To apply for the position of a Change Management consultant, will industry experience in eg. changing procurement policies, reducing cycle time be considered as experience in change management?

Hi Carlos, I'm a Change Consultant in one of the big firms and in my opinion, the experience you refer to could be considered Change Mangement if you were involved in the roll out and delivery of the new policies and processes. This would mean that you managed the change from how it is now to how it will be in the future via the planning and delivery of stakeholder comms and enmgagement, leadership development, culture and/or behaviour change as required and any training needed. If you just developed the new policies and processes then this is only a small element [analysis and design at most] of change management. Typically, the extent of a change programme will be from analysis, through design, delivery and sustain. You would need to demonstrate skills and experience in all these areas. Hope this helps and doesn't sound too negative

Hi K,Was very interested to read these posts. Could you tell me whether, in your opinion, I'd be at all interesting to change management consultancies? I am mid 30's and have just spent the last 5 years turning round a small company which had not made a profit in its 13 yr history. It has now gone from staff of 6, revenues of 150 grand with losses of 40, to staff of 30, revenues of 550 grand and annual profits of 50 grand, growing at 35% per year. I am also about to leave this job to take an MBA at a leading B school, and speak fluent business Spanish. On the weak side though: The company is not blue chip (though provides training solutions to blue chips) my first degree was in English, I will be 36 when I finish my MBA, and before being a manager my experience was in training (ie neither quantitative nor blue chip.) Lastly, my management experience has been in Spain and not the UK. What do you (or anyone else reading for that matter) think? Thank you very much!

Thanks K. you didn't sound negative at all and helped determine if my experience counts. I was involved in the complete change programme as described by you.

Hi, in brief, I think that Change Consultancy interest would rest on how you went about turning around the business. If this was through change management activities then you stand a good chance. The draw back I see is that you haven't got experience in a large change project - e.g. delivering change in a govt depot or blue chip to 1000s of staff. The MBA will help get you noticed but you may have to start in a junior role like Consultant or Exec in order to prove yourself. Hope this helps.

Thanks K, I appreciate your time. That helps alot.

Why are you limiting yourself to change management??? You obviously have the skills to become a turnaround executive, and your MBA will help you move into that field. If I was you, and if you enjoyed your time turning around an organisation, and you enjoy the great satisfaction you get from seeing it succeed, then I'd suggest to you to try get into strategy consulting, or move onto another turnaround initiative. Work on the numbers. Your turnaround may have been small compared to a blue chip turnaround, but you obviously have the basics to build on in larger organisations.