Ladies and Gents, I need some advice please on making the shift from industry to the consulting world?I've two degrees (BSc & MSc) and have spent the last five years in Communications (global enterprise network equipment provider and a european mobile comms s/w SME) managing various projects for senior executives e.g. two business disposals, one acquisition, an outsource deal, general business development, problem solving i.e. revenue turnaround, building major alliances etc. I've been reporting to CXO-level execs and have broad business and advisory skills but no specialisms like ACA or Six Sigma. I'd like to join a TMT team or operations improvement team in a consultancy. My question - what is the best way to achieve this?Recruitment agencies are just not helpful at the moment. Second question - go direct to consultancies and if so, which ones and will HR depts be of assistance?Thanks.

Depending on what firm/s you want to get into I would actually say your experience far outweighs having either an ACA or some frankly pedestrian qualification like Six Sigma (more of a tool than a complete method). I don't see you fitting into an operational team though - more a commercial strategy outfit, perhaps with a TMT focus or a little broader. Firms like Greenwich Consulting, Ocean, mmcGroup, Analysys Mason etc - more concerned with the issues you have been working on, rather than ground floor ops improvement, which is a different animal.Rec firms won't be able to assist in this current market I'm afraid: we are focused on finding very precise fit for often very specific roles currently, so we don't have the wriggle room we enjoyed 6 months ago. My best advice is to stay put if you can, get more experience -especially if you can get some sort of project shape to what you're doing and look at this move again later this year: we are seeing some confidence return, and hiring pipelines becoming a little firmer again, but it will be a while before consulting firms feel they can gamble on unproven hires from when there is plenty of consulting talent available.

TT1If you are really keen on operations improvement, try Alexander Proudfoot (http://www.proudfootconsulting.com/) or Renoir (www.renoirgroup.com/).If you really enjoy being away from home for lenthy periods then it's for you and good luck. You maybe away from home for lengthy periods on projects, longer than most firms (eg 6 weeks away 1 week back and in some situations >2 months away).

PA has packed up, and alikes don't have a lot of work. Stay where you are. I've heard some very negative stories about renoir!

I agree with bm and you should stay well away from renior because I have had a very bad experience with back in 2001.To cut a long story short, they offered me a job and then when I resigned from my previous role, they said their client list had dried up and that was the last I have heard from them despite numerous attempts to contact them on my part.

May be you need to do a little more research? For example, Top Consultant are currently running a recruitment campaign for a consultancy specialising in telecoms and networks. Why don't you check them out.