Seasons greetings to all, and am wondering if anyone can help, advise, how to get started as a consultant? It appears to me that to get a position as a consultant you need to have some consultancy experience, bit like acting...Not looking for top 4, but have MBA from Reading Uni and good level of expericence. Have looked at Navisys but they want £15K plus monthly paymet, ADTI look a better bet wanting £6K.Appreciate it is a bit of a tightrope but any feedback would be most welcome.

Can anyone decipher this gibberish for me please?Is he suggesting that these companies want him to pay THEM for working as a consultant? WTF?

If you have to pay a firm £15 grand to let them employ you, you must be a hell of a liability. I salute your enthusiasm.

Hi Mike, not so much a liability, effectively paymnet for trainig, but it appears to me that if you can't jump straight in with top 4 then you can go for one of the smaller companies, but these will want someone with consulting experience....otherwise you are left signing up with one of these companies that offers you a level of consulting training hence the fee and then lets you on their books.

Andy, I certainly wouldn't take any position that required me to pay. As someone holding an MBA, you should certainly be eligible to apply direct to most of the bigger consultancies -- and if you are not successful there, you can look for other positions in industry that will help you build the right sort of skills for a longer-term move into consultancy.You haven't said what sort of consultancy you would like to do, but you could develop IT skills (e.g. SAP consultancy) or project/programme/change management skills in a line role within industry. There are many ways to get into consultancy, but paying for a place or further "education and training" is not one that I would recommend.

Hi Village.. thanks for the comments, currently working for an A brand consumer electronics company. Good level of experience in sales, marketing, signed up just over US$ 100M of contracts in 2006, keen strategic insight, instrumental in take over of EU factory US$ 25M, and positioning of key staff. So interested in any of the above..change management etcBst Andy

Anon, sorry of the gibberish was too much, basically if companies want consultants with experience and you don't have any how do you go about getting started? All I have managed to find to date are companies that require you to sign up for a fee..Bst rgdsAndy

Dude, If I knew that any of my co-workers had had to pay at some point to be trained, then, well... let's say that if I did it, I would not let anyone know. (ever).I mean, you pay to go to uni, not to work. Seriously, if someone had offered me such a deal, to pay to be trained, I would have thought it was a joke -and one of those that I tell to my friends in a pub and laugh about it for a while.

Andy#I suspect you've already picked this up, but you're looking in the wrong area.Subject to what you're wanting to do there are firms out there that will employ you based on your experience and your qualifications. If you have an MBA (although noting its from Reading) then Big4, PA, IBM, ACN, EDS, Detica, Hedra and a handful of niche firms would look at you. If you're getting no joy then go through some of the agencies that you see on the TC main page. Personally I'm impressed by BLT, e-m have been good for me although there are some issues and Bullet have been good. Not so endeared with Consulting Point but that might be just my experience.If you're needing training then look at the Chartered Management Institute on www.managers.org.uk or the Institute of Management Consultancy on www.imc.co.uk. Both offer decent training opportunities for business development etc.It may be that you're pitching your aspirations a little high, if you have no real work experience then you're probably looking at analyst or consultant grade, even with the MBA. It took 10 years industry experience to be considered for Manager level appointments, so you might need to be realistic.

Mr T, thanks for your comments, there are a number of companies offering training in the Sunday Times etc, must be some sort of scam then...Bst Andy

Random, appreciate your comments. Understand MBA is not from top Uni so big 4 not an option, will target the niche firms. IMC might help me get my foot in the door and on the ladder.Bst rgds Andy

Interesting approach to trouser length shown at IMC.http://www.imcconsultinggroup.co.uk/Baz

Andywe might be talking at cross purposes, when I say Big 4 I mean the main audit firms who are now emerging into the consulting market after a three year hiatus (PWC, E&Y, KPMG and Deloitte), none of these require an MBA so the Reading logo on the certificate shouldn't be an issue. I wouldn't worry and suggest you pitch to them anyway.There is a lot of snobbery about MBAs and whilst some of it is justified in the pure strategy segment for the rest of the market as long as it's accredited then the label isn't much of an issue, it's what you've done with it that's important.Tony has posted on the IMC certification scheme in the past and it seems to be of most value in the mid tier, I'm not a member of that institute myself (CEng, MIET and MCMI) so don't have practical experience of the utility in finding opportunities.Most of the decent firms will put you on some development training anyway although much of that will be consultitative sales oriented which you might not get much from if you have a sales/ marketeer background already.

Random,Thanks for the comments, will brush up the CV and start targeting the adds...BstAndy