From Berkeley MBA to management consulting: meet Stacey Chin

En route to their dream jobs, the Full-time Berkeley  MBA class of 2016 made technology, consulting, and finance their top three career fields.

Moving from MBA to management consulting was the path for 19 percent of the class, with McKinsey & Co., Bain & Co., Boston Consulting Group, and Deloitte Consulting representing the top hiring firms.

One of those was Stacey Chin, interviewed by Clear Admit about her Berkeley Haas MBA experience and her new position at McKinsey. Before coming to Haas, Stacey worked in roles ranging from youth leadership development to venture philanthropy, and she wanted exposure to the private sector.

She told Clear Admit she appreciated the values-based approach taken by Berkeley MBA Career Services. “They don’t just ask you what sector you want to work in and look at a list and help you do a resume and cover letter,” she said. “They started several steps earlier, helping me think about what things in the past have given me energy, what do I really care about, how might I map that to a career?”

Stacey got the chance to try out consulting through the International Business Development course, in which teams of students work with clients around the globe on consulting projects. “It was a terrific warm-up for the consulting world—how you work in teams, structure processes, how to work with a client and answer the questions they care about and encourage them to consider other questions as well,” she told Clear Admit.”

Engaging with the school's MBA consulting club also helped Stacey feel more prepared, with a student-initiated course that delved into the management consulting recruitment timeline as well as into consulting case and behavioral interviews.  

“For me, that was invaluable,” said Stacey, who landed an internship, then full-time offer with McKinsey & Company. “I’m not sure I would have gotten the internship I did if I hadn’t received so much support. Because we are so small and intimate as a community, I really felt comfortable reaching out to people both in my class and above me.”

Want to see where else the Berkeley MBA class of 2016 went to work and what they do there?