Hi,Could anyone indicate roughly the amount of travel that may be performed in an average London based strategy consultancy for a senior consultant/manager please? An indication of average duration of travel would be good, as would the number of trips per year.Thankyou.

anywhere between 1 to 4 days a week

Thankyou for that - just to clarify from your response (and possibly my original question) - I take it that long stints (say 3 months or more) on client site are not the norm - its more likely to be a day here, a couple of days there?Appreciate your time.

it depends. i know partners with acn that came to the uk for one week and ended up staying three years. as i know some managers that do 5 days london 5 days LA for 6 months at a time, as there are some that spend 8 months at a time in india. its too great of a question to generalise, everyone has thier war stories. my advice is that the travelling will exclusively depend on a) the company you join and b) the service line. big companies like acn, ibm, kpmg etc will make you travel a lot and far, and for a long time. smaller strat companies will be more a few days here and there. service lines: financial services tend to stay put in london and surrounding area. products more or less the same, as with telecoms. the risky ones are IT and government. what company / service line are you considering to join?

Thankyou again for the response - you have confirmed what I suspected re: size of company and service line - and I recognise that 'it all depends'.I am currently in IB, and will be looking to join a financial services team, or possibly a technology team focusing on fin services at a pure strat house, rather than one of the firms like ACN or KPMG etc...Thankyou again for your time.

Carefulof presuming FS means you will be in London- New York, Hong Kong and Tokyo are some of the more glam locations I've worked in- a captive in India for 9 months was much less exciting....

Yes Nikki, I take your point. As it is, I already spent maybe 1 week a month (typically in NY), though I have also been sent to Singapore & Tokyo regularily too, as well as some more exotic locations infrequently...As I'm in IB already, I expect thats par for the course. Most of my existing travel is for either a week or sometimes a fortnight at a time. My main concern in moving to a consultancy role is being asked to spend >2 weeks on site on a regular basis outside the UK, or indeed significantly outside London. I know travel is to be expected, but my wife and kids also need some 'quality time' even if its mainly weekends! ;0>Was just hoping for a feel from the forum - thankyou for your time.

Anon is sharing my concerns exactly but for slightly different reasons-I am 23, about to start at an all service provider (not ACN) and although I'm game for travel and looking forward to being sent everywhere, there remains an element of worry with the client/my employer taking the p*ss and not respecting I have a life I would like to attach to maybe on a Thursday night and stay reasonably close to it until monday morning.No one minds the odd occasion when delivery is expected but if I hit partner in 1 years time, i won;t be expecting my guys and girls to give unreasonable volumes of blood sweat and tears!

You're being naive. If you want to reap the rewards of the consulting profession you have to be aware of the dynamics of the profession going in. It involves extensive travel - full stop. Client needs overwhelmingly dictate the nature and frequency of travel. For every person who has an issue with travel ( especially someone just starting out) it is easy enough to get others who don't have any. So my advice would be be flexible in the initial stages of your career if you want to thrive in consulting. Any self imposed constraints like being back at home on Thursday etc. are likely to hold you back.If a stable base and a life are more important there are always alternative careers. A career with a full service consulting firm is not likely to give you those - especially at the stage of career you are at.

"partner in 1 years time".......come on; you're wet behind the ears - there is no way you can fool us that you are at this level.

Apologies, '1' was meant to be '12'! Not trying to sound like an 'up my a*se know-it-all' grad, just a humble typo

Just for the purposes of clarification - my original query (poorly expressed) did not relate to the fact consulting requires significant travel - I know that and accept and expect that (its where the firm makes its money) and additionally I already travel extensively in IB anyway. I was really interested in the 'type' of travel.Specifically, that for a particular type of company (i.e. not a full house ACN or the like, and maybe more like LEK or McK's) and in a finance strat team (not IT implenentation), and at the equivilent level of someone with circa 10years experience in IB plus great education including an MBA - is the average duration of travel likely (again, accepting a few times a year things may require otherwise) to be less than (roughly) a fortnight at a time?In short, 6 months in Newcastle/Moscow/where-ever is unlikely to be required..... and indeed I would not even consider....Anyway, thanks for the original couple of responses - you confirmed what I thought - that in general it is likely to be in and around London and for relatively short periods of time.Regards....phew - feel like a lawyer with all that clarification....