Glad to see someone else has the same concerns I had. However, I’m now 3 years post-uni and the answer is not as straight forward as you would probably like. As I see it, there are two questions in your post.Moving into industry: a lot would depend on the kind of projects you’d work on as a consultant. Or even more so, if you’d specialised in one sector (in my opinion, being a generalist for too long will make it harder to go into industry). Further a lot would depend on what sector of industry you joined. For example: Nokia is renowned for its logistics efficiency, if you’d been on a project aligned with that department and had a clear understanding of these processes, then that would be a route into an industry role. Logistics, project management, operations, commerce, some financial roles (management, operational, commercial, strategic), obviously IT, etc are all possible options – different companies will have different structures. Your second question, doing the ACA. Well, eventually this was the route I went down. I preferred it for the credibility element and rigour, learning a lot about business and finance – it is a lot more business orientated than most people think. It is however hard work, long hours (often after work), etc. Obviously I’d aim for big4 – avoid audit roles and go for corporate finance, recovery, DD (if you can find any!), etc.Bottom line. Don’t start a career as a stepping stone, unless it’s clear what it leads to, otherwise you’ll become disillusioned very quickly and hate it. There are some fantastic industry grad schemes which I’d almost recommend rather than any of the above (albeit doing CIMA or ACCA for financial roles). You’ll enjoy them a lot more, work with normal people and have a social life. Hope that helps!
