I’d say there are three phases of you career in management consultancy where transferring to industry is of varying difficulty.Phase 1. Graduate hire through to about 3-4 years experience. Pretty easy to move and maintain salary levels, or even get a raise. Clients see you as allow risk graduate hire with all the rough edges knocked off. You now how to behave in front of senior managers, you’ve the work ethic of having been in a sweat shop, and you’ve probably had half a dozen really good training classes. Industry expertise has not yet kicked in yet, but that’s no problem as salary can be justified on generic skills.Phase 2. Five years in through to SM level. The problem phase. In an MC firm you progress because of flexibility, billability and fledgling engagement management skills. None of these are greatly valued by industry organisations. You’re too junior to run a department, you’ve too broad an experience base to have detailed functional knowledge. You’re probably overpaid by their standards and being frank a lot of that money is recompense for not having a life cos you live in an hotel. There are a few exceptions, mainly amongst very specialist consultants such as in decision sciences, or operations management – some of those guys can make the sideways move and maintain salary. Pure PM’s can do it too, but for many it takes a decision to down salary and grade temporarily, hoping to outperform once your in.Phase 3. Director and upwards. Ironically it gets easier again – but only if you are the cream of the crop. Once you are a senior enough consultant to have managed a P&L, or genuinely working as an Programme Director, then moving into a change management position at a client is a real possibility. I’ve even seen people give up an Accenture partnership to do this. It still takes a small financial investment on occasions, but not always. The bad news is that if you are a senior SME type consultant then you’re very likely to be overpaid. You need to be a P&L owning person.There are of course exceptions, but I’d say this is a pretty general model.In you situation I think you may have to take a slightly downwards move in order to move upwards more rapidly. The big question is of course, why do you want to move into IB if its not something you have detailed functional knowledge of? The hours and culture are as bad as MC’s and the money is often no better unless you are in front office (and in the top bracket) or a niche quants guru. ( know you’re not that from your post)
