Hi allI'm a senior consultant with one of the big five and have 6+ years of experience, particularly in developong business benefits from emerging technology and Identity management. I am now considering moving to industry and and am particularly interested in gaining a position that would lead to and perhaps provide mentoring towards a CTO/CIO/COO role. Does anyone have any suggestions as to the best way to move forward?many thanks for any responsesLex

Not wanting to be harsh. but what is it with consultants who have a few years experience who think they will walk into a job in Industry?Trust me you wont. You have minimal people manage experience, minimal experience of actually delivering on things and no experience of being in something for the long haul.You will have to work your way up over a period of time. If you are lucky you will come in as a PM

Hi Industry, thanks for posting. I want to make it clear that I'm not assuming in any way that I'll walk into a job in industry - and I hope that my post didn't come across as such. I am looking for a position that will allow me to grow into my chosen role and I am looking for advice.It would appear, from your comments of the skills that consultants have, that you've have bad experience of working with consultants and for that I'm sorry.I am, however, still looking for advice on the best way to enter the type of job that I'm looking for. How does one seek such a role? thanks for readingLex

As one of the other recipients has already suggested, the key skills et you need to develop is people management. Working on a consulting team and interacting with client side staff doesn't really prepare you for some of the routine actitives like hiring, firing, redundancies, development plans etc or interacting with colleagues who will quite often have a very different take on the world. It takes time and effort to develop into a good line manager so there's a lot of work (and fun) ahead of you.Having worked as an IT Director in Industry, I'd recommend that you identify suitable IT Manager or Programme Manager roles in a large organisation. This should provide a foothold and a pathway to line management and a couple of internal job moves.I personally haven't met any good CIOs or CTOs in Industry that are much less than 40 - so by way of setting your expectations, you may well be brilliant but you should plan on investing a good 5-10 years on top of your existing 6.5 years before you're likely to secure a very senior position.Good Luck.