I have talked to a few admissions consultants (free consultation) and their tones are vastly different regarding my age. I would like your honest assessment of the situation.

I have been in biomedical research for 13 years (BA + MS + 13 years of WE). I would like to go to consulting for life science clients and ultimately to biotech / pharma internal strategic planning. I believed that consulting companies would be receptive given the followings.

One girl who used to work for the same institution had a PhD and post doctoral training. She was 32, since she was a post doctoral 'trainee', not a regular full-time worker, she qualified to participate in a BCG case competition. Subsequently at Age 33, she was hired by McK as a consultant.

I have been to a few networking events and met a person from a well known consulting company. He gave me his business card and told me to contact him for a pre-MBA internship once I get an acceptance letter from an MBA program. The consulting company has life science clients. He told me that his company was looking for those who not only have basic understanding of business but also can relate to their clients and that those with in depth knowledge and interest in biomedicine or law were welcome.

It was my impression that at least some of the consulting companies were not obsessed with new recruits being twenty something especially if you have some expertise to offer.

Now, I spoke to MBA admissions consultants. One half of them, especially female consultants from the West Coast, as opposed to East Coast male consultants, have been extremely cautious in advising me on school selection saying that MBA programs would find it hard to ensure employment for someone with my amount of work experience. One recommended that I deduct about 50 points from my GMAT score to find target schools.

I have attended a few on-campus events at schools on the East Coast without doing the deduction, spoke to current students and admissions staff, and none of them has tried to push me over to EMBA or part time. But then, I am a petite Asian who tends to look younger than I actually am. At the schools, I asked if my age would be an issue after saying that I had a decade of work experience. They assured me that that would have no bearing. One of them even said, "This is New York City!" Are they merely giving me the politically correct answer?

So, I am really confused about what do to. I tend to think that those who are cautious probably have some point. On the other hand, what I have seen with consulting companies and school admissions staff has been rather contrary to than consistent with very cautious admissions consultants. Perhaps the truth lies somewhere in between?

Please give me your honest opinions.




p.s. Why do I not consider PT programs?

Well, if fulltime MBA programs cannot place me in consulting because of my age, it'd be even more difficult for a PT program to do so since PT programs do not come with internships. It seems like PT programs are not worth the $ if the cautious admissions consultant are correct?

For older people who want to go into consulting, it can be an uphill battle. If you get hired, you're going to be competing with people 10 years younger with you, some of whom have been working in the company for 5 years. It's often a highly competitive environment, and many consultancies are hesitant to hire people who have never worked in the field, fearing that the learning curve would be too much.

That said, you would probably have better luck in niche consultancies versus the larger, more generic ones. If you have the brain for it - and can stomach competing with a plethora of younger, highly driven associates - your background could add a lot to a smaller biomedical consultancy.

My advice would be to connect with some of these niche firms, and try to get feedback about how they see people with your profile, and whether at this point, an MBA would add anything to your chances. You could also use LinkedIn, to search out those who work in these smaller places, to see what their profiles look like. Do many even have MBAs? If so, from what business schools?