Hi,I’m new to this message board but if any of you have any advice for me in regards to my query then that would be much appreciated.I graduated from university last year, and I kind of won a placement competition, where I get the chance to work for three top firms on a rotational placement. The first was with Deloitte in their technology, advisory and assurance service line, the second was within the NHS within a finance project team overlooking a high profile on-going acquisition and third is within a small company called 3Form, where I am currently working on a new enterprising venture that the company recently launched.The whole idea of the placement was to give me a chance to work within a Big 4, within the public sector and within an SME all within a year of graduating from university.With all this in mind, I’m looking to gain employment within management consulting for a variety of reasons. Am I right to assume that a lot of the bigger strategy firms have closed their books on recruiting graduates for 2007? I know Accenture are still recruiting, but the likes of Bain, McKinsey etc are closed right? Do you know of any other consulting firms that are recruiting? My plan of action is to try and get a job within this field, otherwise I’m going back top university to get my masters in International Business before reapplying for intake in 2008; do you feel this is a wise step to take?Sorry, this is such a long-winded message, but if any of you have any advice/tips, then I would be very grateful if you could leave comments below.Many thanks,

In the UK most consultancies (and that would include the strategy firms) do one round of graduate recruitment. Timing-wise they will give presentations at their selected universities around November time, have a cut-off for applications of around Christmas; conduct first round interviews in mid-January and then final rounds of interviews in February. Offers are then made in February and graduate recruitment shuts down again until the following October / November. Those that are made offers in February usually start in September (after having had a long vacation following finals).There are a handful of exceptions to this - firms that are big enough that they i) fit into the above schedule and ii) continue to recruit new graduates in the February to October period when the other firms are dormant in the graduate recruitment space. The two most obvious that spring to mind are Accenture and IBM. Some extensive research of the firms' websites might turn up a handful of others that recruit all year round, but not many.As regards going back to University, I would be very cautious about this. No consulting firm that I know will offer a candidate with a Masters a higher salary than someone with a Batchelors; and indeed many firms even start PhDs off on a similar salary to those with a BA / BSc. After graduating with a degree the only qualification that really attracts further interest from the top consultancies is an MBA - and even that must be from a top-tier school and would usually be something undertaken in your late 20s rather than early 20s. Hope this is helpfulGood luckTony RestellTop-Consultant.com