From Oil & Gas to Management Consulting: A Playbook for Career Transition

“I’ve spent 15+ years in oil and gas. Can I really switch to consulting?”
This question echoes across MBA classrooms . And the answer is: Yes, you can—provided you understand what consulting firms look for and how to repurpose your domain experience into business value.

Here’s a practical guide, based on a one-to-one career conversation between Tridev Kundu (ex-Schneider Electric, Genpact, Flipkart) and Ajay Sharma (Namae changed), a structural engineer with 17 years of experience in the oil & gas industry and an executive MBA from one of the top IIMs.

Why Consulting Firms Hire Domain Experts

Management consulting isn’t only about frameworks and PowerPoints. It’s about solving real problems—and domain context is key.

Tridev explains it well:

“Consulting firms can teach you business. But they need you for your domain knowledge. They don’t understand oil & gas as deeply as someone who has spent 15 years building refineries or managing EPCM projects.”

Firms like Deloitte, KPMG, EY actively look for professionals with oil & gas backgrounds who can work with energy clients on:

Cost optimization
Project efficiency
Digital transformation

Supply chain and asset lifecycle solutions

Mapping Oil & Gas Skills to Consulting Value

Ajay had spent years leading large engineering teams in refinery expansion projects. But how can he present that to a consulting firm?

Here’s how Tridev broke it down:

Oil & Gas Experience	Consulting Equivalent
Project scheduling and BoQ planning	Project budgeting and milestone structuring
EPCM/PMC engagement models	Client governance and vendor management
Team management for 10–12 engineers	Delivery leadership and people management
Spare parts and maintenance planning	Supply chain diagnostics and digital tooling
Client meetings during pre-bid and execution	Stakeholder engagement and solutioning

The key is translation—not transformation. Your experience already has value. You just need to express it in a consulting context

The Career Shift : What to Prepare

1. Understand Consulting Interviews

Consulting firms test how you think, not what you’ve memorized. Be ready to:

Break down ambiguous problems into components
Ask clarifying questions before proposing solutions
Prioritize recommendations with logic and structure
Define measurable KPIs (e.g., cost saved, lead time reduced)

2. Build Case Studies from Your Work

Ajay, for instance, was advised to build 3–4 compelling case examples:

A cost overrun situation and how it was mitigated
A successful pre-bid advisory that led to project win
Leading delivery in a multinational EPCM model
Designing a system for spare parts planning or resource allocation

Each story should showcase:

The problem
Your approach
The impact

A possible framework or metric you used

3. Know the Consulting Use-Cases

Here are areas where oil & gas professionals fit naturally:

Operations transformation (e.g., reducing commissioning delays)
Digital supply chain (e.g., spare parts cataloguing)
Capex/Opex modeling
Process audits or ISO/QMS projects
Energy transition or sustainability initiatives

It’s Not a Smooth Ride At the Beginning

Tridev cautions “Your initial months in consulting will feel challenging. You’re mapping an old skill to a new environment. But you’ll eventually start to add value if you lean on your domain knowledge.”

Consulting projects are fast-paced, and you might not use everything from your MBA. But your first-principle thinking, people skills, and process rigour—those are gold.

Salary and Roles

As per our market research, for experienced professionals:

Big 4 consulting firms may offer ₹35–50 LPA for mid-senior roles.
Other roles in digital transformation, quality audits, or project consulting may also offer similar or higher ranges.

Final Takeaways

Don’t underplay your oil & gas background—consulting firms actively want it.
Frame your work as business problems solved, not just engineering done.
Prepare structured stories for interviews—consulting is all about how you think.

Stay open: consulting isn’t the only route. Roles in digital ops, transformation, or quality leadership can be equally impactful.

Thinking of switching from oil & gas to consulting?
Start with what you know. Build stories around it. Talk the language of business. And if you’re wondering where to start—maybe it’s time for a GoCrackIt session.

One of the standout features of GoCrackIt’s career transition services is the one-on-one mentorship from industry leaders who have navigated similar paths themselves. This career coach transition support includes help with identifying transferable skills, reframing your resume, and building a compelling career narrative. Through focused coaching for career transition, mentors help you define clear goals and map out actionable strategies to achieve them, making the process of switching careers less daunting and more structured.