Hi I'm in the career roadblock. May I seek advice from every one here?I have been working as application engineer for the past 10 years in a same company since graduated from the university. Now the company is facing financial difficulty.I'm starting to look out and found my current skills are not matched with the jobs skills required in the market. As the programming language I'm expert in is a proprietary language which is very specific in this company only. I'm thinking to switch career as consultant in an investment bank as this is my dream job since many years ago. Is it possible to switch career?May I seek your advice on this?

What kind of consultant and why at an investment bank?

I’m keen to become a consultant in M & A, project financing or corporate finance. Will it be too old for me to switch career?Appreciate any guide on this?

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Roadblock,Do you have any experience in M & A, project financing or corporate finance?I quite fancy being a fighter pilot but I have absolutely no training or experience so I think I may get a knock back from the RAF.You could however try and join a tech type consultancy or one with a IT practice and learn the consulting side of the business eventually moving to finance consulting

There is no restriction on when you are allowed to change your career path. Just note that those 10 years wont count for anything much and you will essentially be starting off in a junior position working with and, more importantly, managed by those many years younger and more enthusiastic that you - so you need to be ready for it.I cannot say much for the salary but the chances are you have to be ready to go in for a lot less than what you earn now as, essentially, you may be considered as a grad in these areas (those 10 years may just tip it your favor to be short listed for an interview but this can also be a BIG negative if you CV shows you have done nothing much to progress yourself for 10 years!!!!)

Thanks Buffett's brother and Aces. Finally I got the reply. I have the following questions: 1. If I try to join a tech type consultancy firm, any certification or activity will increase my chance to be recruited?2. Just forget about my past experience as I can’t do any to change it. I welcome your further advice to increase my chance to switch to consultancy. 3. What are the key success factors to make a consultant success in the career?

Do some research for yourself on companies like Accenture, CapGemini, IBM and their recruitment routes. It might be a bit difficult as you don't fit into either the grad scheme or the experienced hire bracket, but you could try and make an argument for either. If you're an impressive enough candidate, anything's possible.If you're really really serious about 100% wanting to switch to consulting and nothing else will do, you could try and do an MBA. That would certainly up your appeal as an experienced hire, and when you add your 10 years of technical experience (albeit with non-transferable knowledge, but surely with transferable skills), you might* be quite likely to get in with one of the above tech-based consultancies, and from there you could gradually try to move in the direction you want within the sector.*I stress the might here because I don't want you to go and do an MBA cos you think I told you you could then be a consultant. There are a whole range of soft skills that consultants require that you might lack for all I know, so no amount of extra qualifications etc. would get you in.

Hi Mr. ChristopherCrocodileThanks for your reply. mind to share the range of soft skills require by a consultant?

http://targetjobs.co.uk/career-sectors/management-consulting/applications-and-interviews/what-consulting-recruiters-want-fro