This is it...have left my industry job today and now have until Monday to get myself ready for the start of my career in consulting (Big 4 job, government advisory).It's not ideal I know, my previous (yea-ha!) employer tied me into completing a project whilst on notice with a healthy bonus so I've been full tilt with that hence the lack of prep.I'm looking for some real assistance here. What gear do I need to buy, what should I be reading, how can I make the most out of beneffiting from my expenses (hotel points/airmiles etc?)...help!!! Let rip!

You don't really need that much stuff for a career in government consulting, an alarm clock to get you up at 8 for a 9am start is the first step!Bar decent clothing and shoes, you don't need much in consulting as all the kit gets provided.A BA Amex card is pretty handy for running up air miles for personal use, worth paying for the top end one if you're running up a lot of expenses. I hear there are corporate versions of this card now, though using a personal one is probably better as technically any rewards you gain on the company card can be used to share around the company. It can often be hard to run up hotel points in just one chain as you move around a lot and it tends to be whatever is most convenient, if it's government work I'd look in to www.priorityclub.com which covers Holiday Inns and Crowne Plazas and can then be redeemed at Intercontinentals, otherwise just the big chain ones like Marriot and Hilton.

This was covered in a fair bit of detail in the last few weeks. If you use the "Get Thread" box to access thread number 19960 then you should find lots of input on this subject.All the best, Tony Restell