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Introduction

• Introduction from Institute of Consulting - by Huw Hilditch-Roberts
  In the UK there are around 40,000 consultants and the industry is worth over £8 billion. So, what is it that makes people want to join, what are the key skills that are needed in order to succeed and how can membership of a professional body help you in your career? Everyone is different but for
• Introduction from MCA - by Paul Winter
  Working in the management consulting industry is demanding and rewarding in ways you wouldn’t expect. The first challenge is intellect; you will be expected to understand completely new situations, enterprises and industries very quickly. The second is resilience; coping with unexpected

The Profession

• What is management consultancy?
  The Institute of Consulting has defined management consultancy as: ‘the provision to management of objective advice and assistance relating to the strategy, structure, management and operations of an organisation in pursuit of its long-term purposes and objectives. Such assistance may include
• The future of the industry - by Fiona Czerniawska
  To understand the consulting industry in the UK, you have to imagine a pair of weighing scales. On one side is demand in the financial services sector; on the other, is the public sector consulting market; between them sits the rest of the private sector. The beauty of this system is that
• Salaries in management consultancy - by Don Leslie
  Consultancy is often an optional spend for organisations. And when times are tough, expenditure on consultancy advice gets cut, with the inevitable knock-on to hiring and salaries. But the upturn at the beginning of 2010 brought an increase in demand for consultants – not least at the graduate
• Frequently Asked Questions
  Inside Careers works in partnership with the Institute of Consulting. Here they have answered the most commonly asked questions from our graduate readers. Do I need a degree and if so, in which subject area? The vast majority of individuals who enter consultancy are graduates. They come from

Recent Graduates

• Case Team Leader - Monitor Group - by Romilly Fell
  I joined Monitor in September 2005 after graduating from the University of Sheffield with a degree in History. I chose Monitor because it promised an individual,
• Software Developer - PA Consulting - by Edward Hartwell Goose
  You know you’ve found the right job when you walk into work genuinely looking forward to the challenges you’ll face that day. Every day is different and I’ve had the opportunity to work on some really interesting projects. I work as a software developer, but the opportunities within consultancy
• Junior Consultant - BCG - by Yuri Romanenkov
  What do you enjoy most about your job? The things I enjoy most about my job are the people I work with and the intellectually stimulating environment they create. We are presented with challenging and complex client problems, where there is no standard solution, so we rely on the energy and
• Consultant - Oliver Wyman - by Lucy Monaghan
  What do Oliver Wyman do? Oliver Wyman is an international management consultancy firm. We have two major arms of the business: General Management Consulting and Financial Services Consulting. I am part of Oliver Wyman Financial Services, where we work with clients operating in the Financial
• Associate - Parthenon group - by Lise Backman
  What do Associates do? Everything. That’s not too far from the truth! In your first year you should be prepared to do a little bit of a lot of different types of tasks. In my first year, cold-calling was a fairly regular activity, as well as combing through balance sheets and using Excel and
• Business Analyst - ZS Associates - by Caitlin McDonnell
  Directly after completing my masters I joined ZS Associates in their London office. Having studied biomedical engineering, I was seeking a career that would combine my analytical and problem solving skills with my interest in science. This led me to consider management consultancy and eventually
• Graduate Trainee - ZS Associates - by David Bradley
  I joined ZS Associates straight from university as a Business Analyst. At university I studied Natural Sciences, specialising in Chemistry. Although I discounted a career in scientific research, I was still very keen on finding a career which used the analytical and problem solving skills which I
• Associate Consultant - Bain and Co. - by Sophie Horrocks
  I joined Bain & Company as an Associate Consultant a few months ago, having spent the previous eight years at university completing my undergraduate degree in
• Senior Associate - PwC - by Jenny Aylwin
  Starting out After finishing an English Literature degree at Oxford I was unsure of what career path I wanted to follow. I knew that I wanted something challenging, something that would be intellectually stimulating and analytical but at the same time be creative and varied. It was then that I
• Associate Consultant – OC&C Strategy Consultants - by Alex Storey
  I graduated from Cambridge in 2005 and joined a commercial banking graduate scheme. After a couple of years I decided that banking was not for me and I started seeking a new challenge. To be honest I initially didn’t know much about consulting, but had heard from friends that it was interesting

Senior Profiles

• Director - Insight Sourcing Solutions - by Paul Vincent
  Why did you decide to go into consultancy? Ever since my late teens I always knew that I wanted to run my own business one day but I never had the ‘golden idea’ that I thought was good enough to take a risk on. Then of course as I became more and more successful in my corporate career the risk of
• Founder - Berkshire Consultancy - by Allen Knight
  So why the move into management consultancy? I still love all things aeronautical, but designing a motion system for a flight simulator or an altitude control system for a satellite is a lot like most conventional office jobs. I quickly learned that I could achieve more by working with and
• Associate Partner - OC&C Strategy Consultants - by Tom Gladstone
  Having decided academia was not for him, Tom Gladstone explored opportunities in the commercial sector and found management consultancy as an industry which provided opportunities to work on varied and challenging projects. First steps As I was coming to the end of my PhD in Materials Science at
• Managing Director - Next Level Impact - by Martin Rice
  After studying Industrial Management at university, Martin Rice developed his consulting skills in a variety of roles, in both industry and consultancy firms. He moved on to become an independent consultant, before founding his own company, Director - Business Evolution - by Sarah Coleman
  Beginning her career in ICT within central government, Sarah Coleman now owns her own business, consulting on the development and implementation of organisational strategy, large-scale procurement activities, defense and security, and sales and marketing. Why did you decide to get into
• Managing Consultant - Capgemini Consulting - by Kiran Arora
  Kiran Arora is a Managing Consultant at [Capgemini Consulting, with seven years of experience working with clients to develop and deliver their strategies and transform their organisations. I am part
• Senior Consultant - PwC - by Georgina Taylor
  When I decided to study Accounting and Finance at Leeds University, I didn’t expect to end up working in consulting, and thought that my career would follow the well trodden path of accountancy - training in a large accountancy firm, obtaining my ACA qualification and eventually setting up my own

Finding the Right Job

• Routes into consultancy - by Sarah Burgess
  Basic requirements A strong academic background, to degree level with a minimum of a 2.1 or equivalent, is a standard prerequisite, as are good interpersonal skills. Beyond this there are certain professional benchmarks which will also dictate the route of entry. Joining management
• Types of consultancies
  Consultancy practices can be broadly divided into the following types: Generalist These are large consulting firms that offer a wide range of services from strategy consulting and human resources to IT and, in some cases, outsourcing on a global basis. Many of these grew out of the audit firms,
• Finding and getting work experience - by Aoife Kilpatrick
  Work experience is an important factor in helping graduates get the job they want. In today’s competitive environment, employers now look for graduates that are able to demonstrate commercial skills, as well as having a strong academic background – a degree is no longer enough. What kinds of
• Video: CV writing tips
  The team at BLT Recruitment have made a short video on valuable points to consider when writing your CV.
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