Hi Guys, I am looking to get into Management Consultancy. I am 24 and have just left university with my MBA and Undergraduate degree (2:2). I was wondering if you could offer me some advice on how to get into consultancy? Should I be looking to do work experience or trying to enter a niche consultancy as an analyst. I don't have a huge amount of work experience which has been holding me back, and even that is proving pretty hard to come by. I would like to work as a strategy consultant ultimately but I am happy to put the effort and time in elsewhere to make this happen.I welcome your responses,Many thanks

Did you take your degrees in that order? MBA first and your 2:2 after?: )

How can you hold an MBA at all, let alone a credible one, with no relevant experience? For that matter how can you have managed to fluff your way through two degrees without acquiring even some semblance of basic research skills to establish that a 2.2 rules you out of strategy consulting (and in all likelihood of consulting at all in the current market)? Sorry cardiffboy it won't happen. Focus on other ambitions.

OK, I agree with Mars but I do like an underdog. Cardiffboy - Mars is right, you're in for a tough ride if you want to get into top tier strategy consultancy. Or even the Big 4 for that matter.But don't despair, I do think you have options.I think you would do really well to start as a businss analyst, not necessarily within a firm of consultants but perhaps in a department of a large client-side company. If you have an interest in IT, I think you could find your way into the IT departmetn of a large company as a businss analyst. You could do really well there. A lot of people don't like working within IT, but the truth is, it's a big sector and you can carve out a really good career there if you're happy with it. If you're in cardiff, then Bristol has a good economy which could give you many options for joining large companies. Qualifications like MBAs are well-respected in IT circles. You could do well as a business analyst or perhaps even a project manager. And cardiff is a very well respected university (especially the businss school) so you really don't have anything to be apologetic about. Sure it's not exactly Harvard, but it's still really just fine! So in summary I think you should look more broadly than just consultancy. Perhaps go into industry, build up some business analysis experience, and then in 5 years time take stock of your options again. By then you might not want to go into consultancy anyway - hopefully you will already have a happy and stable career that makes you want to stay put.We all wish you the very best, cardiffboy. You youngsters have it tough these days. A job for life no longer exists and my generation mucked everything up for you. We had the north sea oil, sold off the national industries, and racked up the national debt so we could finance unsustainable final-salary pensions and tax cuts. I actually get quite emotional thinking just how tough you young lads have it these days, trying to hold down a secure job, pay a mortgage and provide for their family. Cardiffboy, we'll help you with advice in every way we can... please do post back here and lets try and work on things together to get you sorted out.