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Is there a space for freshers in consulting? | Ft. Kishore Kunal, Director, KPMG (FORE Alumni)

Director at KPMG, Kishore Kunal was born in Patna with his 5 siblings in a humble background. He spent a good time of his life in Patna during schooling and graduation, and always cherished the dream of joining the defense. However, after buckling down and clearing Pilot Aptitude Battery Test, unfortunately, he failed to meet the medical mandates.

(Little did he know, his life was about to take an interesting turn.)

Later, he moved to Delhi for his first job to work as a sales executive in an OEM firm. After gaining work-ex of more than a year, he decided to upscale and grow. This is when he took the decision to pursue an MBA from the FORE School of Management, Delhi.

KPMG, Kishore, and FORE!

Currently, Kishore is involved in process improvement studies for clients to meet their objectives. But not many might know, that his journey started with RocSearch (his campus placement from FORE) as an analyst. It was at RocSearch, when he got to work with KPMG as a client.

Soon KPMG decided to set up a global entity in India to serve its Indian firms. He helped their senior leadership to build a 3-5 years strategic plan for KPMG in the UK. While working on the project he realized this is where he want to build his career. It was that moment when he entered KPMG as a consultant permanently. When asked about jumping 5 positions in 12 years of consulting in KPMG he said -

“When I started I was one of the youngest on the team. We were setting up a niche project, there was no prior knowledge in the organization so it almost felt like a startup.”

We were given amazing responsibilities. This helped me to shape up for future challenges. Because when you are an executor as well as a planner, it builds an entrepreneurial mindset. This was one of the factors that helped me build teams, get new talent, coach them, and help them build their career. It has been a satisfactory journey so far.”

He continued, “In all of this, FORE played a great role. It did not prepare me just for a job, it prepared me for a career.”

To everyone’s surprise, he had his Apollo 13 moment in FORE!

During the interview, he shared, “After appearing for 13 interviews, I finally made it through campus placements. It was then I realized how the faculty and friends helped me stay motivated. The day I was offered a job, everyone around me clapped as hard as I was feeling ecstatic. I felt they were sharing my joy.

This taught me that In life you can have many failures, it’s upon you how to convert them into success.”

Adding to it he said, “One of the major things that have stayed with me from FORE is the relationship-building skills - how to interact with people with different values and mindsets. And behind this, it is FORE’s diverse culture that inculcates such skills by giving exposure.”

When delved deeper into the journey of Kishore in the consulting sector, here is what he said -

Is there a space for freshers in consulting?

Of all the sectors, consulting topped the preference list of B-School students this year as well in the Dare2Compete Campus Employer Branding Survey. Surprisingly, this year even freshers want to work in the consulting sector instead of FMCG/FMCD compared to the last year’s survey. Many other online sources and surveys depict a similar trend.

However, no matter how much freshers fancy consulting, the question is - Is there even space for freshers in the industry when even work experienced candidates find it difficult to step into the doors.

To clear the air, Kishore Kunal said -

“Most of the consulting companies go to campus to hire freshers. There has always been an opportunity for them to work in consulting organizations. As you start your career you usually start as an analyst. On the first day, no one will tell you to go for a case, you start building your career gradually by working on data and analysis. Once you start getting the hang of it, you climb up the ladder. All in all, consulting firms hire freshers and there is no myth about it!”

How can students get a foot in the door when it comes to Consulting roles?

Many would say that it is impossible to get into big consulting firms, especially when you have the tag of a tier 3 college. In contrast, others would show you examples that speak volumes about how hard work in the right direction can do wonders!

But how to cut through the noise of uncounted advice? Should one get an offshore project, work in cross-functional teams, work on communication skills, and then apply for a consulting firm after an experience of 3-4 years? Yet another question is the relevance of networking.

To this Kishore Kunal said -

“The network can prove a lot useful. But focus on quality and not quantity. Don’t try to make a vast network that you can’t track. Identify the right people you want to work with. Networking is a two-way street, make sure you are also invested in them as much as they are in you.”

Well, right now the best advice to clear the conundrums of consulting is to watch the video!