Strategy and Consulting

Strategic Thinking Starts Here

Consulting careers attract a lot of interest among Berkeley MBA students, who work at or aspire to employment at firms like Bain & Company, Deloitte, Boston Consulting Group, and McKinsey & Company. Others have or seek corporate strategy roles working at Google, Genentech, Sonos, Uber, and Salesforce, among others.

Courses like Corporate Level Strategy and, as your career permits, experiential learning opportunities introduce you to the latest thinking. You can rely on peer advisors and members of the Haas Consulting Club to connect you with the inside scoop and help you prepare for case interviews, while the Career Management Group connects you with opportunities.

Sample Strategy and Consulting Coursework

  • Building Trust-based Relationships
  • Corporate Finance
  • Corporate Level Strategy
  • Decision Models
  • Financial Information Analysis
  • Marketing Research
  • Power and Politics in Organizations
  • Data Visualization

Experiential Learning Opportunities in Consulting

Consulting and strategy have a role in many Berkeley MBA applied innovation courses. Students partner with for-profit and nonprofit organizations, startups and industry leaders, domestic and international firms.

Depending on your schedule and current responsibilities, you may find yourself on a student team consulting on a shopping bag initiative for Target, a program to change consumer behavior around the use of electricity for PG&E, or a succession plan for the leadership of a university in Ghana, among others.

Experiential consulting courses include:

 See the full list of Berkeley MBA experiential learning opportunities.  

Consulting Faculty Spotlight

Associate Professor Panos Patatoukas teaches Financial Information Analysis. That topic, along with cross-industry economic links and financial accounting data, are among his research interests. He is a three-time recipient of the Cheit Award for excellence in teaching.

Gregory La Blanc sparks student interest by sharing his passion for data and analytics strategy and business model innovation in the classroom. He teaches the core Strategy course and Data Science and Data Strategy and Data.

Holly Schroth is a noted trainer and lecturer on negotiations, influence, and communication. She teaches Leading People. She is a distinguished teaching fellow and a past recipient of the Cheit Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Dan Simpson, had a 25-year career in strategy at Clorox, and brings that experience to the classroom when he teaches Corporate-Level Strategy.

Related Research Centers

The Fisher Center for Business Analytics encourages the dissemination and use of analytics throughout all aspects of business and management.

The Garwood Center for Corporate Innovation is a global ecosystem of Open Innovation practitioners, experts, academics, and organizations.

Consulting Co-Curriculars

Members of the Haas Consulting Club tap into resources, training, and connections to explore the consulting space and find jobs in the consulting industry. The club arranges an industry overview elective, networking firm nights, and consulting panels, and assists with applying and preparing for interviews, including case interview practice.

The General Management & Strategy Club supports MBA students pursuing career opportunities in general management, strategy, business development, and leadership/rotation development programs. It organizes leadership spotlights, career treks, and workshops.

The Innovation Design Club equips students with a design-thinking toolkit and understanding of how and when to apply it. An Innovation Lab elective, a speaker series featuring experts from companies like IDEO and Google Ventures, skill-building workshops, and career treks to firms such as FuseProject and Pixar Studios are among its offerings.

The Data Science Club helps develop data-savvy leaders by organizing workshops on topics such as Python, SQL, and Tableau; career treks; and a speaker series addressing data in healthcare, the future of e-commerce, big data, and more.

Support for Consulting and Strategy Careers

Industry leaders Bain & Company, Boston Consulting Group, McKinsey, and Deloitte frequently seek out Berkeley Haas talent.

The Career Management Group’s consulting industry specialists share their knowledge of getting hired for and working in consulting. They can help you develop industry-targeted resumes and prep for case interviews. Relationship Managers can help identify target company contacts and alumni for networking and share hiring trends. Peer advisors share insights on internship hiring, and fellow students support each other in preparing for case interviews.

Desirae Early Oppong

Desirae Early Oppong

MBA 15

Engagement Manager
McKinsey & Company

“Many of my Berkeley MBA classes have been applicable in my roles at McKinsey. I didn’t even know what a case interview was at first, but a group of my classmates organized to practice case studies, and classmates and recent grads who worked in the field were so generous with their insights and advice. ”