Season’s greetings! I am Chartered Insurer with 8+ years general insurance experience. I have worked for a global insurance broker as well as an international insurer. My experience is mainly within Sales & Distribution but also covers the main functional areas. I am keen to use my industry experience to move into consultancy, focussing on the insurance sector. I have noted that a number of firms (particularly the Big 4) are actively recruiting in this area. I would welcome your thoughts as to my chances of landing a position and the level of role/consultancy I should be applying for. I would be particularly interested to hear from anyone who is currently a consultant in the insurance sector or a recruiter with suitable openings. I have in hand an offer to study a full-time MBA at a good national B-School, which I haven’t accepted just yet... But will do if that’s what it will take to land the right role.Await your thoughts, thank you.

You would need to head for a practice that values your functional content above the 'consulting toolkit' that characterises the generalist shops, and which you will probably lack. The latter will value you at a very junior level, if they are interested at all, as they will only be able to deploy you when they have a full order book of work matching your experience. You might be better off gaining some consulting credentials in a strongly insurance-oriented firm first - e.g. Xchanging. IBM have also recruited your kind of profile in the past and are allegedly resource constrained at present.

Many thanks for your advice. Would an MBA make much difference given my perceived lack of consultancy experience? Am I better off gaining practical experience rather than studying if I want to switch careers?Unfortunately a very junior level role would not appeal as the pay differential (even at a more senior level) would be too great. I will investigate opportunities at Capita, Xchanging, Towers Watson etc as they might value my experience and contacts more. Thank you.

can't advise on the MBA - I'm not a big fan myself as I think all but the most prestigious MBAs have lost their currency but that may be a personal prejudice - it would doubtless help to some extent, but whether that would be worth the money is another question...try also Apex Business Consulting - was Landmark that went into then out of Xchanging; tends to be people like yourself who have come from industry..

Billum, appreciate your guidance. Apologies for my ignorance but the only Apex I know of is the insurance training consultancy - I assume you are not refering to this business. Do you have a website you can direct me to? I have looked but there are numerous 'Apex' consultancies. Thank you.

sure, it's this one...http://www.apexbc.co.uk/