Greetings! Seeking advice on a move from a holding company media agency to consulting. Currently interviewing w/ KPMG Advisory but not just interested in ‘big’ firms.
- Primary interest & expertise is data strategy & analytics. Have a technical foundation but not interested in coding all day. Want to translate technical capabilities, challenges & industry changes for non technical people
- 3 YOE in data specifically, 5 in media more broadly

(Continued in comments)

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Posting as :
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- Hoping to leverage current experience while gaining exposure to more functions & industry verticals beyond media planning & buying. Is this a realistic expectation or will I get silo’d?
- In terms of media & marketing specifically, curious to know about the quality & impact of firms with bespoke agencies (Accenture, Deloitte etc) vs those without (KPMG, Slalom)
- Definitely interested in a masters degree in the next couple years (maybe MBA but more likely a 1 yr specialized program), what’s the likelihood of a firm sponsoring that/what’s that process like?
- Anything else I should know and consider?

Appreciate y’all!

Hey @OP, we've discussed this topic before and I feel like what you're asking is a bit all over the place, so I'm going to try and simplify things a bit since I've straddled both worlds:

1) Your media planning/buying experience will be minimally applicable to strategy/management consulting, and only relevant in the following--either within a specialized group that advises on media strategy with clients, or your technical foundations are strong enough such that you can be plugged in as a data scientists/analytics specialist consultant. If you want to jump into a generalist role, you're going to have to start from the bottom in nearly any scenario.

2) Based off #1 - you should decide if you want to pursue a generalist management consulting track vs a specialized data/analytics consulting track VS marcomm/media specialist consulting track.

3) You mention having expertise in data strategy and analytics, but is that narrowly defined within the marcomm space, or do you have enough skills to handle different types of applications (eg data model and strategy for business analytics in various industries that are more B2B oriented, or is it really around data-driven customer segmentation/marketing applications or supply chain/logistics optimization etc)?

4) Your point about bespoke agencies is a bit confusing, but I think what you're trying to say is that some major firms have agency/studio arms that GTM separately, while others seem more integrated. So that's for you to answer--do you want to work in an agency that is part of a consultancy or do you want to work within a consultancy that can touch some of the work an agency-esque outfit would do? Accenture Song/Deloitte Digital/IBM iX can do far more than a KPMG or Slalom ever could - - but it comes down to the environment / type of people you want to work with / problem space / outputs

All the firms you mentioned are fine, but it depends on what you actually want to do.

To be brutally honest, if you haven't worked with "real consultants" extensively, it's very different from working with most agency folks--it's something you should keep in mind.

5) The only firm that would meaningfully sponsor a masters degree is MBB, and that's for MBA IF you are a top 5% performer. Since you said you'd rather do a 1 year degree, expect minimal levels of sponsorship (eg maybe $10K max at a firm). You didn't specify what type of specialized program you were seeking - is it in data science and analytics?


Here's a meta question for you - - why do you want to transition out of the agency world? What do you want to do in consulting (be more specific than what you wrote above. If you can't be, then maybe we can start there)? Do you want to shift away from working with marketing-side clients or tackle business problems that extend deeper that marketing concerns?

Love the perspective here. Will hit you up on the side to continue discussing my specific case but I guarantee you this will help a ton for anyone in a similar situation. Cheers!

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