Hi,as many others on this board I am looking at moving from Consulting to Financial Services/Banking.In my case I believe this move is possible since I am with a niche consulting firm focusing solely on financial services.I am looking at a number of different roles in FS and was wondering if anyone could shed some light on the different salary levels of different positions compared with the levels of consulting.So basically "all things equal" do the roles below pay more or less that being a project manager on the consulting side:- Risk, middle office, Asset Management in Bank- Quant, middle office, Asset Management in Bank- Institutional Sales, Derivatives, IB FO- FI portfolio manager, "Mortgage lender"- Trade assistant, FO, Hedge Fund- Quant, MO, Hedge FundGrateful for any info,.. I am aiming wide at this point but may have to rethink depending on the salary levels.Companies are starting to recruit again (at least in my are, Scandinavia).

As a general rule, banks (particulalry IB) pay sufficiently well to make a transfer from consultancy quite feasible.However, you will struggle to get any value out of your question in its current format - the pay ranges for the roles you mention are too large. e.g. junior quants guys, straight out of uni might be on 25K or 50K. Institutional sales guy could be taking home 100K or 400K.Also you imply you are a project manager, but are hoping to take a functional role (not change or porject manager?) I'm not doubting you can, but its not a relevant comparison of salary.e.g. I currently work in banking, could I earn as much in motorsports? As cheerleader - NO, driving the team motorhome - MAYBE. As Lewis Hamilton's replacement - YEAH.Try this. How much do you currently earn, doing what? I'll tell you the level of seniority you'll need to attain (and the likely years of expereince and level of performance to get it) to get the same money.

Hi Mr cool,A small question for you. I graduated last year with a PhD in Biophysics from Cambride University, UK, and am currently working as an Analyst at Accenture consulting (Systems Integrations). I could not get through the case study I had with Bain (lack of prep. effort) thus am currently with Accenture. Now, I am v.interested in Investment banking. Do you think after a few months here at Accenture or abt 1 yr or so, I would have a chance to apply for Investment banking jobs or should I apply now for graduate programs? Would I still start as a graduate after 1-1.5 yrs experience at Accenture tech. consulting? Your advice would be much appreciated.Regards,Gaurav

Each case is of course unique but as a rule of thumb I'd say that you'd be looking at graduate entry opportunities. Even if you've been working exclusively for IB clients in that 1 year period at ACN (is that likely?) then it just isn't long enough to learn anything that will set you apart from grads coming in fresh.You can jump from a consultancy to another consultancy after about 18 months and hope to be viewed as an expereinced hire, but to get into industry having initially joined a consultancy, it's likely that you would need to do 2-3 years at ACN and also spend most of your project time in the target client industry.

To Gaurav: Jump NOW! Seriously, don't delay. If you don't want to build a career at Accenture, then put your full energy, effort and focus on going for a graduate job. If you wait any longer, it's too late, and a transition with 1 or 2 years experience is much much harder than going in at grad-level. Don't worry about 'losing' that one year of experience you've spent at Accenture. It's only one year in a 20-30 year career. (Plus you've already squandered all those years on your Phd ;-)

Hi Mr Cool,my current package is (conv. to pounds):Salary: 47.000Dividend: 18.000 (taxed at 20%)Now, I know these are not London levels.... but then the living costs here are not at London levels either..I have been an MC/Project Manager for about 8 years, the last 4 years have been focused on FS.I have done some fairly complex projects including setting up OTC derivatives processes across different units of larger banks (Trasury and Markets) + I have a number of certificates and relevant training as well ("Broker certificate/license", Finacial Maths etc. etc.).Moving from a project manager role to a more functional role would be the whole point as I am tired of forcing "change" on line organization staff that to be honest only want to be left alone... take long lunches and leave early..BRlittleoldme

Sorry for the delay - been topping up my tan.I'd say there should be no problem improving on your current package shoudl you move to London to be a PM in an IB, and with the last four years in IB PM roles at an MC, you should be able to at leats get interviews, hopefully offers.The problem will be that you are trying to do three moves in one - a) from MC to client, b) from PM role to line role, c) country (least of all the issues).You have nothign to lose by giving it a go and I wish you gxood luck. However you might find that you need to make this move in stages - first get a PM role in an IB and then rely on networking and sponsorship to manipulate an internal transfer to a line-role.As I always recommend in these situations - look at Ansoff's matrix and consider yourself to be the "product" - can you really achieve the hardest migration path of new product to new market at the same time?

Institutional Sales, Derivatives, IB FO .....will be very difficult unless you are willing to join v low down or unless you have some friends who are on the trading side at institutions. The IB will want you to have a client list already and the current sales team are unlikely to give you any of theirs