Hi there, Would any experienced consultants be able to offer some advice regarding which option offers the the best training for a junior consultant aiming to become a strategy consultant;1) structured programme at large consultancy, eg Deloitte, Accenture, PA, EY2) On the job training at well regarded boutique, eg OC&C, CVA, SpectrumMany thanks.

I'm not an experienced consultant, but from people I have spoken to surel is is more beneficial to get into a respected strat house like OC&C than a structured operational or tech consulting program at a big 4, PA etc. Not to say that these companies do not have good strat grad programs, It just seems if you get into 'consulting' at a large professional services firm it can be difficult to move into strat later on.Any thoughts from people who i'm sure are more experienced and well versed in consulting than myself?

I think Diz is right when s/he says that the experience at "a respected strat house" would be better than a structured programme at a large consultancy.The difficulty comes in that not all "well regarded boutiques" are "respected strat houses" if that makes sense.You should probe carefully on what training and career development opportunities each firm will offer you. In particular, probe on which elements are "standard" and you'll definitely get to do, and which are one-offs that only one or two people have ever got to do before.Whilst you can advance within a boutique if you come in as a grad, the actual breadth and quality of learning and development can be a bit hit and miss. Without external experience, you can find it difficult to move on in your consulting career.Having worked a couple of years in another consultancy then coming into a boutique, I'm glad I didn't do my initial training here. I see consultants around and above me who can operate within the narrow confines of the boutique, but (god bless' em) never really developed as professional consultants and now are both too senior to start over again and too under-skilled to get another job.

Many thanks for the advice. Just one follow up question; would you consider the three . boutiques I mentioned "respected strat houses"? They all feature in Vault's top European consulting guide and having spoken to employees, they appear to be pitching against MBBB for projects so from an inexperienced, external perspective they appear to possess the credentials to be respected strategy houses, so how true are my assumptions?

OC&C is taking on significant numbers of graduates for the first time this year, so it is difficult to say how it will work out. Has been fairly successful - outside London is not that well known or respected yet. It used to be that they only pitched against MBBB to make up the numbers, but have hired some respected manufacturing consultants (and probably other industry experts) lately.CVA have limited credibility and accomplishments in the market. Respected by some clients in France, but nowhere else.Spectrum are a boutique - strong client relationships within their bounded market. Good place to be if you're in with the same crowd and have the client connections. Arguably, better than MBBB in this sense. Would describe them as a respected boutique - although there are some strategy projects, projects are more often about just giving clients operational decision assurance and "re-assurance" from the perspective of a group of people they know and trust.I wouldn't rely too heavily on Vault's guide:1) They rate 37 companies in Europe rather than a round number 50 because they it isn't a list of the "best" firms - it's a list of all the firms Vault has information on, and who agree to participate2) Companies review their own entries and influence them heavily by providing pre-written press releases for use verbatim3) Vault has limited data and no grasp of the market outside the US