Hey,just came across this site recently, its brilliant! wish I had seen it earlier....I'm a recent grad and missed the recruiting cycle for consulting mainly because I wasn't too sure what I wanted to do. By the time I realised that I guess it was too late. I went to a target university and have good academics and extra-curriculars. I got an offer from an investment bank on their IT grad scheme and have been working there for a few months now - I thought it best to do that than do nothing... but having read through the "Top Consultant Guide to Consulting" briefly am not sure if that was the right choice..What would be the best way to position myself/skills to management consulting without going for an MBA? Am guessing MBB would probably be impossible, but what about Big4 or Accenture? Should I go for grad entry starting 2012, or just hang on for a couple of years and go in as an experienced hire?Would be great to get some insights because I don't want to be wasting my time too much applying for roles that I will have no chance getting...thanks!steve

anyone????

SteveI'd say you need to act quickly here. Consulting firms tend to recruit for their graduate schemes from a very narrow pool - either those who are coming fresh from university, or those who are a year out from university (through taking a gap year or having made the wrong career move from university). So there is a limited window of opportunity for you to still make it onto the graduate entry programmes - and beyond that you'll then find you're not of interest to firms until you've either i) done an MBA at a top school or ii) built up significant sector experience (ie. not for several years).I've written quite an extensive piece on this in our new careers guide, published just this last week. It's freely downloadable from the following link, definitely suggest you get a copy of this:[url]http://news.top-consultant.com/guide_to_consulting_firms.aspx[/url]In terms of making the move, my main advice would be to invest some time in coming up with a really credible line of argumentation for why you went into this role in the first place, why it's not living up to expectations and why you feel consulting is going to be a sector that you will find far more inspiring. On the positive side, the fact that you've got into an IB's grad scheme is a strong note of endorsement for your candidacy. But you need to deal with the concern there will be that you are flakey and likely to decide that consulting is also not for you a few months into starting a career with them. If you can address this concern then you stand as good a chance as anyone else with your academic credentials I would say.Good luckTony RestellTop-Consultant.com

Thanks Tony!Will take another look at the Top Consultant Guide.When applying should I state that I am currently on another graduate scheme? I wouldn't want to jeopardize my current position given the relatively weak state of the job market... is it worth pursuing any other qualifications in the mean time e.g. Prince2 etc?

The very fact that you have taken a dislike to IT world so early on means that you are only going to get more disillusioned with what you do-and that is perfectly normal. I have been there, done that.If I were you, I would hang about where I am for now but SERIOUSLY consider applying for another grade scheme in an industry role next year. Management Consultancies will give you a far greater damn if you go to them as an Experienced Hire with a couple of years of Industry experience behind you. At that point you can also look at the option of doing an MBA as if you have about 2 yrs. of quality work experience in a Client side role and finish your MBA with good grades then, unless you are a complete muppet, it will be hard for you to miss out joining at least the Tier 3 strategy boutiques if not the McKinseys or the BAH of this world.Mr. Old Hat

oh by the way-why would you even THINK about things like PRINCE2 etc.. if you do not want to remain in IT? Look at taking up specialist courses like CIM (Marketing), or CFA (Finance) depending upon what you want to do other than IT

Hi Mr. Old Hat!Many thanks for your points and sorry for the late reply.Will take a look at some other schemes. Was asking about prince2 because i thought consulting is project based and so this might have helped?Given that I have some IT experience, do you think it would be worth going for Deloite/ACN given that they also do IT Management Consulting as opposed to just implementations and move in that way?Steve.

Here is my 2p on IT consultingYou pretty much have three 4 streams that you must choose from early on1) Business Consulting - you grow up to be a subject matter expert around a specific topic or skill - e.g. marketing, finance, supply chain etc. This path will likely peak at being a Practice Head or VP role in a client side environment2) Delivery - you will be running large Projects and Programs. This requires you to be a good, organized people person - you do not need to have any specific skill though but some form of vertical experience helps3) Architecture/Solutions Consulting - same as business consulting but on the tech side. Peak roles could be CTO/CIO - highhhhhhhhh pay rates but really not to everyone's liking playing support roles4) SALES - if you want to remain in consulting AND rise, you really need to be looking at this stream as nearly every whos who of the consulting world (Partners, VPs etc.) are compensated based on 'sales targets' - they take almost all lead roles and all the other three streams end up reporting to these guys in some way, shape or formSo coming back to your Prince 2 question - think about what is your disposition, what are you GOOD at and what is it that you would like to be doing if you decide to remain in IT consulting (which by the way is HUGE pay compared to industry side roles)Do this analysis before you decide to invest in Prince 2 etc.Cheers