Alumni mentoring seminar for students interested in management consulting, organized by KUBS Career Hub (Dean = Jae Wook Kim), was held on October 31 at Room 208, LG-POSCO Building. Lee Ki-chang(Business’84), CEO of Nemo Partners China, and Choi Chan-young(Business’06) of financial consulting firm Oliver Wyman attended the seminar and gave valuable advice the audience.
 
"I think it is not very difficult to acquire the necessary ‘skillsets’ for management consulting," said Lee. "In turn, business school undergraduates lack humanities skills compared to their knowledge in business." "In that regard, I would like to recommend reading a lot of books in various fields and become knowledgeable," Lee said. "Providing customers with ‘insight’ gained from such knowledge is more essential in management consulting, rather than just knowing the terminology." In response, Choi said, "As a management consultant, the skills required in the first and second years may change. Thus, it is important to gain insight into reading the big trends of social change," and added, "I personally recommend learning foreign language, and I also recommend learning coding, language of computers
The two alumni then gave advice in choosing one’s career. "I moved to consulting because I wanted to do something more influential while working in finance," said Choi. "I liked learning something fun and new rather than earning more money." "I think the most important question is why you want to do this," said Lee. "It's a question that you should consider seriously when choosing your career path.
 
Choi then talked about the pros and cons of consulting. He said, “In fact, the so-called "WoeLaBell (Work-Life Balance)" is not an easy goal to achieve in the consulting industry,” and added, “the working environment will vary from company to company, but it is still very tough compared to other jobs. "I really hope that people who are willing to work hard will get interested in the consulting industry," said Lee. "You should not choose a life as a consultant just because consultants make a lot of money."
 
When asked about the prospects of the consulting industry, Choi said, "Management Consultant carries out new projects in various industries every time. Therefore, we are a generalist rather than a specialist in a particular field." “As a generalist, management consulting is in high demand in various industrial sectors”, he added. "I think it is one of the few jobs that can help one grow up in a short period of time," said Lee. "I hope you won’t be afraid to take the challenge.”