OFFICE SELECTION
A growing office sounds like an obvious target.
More consultants.
More clients.
More hiring.
More chances.
Sometimes.
But “growth” can mean several different things, and only some of them matter to a Master’s student trying to decide where to apply.
A new office announcement and an entry-level hiring opportunity are not automatically the same thing.
The first growth signal is the easiest one to see... and the easiest one to misread
You find a press release.
A firm opened a new office.
Or moved into a larger building.
Or announced an investment in a region.
Useful signal.
Not yet an application strategy.
The question is what kind of growth is happening.
Is the firm adding generalists?
Building a specialist practice?
Expanding senior leadership?
Acquiring a technical team?
Serving a new geography?
Those paths can produce very different opportunities for an entry-level Master’s candidate.
For the wider geographic picture, start with Top Consulting Firms by Geography.
Hiring leaves clues long before anyone gives you a neat answer
Look for patterns.
One job posting means little.
Repeated roles across levels say more.
One newly hired partner may signal a practice build.
A cluster of consultants joining in one sector may signal something else.
Campus events can reveal where a firm is actively building candidate pipelines.
Alumni movement can show where graduates like you are landing.
Growth becomes useful when several clues point the same way.
The signal you care about is not size. It is accessible demand.
| Signal | What it seems to mean | What you still need to know |
|---|---|---|
| New office | Rapid expansion | Is it hiring entry-level consultants? |
| Large local team | Many opportunities | How many applicants chase them? |
| New practice leader | Growth area | Does the practice hire your level? |
| Campus event | Recruiting interest | For which office and role? |
| Many recent alumni hires | Active pathway | Is the pattern continuing? |
This is why static “largest office” lists can mislead.
They describe scale.
You are trying to detect motion.
Smaller offices create a strange trade-off...
A smaller growing office may have fewer total seats.
That sounds worse.
But it may also have more specific reasons for hiring.
Perhaps the office is building healthcare capability and your Master’s is in public health.
Perhaps it is expanding digital work and you studied analytics.
Perhaps a regional office needs language skills or local knowledge you already have.
Suddenly your background is not just acceptable.
It explains why you are there.
Growth matters most when you can connect yourself to it.
Do not ignore the office behind the firm name
If BCG is interesting to you, for example, comparing locations matters more than treating the company as one undifferentiated employer. Top BCG Office Locations can help you think at that office level rather than stopping at the global brand.
The same logic applies across firms.
Look at the local office.
Look at the local client mix.
Look at the people joining.
Look at where your school's alumni are appearing.
Then ask whether the pattern fits your application cycle.
There is a final signal candidates rarely check...
Talk to someone there.
Ask what has changed in the office over the last year.
Not, “Are you hiring?”
Try:
“What kinds of teams seem to be growing?”
“Has the office's industry mix changed?”
“Where are new joiners coming from?”
“What backgrounds seem especially useful right now?”
Now you are collecting context instead of asking for a prediction.
That matters because growth is not a permanent office characteristic.
It is a direction.
And directions change.
So do not ask only which consulting office is biggest.
Ask a more useful question:
Where is the office going, and does your profile make sense on the way there?
That is when “growth” turns from an interesting fact into an application signal.