University of Michigan Graduate Students – Structured Process For Career Advice

Background

The general purpose of this study was to determine:

1. The things that are most important to graduate level students entering the workforce when choosing between various consulting firms.
2. Whether given the same information, a structured decision-making method would result in an individual making a different decision that is more in line with their priorities than a decision made without the method.

Introduction

In a graduate level business consulting course at the University of Michigan, 64 students (broken down into 16 groups of 4 students each) were asked to select the 4 criteria (out of 10 presented) that were most important to them in evaluating future consulting employment opportunities. These criteria are henceforth described as strategic priorities. The 10 possible strategic priorities provided are shown and defined in the report which can be downloaded below.