How to get hired
Big 4 advisory: the largest door
Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC hire consultants in India for three kinds of work: advisory for Indian clients, global delivery centres that serve their US and UK firms, and government advisory. Their consulting titles carry the service line, so read them carefully: "Consultant – Business Consulting Risk" usually means internal audit, controls and risk work; "Associate – SaT" is EY's Strategy and Transactions line (deal support, valuations, due diligence); "Technology Consulting" means SAP, Oracle, cloud or cyber implementation. Strategy-only roles are a small share.
Entry points:
- Campus: MBA, CA and engineering campuses for Analyst and Consultant roles.
- CA route: newly qualified CAs, and CA articleship trainees in some firms, go into risk advisory, internal audit, transaction diligence and tax-technology roles. If you are a CA, our newly qualified CA guide covers the timing.
- Lateral: people with two to five years in an industry (banking operations, supply chain, SAP functional, HR systems) join as Consultants or Senior Consultants in the matching practice. This is how most people without a top MBA get in.
Interviews mix technical questions on your area (controls, SAP module, valuation basics), a guesstimate or short case, and a partner round on why consulting.
MBB and strategy firms
McKinsey, BCG and Bain hire Business Analysts and Associates in India mostly from IIMs, ISB, IITs and a few other campuses, with a small number of lateral hires who have strong records elsewhere. Selection is built around case interviews: you are given a business problem (why profits fell, whether to enter a market) and must structure it, do quick maths and land a recommendation, plus personal experience questions. Practise with partners for weeks, not days. If you are not on those campuses, the realistic routes are a Big 4 strategy team, a top MBA later, or an exceptional lateral record.
Development-sector and public-policy consulting
Firms that work with foundations and state governments hire consultants for programme design, government programme management units, CSR strategy and evaluation. They take people from public policy, economics, MBA and development backgrounds and value field experience and writing. The NGO and development sector guide covers the wider sector.
What helps your application
- Excel modelling you can do live, and clear PowerPoint pages
- One industry you understand deeply, not general interest in "business"
- A CV that states results with numbers: "cut month-end close from 8 to 5 days"
- For tech consulting, the certification of the platform you know (SAP, Salesforce, cloud)
What the work is like
Consulting means client sites, deadlines and long weeks before a steering committee. Travel depends on the practice: risk and audit teams travel to client offices across the country, global delivery teams mostly work from Indian offices on US or UK hours, government advisory teams may sit in a ministry or state secretariat. You are staffed on projects that last weeks or months, so your work changes often.
The ladder runs Analyst or Associate, Consultant, Senior Consultant, Manager, Senior Manager or Associate Director, Director, Partner. Promotions come roughly every two to three years, with the biggest pay jumps at Manager and Director. Many consultants move to industry after three to six years into strategy, finance, transformation or risk roles at a level they would not have reached directly.