Policy Consulting

[Wozezeka]

Anyone here interested in the consulting world? Part of me is interested in environmental policy and another part is interested in policy analysis. Working for a think tank or the government are good options for me but I want to develop my policy analysis skills and potentially work in the private sector.

Doing environmental policy consulting would be ideal. Deloitte is the big consulting form in my city (Austin. I am attending LBJ and I will do my damnedest to stay in Austin post graduation) but I don't know much about how policy consulting works.

Anyone familiar with what you do as a consultant with a MPP/mpa?

Know of any firms that do environmental policy consulting?

[pavlik]

Most of the big firms (Deloitte, EY, Accenture, PwC, Booz-Allen) have practices that work in environmental or energy sectors, and probably most if not all of them have Austin offices. I'm sure there are smaller firms in Texas as well, I know Navigant Consulting (mid-sized) has a big energy consulting branch there, albeit in Houston--not sure about Austin. The easiest way to get into that is to intern over the summer at one of the firms. Generally their summer associate programs are pipelines into full-time employment, plus they pay (pretty well) over the summer. Seek out students/alumni in your program who have experience either with consulting in general or specifically the areas that interest you--career services can help you find them if you don't know where to start. They won't be able to give you a job, but they'll be able to explain what the work is like, how they got into it, what kind of skills/background are useful, and so on. Being in Austin may give you the opportunity to intern/work part-time at one of the firms over the school year, which will be a tremendous asset since there's likely less competition for the job. And don't be too discouraged if the Deloitte/other big firm's Austin office doesn't have a huge focus on the sector you're interested in. Companies like that tend to be flexible in where someone's placed, so as long as you're willing to travel and telework often, you could stay in Austin and work closely with their San Antonio/Houston/Dallas office. I work for one of the aforementioned companies and in our health policy team, most are in D.C., but there are a few team members scattered across the country--Minnesota, Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania.