So, conclusion before introduction: I like my job as a consultant.
As for the introduction, I did a M.S. in Statistics with no clear idea of what I wanted to do afterward, but a very clear idea of why I wanted to do this particular Master’s: pure pragmatism. “Big Data” is everywhere; STEM majors in high demand; you get the picture. Plus, I had a liberal arts undergrad, so a STEM major in grad school was even more important in my case.
So that’s simple – but why consulting?
In short, three things, rolled up together:
I want to work with people, not machines.
I realized during what was for me a very austere two years in a stats Master’s program that I was a lot less introverted than I thought. And a two-screen setup at the same desk every day with screenloads of R code scrolling in my face did not strike me as a particularly exciting future.
I get bored easily.
Consulting takes care of that. The different sorts of projects one encounters hedges against monotony in the workplace.
Consulting is interdisciplinary.
The things about myself I’m most proud of are the same things I use on the job every day. I get to write and present; I get to network and show my personality; and I get to work with data and problem-solve.
All my coworkers are cool and very smart. There are also a lot of other STEM majors in consulting. My very first colleague I met here is a chemical engineer, and two of our senior partners at the firm have Master’s degrees in computer science. But it’s not strictly STEM people around anymore, and I’ve really enjoyed getting to see the finance side of things I had always wondered about in grad school. If any of this sounds familiar to you, a job like this one may be a good fit for you too.