25% of Yale goes to Consulting, Finance

In my time in consulting, I was exposed to people in every corporate function possible, and had the chance to see what their jobs were like. I worked for tech companies, PE firms, corporations, and government-regulated entities. I spent 6 months in growth equity and got to learn what the buy-side is like.

If I had known then what I know now, then I would have told my 21 year old self to go work at FB or Amazon or some small startup.

But the value proposition for the firm I went to was unequivocal. We will pay you a lot. The opportunities you have when you leave will pay you even more. You'll get to work with other extremely smart people. You will see a ton of industries. You will be able to go to whatever b-school you want when you're ready to apply. And if you get good at your job after a couple years, your hours will go down substantially.

First, my understanding is that the term "consultant" has become so broad that it basically just means "contractor" for intellectual jobs; it covers coding, management, business strategy, and a million other things.

Second, even if we stick to a slightly more narrow definition, consulting essentially boils down to smart people going around to existing businesses and telling them how to do their jobs better (hopefully). (Presumably, these businesses don't need the smart people most of the time, which is why they don't have them as employees.) At least superficially, this seems like an appropriate use of smart people: target them at the problems where they are needed, which are dispersed across many businesses.

Now, if finance and consulting are actually sectors that aren't contributing to society (a net drain), then there's a real problem. But if so, the fact that so many smart people are going into them to make money is just the symptom, not the problem,

I think one solution would be to limit the access these firms have with students, and to curb their "predatory" hiring. But alas, these firms are large donors to universities, and their executives are as well.

Alas, American politics AND education are birds of the same feather. Both sing the same tune of ethics, ideals and values; and both are preyed on by the same corporations.