Consultancy vs IT Consultancy vs management consultancy

[nonameee]

Do schools make a distinction between management consultancy and IT consultancy? Because obviously you have McKinsey and BCG on the one hand, and on the other hand you have HP, Accenture and IBM.

Is there a place in the application where you can make a distinction between these two fields which are obviously quite different?

The reason I ask this question is that if you indicate consultancy as your field, will you be put by schools in the same category as people from management consulting firms?

Thanks.

[wi11iedigital]

Consultancy is such an ambiguous word within the U.S. business context. I work for a "transportation research consultancy", but what we really do is something closer to survey science research. My wife works as a "design consultancy", which is actually closer to interior decorating and architecture. I know that doesn't help much, but my guess is that they lump everyone together in the programs and teach very general skills.

[nonameee]

I had the admissions process in mind: whether they put everyone in one group, or whether they compare people from management consulting with their peers, and people from IT consulting with their peers (which I think would make more sense).

[Jon@Admissionado]

Well I think the problem comes from the confusion between the FUNCTION of consultancy and the INDUSTRY of consultancy. For example an IT consultant is someone who does the FUNCTION of consulting, yes his Industry is the Tech Industry (or perhaps something even more specific, the Software Development industry).

And almost any field or industry has consultancy as a function (so, thus we run a Admissions Consulting Company, and there are Consultants who work with Sothebys to price artworks, and Political historians consult the US government on its strategy etc.)

HOWEVER, in the Business world, when we talk about Consulting as an INDUSTRY, usually, we mean management consulting.

[PrepMBA.AlexLeventhal]

In addition, it will be quite clear from your resume and essays in what type of consulting you are employed. These two segments of consultants are very different for admissions folks.

[nonameee]

Thank you all for your replies. But it's still not to me whether you should indicate consulting or technological industry when filling out an application?

[Jon@Admissionado]

For industry - Tech
If they additional ask Function - Consulting.

[nonameee]

Thanks for all the replies. I gave it a thought, and I don't actually agree that it is tech (industry). Here's why:

Accenture clearly calls itself consulting company, but they mostly do IT consulting. The same is true about IBM Global Services. And HP. Also, I have seen a number of profiles of current MBA students who worked with IBM, and they all called their industry consulting.

In addition, I think that the admission committee will know the difference between McKinsey and IBM and will not compare apples and oranges.