Hi guys - I'm a consultant at a decent level after 6 years in the game, and have a pressing issue that may resonate with some on this board. I enjoy my work overall, but have come to resent the travel aspect hugely. I used to enjoy seeing different cities and working with different cultures.Things are different now: I got married earlier this year and actively want to stay within London or commuting distance (and am prepared for early morning / late night car or train journeys to client site if needed).I've recently rolled off a project and am currently available at the whim of the senior management or the schedulers - every time the phone rings I get nervous about landing an assignment in Timbuktu for 8 months or even Newcastle for 2. It grates when the geographic location of an assignment is not even considered worthy of a mention by the other party during most of these conversations - leaving me to look inflexible even by asking the question. I used to be entirely open about location of projects (and have spent some long stints in grim out-of-town business parks nationally and internationally) but have moved on to a point where I simply want to stay in my own home and be around my new wife. I'm prepared to put the hours in (not a problem over the short term - recently on a London project with a series of 70+ hour weeks) but am increasingly unwilling to compromise about extended stays away from London.As I see it, I've got a number of options:1) Leave consulting for industry (this will clearly take time to arrange and involves a lifestyle choice of its own)2) Have a conversation with my team leadership asking for a dispensation to remain locally in my first year of marriage (not sure how well this will go down but my firm does have plenty of projects in / around the m25). I fear that this could be career limiting in itself but am seriously considering booking some time with the lead partner ASAP.3) Turn projects down. Something I actively don't want to do (its a no-no for career progression and peer perception for starters)4) find a 'holy grail' consulting practice to move to, where all the work is within London. Having done a bit of digging I think the existence of such practices is a myth...Anyway - would be grateful to hear advice from the good citizens of Top-Consultant...

What level are you at? Generally speaking, hitting a Senior Manager level means that you are expected to feed yourself -- and also means you can be more selective about the clients you choose to target.It's tough to do the consulting gig without travel.

Join PA – most of our clients are within the M25. I will concede that most of them are pretty low end public sector clients, but you don’t even need to consider the possibility of us winning any work with an international flavour.

Thanks guys.FYI I'm a 2nd year Manager.

How does the "right to flexible working" fit in with all of this?

Flexible? How much more flexible do you want? You could be working in Swindon one week, Warrington the next, getting up at 0500 to catch the train one day, then getting home again at 2200 on Thursday night...

He meant flexible from the employee's point of view, i.e. working in London and using e-mail/phones instead of having to go to swindon at 0500 unless you want to or there's a really good reason why you HAVE to.

I feal I will be in a similar position in the near future. I have spent my time since doing my PhD in engineering (nearly 5 years) in industry in a 9-5 role. I have just resigned at will be starting at one of the big 4 in a consultancy role in Oct. I am attracted to everything about the job just worried about the travel aspect as well as I am getting married in a month and would like to minimise the time physically away from hom. Obviously, travel goes with consultancy but I am hoping that more opportunities to get back into a 9-5 role will present themselves to me after getting some experience as a consultant.Incidently I have a lot of friends who are consultants and no matter how much I voice my concerns to them they say the travel commitment is completely manageabl. Ie will not affect your personal life and loads of people with girlfriends, wifes and kids do it.Ill find out for myself soon enough I suppose!

Hi,I work for the consultancy practice of a construction and property based firm. I joined to avoid the travel and can confirm that the majority of our projects are London based, those that aren't don't usually include an overnight stay.Hope this helps

Jim - this might be of interest to me; how do you think salaries compare to "mainstream" consultancies?

Hi GR,The salaries are not that dissimilar for the right candidate, if you have the skills they will most likely find the money.

Interesting, as believe I might have the right background for this. Would be interested in knowing who you work for and what it's like - I'm aware that Motty M, EC Harris, DL, Mouchel and Arup all have consulting practices of one sort or another - some appeal more than others.

thread hijacking!

Hi GR,What's your email address?Cheers

Hi,I've set up gr.query@yahoo.co.uk and would be interested to hear more.CheersGR

LEK's london office conduct pretty much all their projects on-site, I believe. As far as I know they are the only decent strategy consultancy to do so. You could try getting a job there.