt Sternberg is COO. It is Accelerant, not Accelant.

How consulting lost its cool

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Fall can bring a surge in hiring, but a drop in available jobs could jeopardize big gains.</li><li><a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fed-rate-cut-explained-inflation-labor-market-conditions-outlook-recession-2024-9">Unemployment remains low</a>, but job openings in the US are at their lowest since early 2021.</li></ul>The September surge might turn out to be a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-youre-not-getting-hired-job-interview-resume-advice-tips-2024-8">sputter</a>.In years past, hiring has often picked up in the fall as vacations wind down and some companies look to staff up heading into a busy holiday season.But for some people hoping to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/finding-job-awful-right-now-drop-in-openings-tough-search-2024-9">land a job</a> in the final stretch of 2024, it's proving tricky.John Mullinix, head of growth marketing at the job site Ladders, told Business Insider that in areas like manufacturing, healthcare, and construction, there are fewer openings than some labor market experts had forecast."In a lot of those industries, there were predicted gains. They seem to be slowing down, and that's creating fewer job openings," he said.Already, job openings in the US are hovering at their lowest level since early 2021, and many employers are taking their time bringing on new people. While that sluggish pace of hiring is making the fall feel less robust than in some years, Mullinix said there are steps job seekers can take to stand out.That's welcome news because a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/job-seeker-applied-more-than-2000-roles-2024-9">job search can drag</a> on for many months. In fact, the number of job seekers who get their next role within three months is down 14% in 2024 compared with 2022, according to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.livedatatechnologies.com/">Live Data Technologies</a>, which provides real-time employment figures.Mullinix noted that some employers are shifting to contract and freelance work to avoid taking on the cost of a full-time worker who would get benefits.Of course, the overall unemployment rate remains low, and there are still areas where employers <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fast-growing-jobs-desperate-to-hire-salaries-openings-demand-2024-7">can't find the talent</a> they need. Plus, parts of the economy could further heat up, particularly after the Federal Reserve's decision to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fed-cuts-interest-rates-how-much-september-fomc-powell-inflation-2024-9#:~:text=An%20interest%2Drate%20cut%20has,cut%20rates%20since%20March%202020.">cut interest rates</a> for the first time in four years following an effort to stamp out high inflation.<h2 id="30333d15-efdd-4b41-b857-76b63a4ce4ad">Startups could give a boost</h2>Atli Thorkelsson, who helps startups recruit at the venture capital firm Redpoint Ventures, told BI that he expects startup hiring will prove "pretty active" for the second half of 2024."I'm hearing a lot from recruiting firms that they're super busy," he said, adding, "I'm seeing an uptick in search requests coming from our founders as well."Thorkelsson said hiring at startups began to pick up last September and that for many small companies, growth was cautious but notable in terms of demand for people.Yet, in other corners of the economy, employers' wariness is winning out — for now. That's causing some to list fewer job openings."Companies are being more cautious," Mullinix said.One challenge is that with fewer openings, the number of applicants per role can stack up, he said. That can make it harder for job seekers, of course, and for recruiters who have to sift through a pile of applications. Big companies, in particular, tend to use <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/resume-too-long-how-to-fix-it-job-search-2024-9">software to sort résumés</a>. A high number of applicants can lead to some tough decisions, Mullinix said.Recruiters are "screening a little bit harder so they don't have to go through 1,000 applications," he said, adding, "Realistically, they wouldn't be able to do that in a day."And though the unemployment rate is low, that doesn't mean that only those without work are thumbing through job listings."Even the people that are currently in jobs are not happy with the jobs that they have," Mullinix said. He said inflation has left some workers upset that their wages haven't always kept up with expenses.Now, as people are <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/big-stay-workplace-productivity-points-to-economic-growth-jobs-loyalty2024-3">staying in jobs longer</a> than only a couple of years ago during the so-called Great Resignation, some of them are getting antsy, he said."The problem is you have job seekers that are both employed and then unemployed, searching at the same time in a market where the supply is down and the demand is up," Mullinix said.That's especially true with high-paying jobs, he said.<h2 id="f812511c-fa76-4ed2-80b7-42a1c32bd13a">Don't shotgun it, but don't hold back too much</h2>Mullinix said it's possible to both apply to too many jobs — and not enough. He said the bulk approach of going for every job where applying is a single click often isn't as effective because so many people end up vying for the same role.Instead, he said, it's wise to be more deliberate and choose the ones you might be best qualified for. Also, do the tedious work of filling out applications that aren't one click, Mullinix said. That often means wading through clunky software interfaces."That's the same process everybody else has to go through," he said. "That's going to cut out some candidates right there, and that's going to be a less competitive job."And just because the job title in a posting might be different from one you've had before, it's often still a good idea to apply if you have the right skills and qualifications, Mullinix said."Companies name things 100 different ways," he said.Mullinix said that given how unpleasant the search process can be, it's understandable that job seekers would gravitate toward the easiest method for applying."Online job seeking is just not the most fun activity," he said, noting that it tends to rank poorly in surveys. "It's pretty much next to being divorced on a scale of enjoyability."

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How consulting lost its cool

Lakshmi Varanasi,Tim Paradis,…

Fall is often a good time to get a job, but this year it's tricky

Tim Paradis

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