Hi Crispin - thanks for your question. The headline answer is (as always) 'it depends'.I interview a lot of independent contractors for permanent roles in my firm, and to be honest only about 10% hit the mark in terms of what we are looking for. In comparison, around a quarter of people who are already in consulting roles make it through our assessment process.Why the lower 'hit rate'? Well there are a number of things at play (my fellow recruiters can no doubt expand on these comments)A lot depends on how long you have been contracting - if you've been an independent contractor for 10 years, you may find it something of a shock to go back into an environment where you are no longer in charge of when, where and how you work. Contractors often don't understand the reality of what working in a consulting firm is like.What types of clients have you been working with? Local non-profit organisations, or big multinational companies? When a firm hires you, they are also effectively buying your contact list. Are you able to bring some contacts and opportunities to the table?How up to date are you in developments in your area of expertise? As an independent, your own development often takes a back seat as you focus on getting your next job. You may consider yourself a subject matter expert, but there is a strong chance that your knowledge will be several years behind the times.As a contractor you haven't necessarily worked with people who are better than you - this makes it very difficult for you to really assess how you are doing. With nobody there to challenge you and push you harder, it's easy to get complacent about how effective you really are.If you are quite senior, you need to think about business development. Have you been billing the kind of figures that we would require of you? You might be quite pleased that you billed over £100k last year, but we'd be looking more than £1m.Which leads us on to the thing that contractors are often very unrealistic about. Money. They think that billing £100k should equate to a salary of a similar amount. Nope. I would expect one of my junior consultants to be billing that kind of amount, and I can pay them £50k.Having said all that, we do get absolute gems who come from the contracting route. My best advice to you is to do associate work with one of the big consulting firms. Get on projects where you are working with consultants - good consultants preferably! Prove yourself on one of their projects and get one of the team to refer you to the recruiters. It's far and away the best way to get your foot in the door.In terms of what background is going to be of interest? It depends on the firm. Some are very technology focused, some like people to be very strategic, some like the touchy-feely end of consulting. They'll all be looking for different things.Wow, that was a rambling response. Sorry...
