You guys can be rough. I need advice. I spent 15 years working in mortgage banking but not for a huge banking/servicer. I was managing daily operations for a company with over 600 employees, 45 branches, wholesale, retail and third-party transparent processing thru a call center. My background is in building an ops platform, all areas of front/back office. I was a founding member of the company and also owned another business. Everything I did over the last 15 years was building, fixing, reworking...but not exactly Project management. I have a six sigma green belt & lean certification and an applied pm certificate (not asq), also a BBA. I want to get into consulting but I don't know where I fit, or if I do. Can anyone give me advice on how to start, who hires someone like me or should I do something else. Thanks, Susan

You don't fit in at all. Sorry, I'm not nice!

Thanks at least your honest.

Your experience doesn't seem to have any relevance for management consulting, but i'd be surprised if there wasn't a place for you in one of the IT consulting firms (e.g. BPO in Accenture or similar).

Difficult to tell from a block of summary text if you have enough transferable skills to make it into consulting or not. Many HR folk on here want a summary - really to save their time rather than yours. Cue: how many times do we have to read about HR folk telling us about how many CV's their client contact has to read just to fill one job etc.?The part I would really question is the 15 years in mortgage banking. If it is only about first impressions (it shouldnt be, as clients just get fed up with the brainless sales approach all too often and all too quickly these days) then you are climbing the wrong tree if you want to get into consulting.Thereafter your brief thread starts to read better esp. if you find growth picks up in your niche sub-sector. I fear it wont happen soon enough for you (in consulting) though as the emphasis tends to be growing bank2business lending before bank2homebuyer starts to expand again significantly. That leaves you with a very operations management style resume offering. Lean management is often wrongly applied in services industries (esp. financial services) and there are an awful lot of consultants relying on a strategy better suited to a Japanese car factory, to expect it to create a massive growth in mortgage lending.I imagine you fit in somewhere but its not apparent from 6+ lines of text. Ano might be right - although there are better ways of getting a point across. You might simply be (or be perceived to be) a mortgage banking manager that really needs to get away from ops diagrams and controlling people from afar. Do you really want to be in consulting? Why not find a sleepy mortgage team in a large high street bank branch - reconnect with real customers face to face and find out where they are actually getting it wrong? Cant blame politicians forever.Prove yourself by solving lending problems on the front line. You'll soon understand how their lending operates better than them, and you will get a better idea of how to improve their sales/marketing than many a bunch of ops managers looking at powerpoint charts. Times are still tough - but if you persist with what you know best you might find, in years to come, its you controlling which consultants get hired - not the other way around. To be honest with you I dont think you are really clear what you personally want to do next - at this time - or there simply arent the vacancies out there.

Thank you for taking the time to respond. I laughed at your comments because I see your point, but I'm much more than my six lines of text. I should have said it was MY company. I built it from 6 people to over 600 in 13 years. We had multi channel business lines, including BPO services (good pick up on your part). I actually have great transferable skills in managing, stategy, staff training and development, process improvements, vendor relations, my specialty is QC and fraud detection and deterance and start-ups and turn-arounds, my legal knowledge could get me a JD among other things.One thing you just made me realize is if I listened to everyone in the begininng, I would never have left General Motors. So now I will dig my heals in and find a way in because I have alot to offer.So now can you tell me where to start? You guys aren't so bad after all. By the way, I will travel, are you hiring? I don't want to be self-employed any more.Regards,Susan M

This can be done. I know of a few people who have moved from from non IB/Consulting backgrounds straight into FO/client facing roles.Main thing is contacts. Go out and meet people, if you haven't already. One idea, would be to go to the consulting event in London.I wouldn't care about your CV, if you want to do the job, you will be motivated. I hire on that basis

The only thing worse then being self-employed is working your derriere off for someone else and that's what you will do in consulting? Why would you want that? Really?

@Anon....Who are you, really? One minute you seem to ask questions that a typical undergrad wanting to go into consulting would ask and then the next minute you allow yourself enough freedom to actually advise others on their consulting career prospects and enough arrogance to say something like "You don't fit in at all. Sorry, I'm not nice!". I wonder what you based your answer on? If you don't have something smart to say, don't say it at all. People post messages here to get a genuine answer/advice, not a beginners stereotypical, arrogant point of view.

@Newsflash/SusanEntrepreneurs generally struggle to come back to a corporate environment, and consulting is perhaps one of the most strait-laced, suit and tie industries of them all (probably second only to banking). One of the unwritten rules of experienced hire recruitment is that there should be a natural fit with the "corporate culture" i.e. be entrepreneurial, but not TOO much. That's one thing you'd need to face.The second would be the age issue. 15 years of experience climbing the ladder would normally see you into Senior Mgr / Director / Partner at a firm, coming from outside you'd be a forty something Manager potentially reporting to a 31 year old know it all. The last thing is being asked to do a different thing every three to six months. Coming from a fixed-remit ops job into a "true" consulting environment with business development, project financials, and delivery roles all at the same time might be a struggle.If you're still reading after that, then by all means, apply to the Big4 and SIs. Your background could be relevant for the financial services / financial ops practices of EY, KPMG, Accenture and Deloitte (probably in that order) as long as you can demonstrate you applied Six Sigma and Lean in project delivery roles as part of your previous business. Failing that you could go for one of the smaller niche consultancies with retail / branch banking clients. Not my sector so I can't comment. I wouldn't recommend pitching for project manager roles unless you get PMP or PgMP plus offshore experience which means you could slot into an existing programme double quick. See, not all of us are ar$€holes all the time - some of us only on days ending in Y.

Thanks Blank?This site has been very helpful. I have read alot of posts and the recruiters are obvious even though they try not to be. But thats who I wanted perspective from.I understand the corp culture issues, but I can adapt easily. Mortgage banking gets a bum rap but trust me, running a large company means your dealing with the corporate industry that makes the industry tick, like the big investments companys, warewhouse banks, secondary market investors... So I haven't left the corp world. Second, this is the most troubling issue for me about consulting. How does a 30 something know it all?? Yes, I am 46 (your good at math:) but I look thirty and have preserved myself quite well. But would I work for a 30ish, yes, only because I know I would climb higher and quicker because of my experience. Having said that, I don't know how that really works so what I'm saying is I am a smart girl and I think that makes all the difference when working in any environment. But are you supposed to be born into consulting to get in? You guys seem like private investigators but would my CV have made the first filter, would it check enough boxed to get to you? When I read job descriptions, I don't think I get through. About being self-employed...its not what it seems. If I ran a cute shop and sold postcards, yes, that might be good but owning and running a large company with a monster payroll, industry regs, bad loans, not all great people and HR problems daily, even the army sounds good in comparison. I am a seriously hard worker and maybe I could fit into BPO or med size biz consulting? I will live anywhere in the world and will travel full time but does my practical, relevant experience get me in over a 3.0 GPA from 30 somthing?Lastly, my original post was an attempt to down play my self employement and my CV is written to highlight my transferable skills and downplay mortgage banking. My day rarely focused on mortgages, it was business stuff, P&L's, staffing....so I hope I can make a change. Having said that, I don't want to be a "spreadsheet jockey" in the consulting world. Is that my future???Regards,Susan

Alex. This is my answer about being self-employed.If I spent the last 15 years in consulting, I would want to be self-employed. If you spent the last 15 years self-employed, you would want to be a consultant.I want to "get" payroll, not "make it". Hard work either way but I get to sleep at night.Susan

Susan, Fair enough. However, don't ever say that when and if you interview for consulting job because it sounds like you are looking for an easy(ier) ride. I am not saying consulting is an easy ride, but it does carry less responsibility then most other jobs. I am not convinced by your argument though. :)

@Alex, "anon" on a thread could be multiple people, for example, the first anon (or ano) on this thread is one individual (the not nice guy), the second w/ the (BPO reference) was another (me).

I've only just skimmed this, but me smells a troll.Built a company from 6 to 600 people and now you want to work for some grey haired idiot with hair growing out of his ears, who will send you all over the globe and mentally abuse you?Something doesn't quite add up. If you can grow a company to 600 people, you don't really need our advice about what to do, do you??

What is a troll? Sounds like you shouldn't ask questions you already think you know the answer to. If you want to get into mortgage banking, ask me. If I want to get into consulting, I'll ask real questions on a forum that supports the very thing I am doing. Thanks for the advice. Newsflash...I don't know everything, I'm not 30 something....

Dear Newsflash,Your best opportunity would be to find a consultancy firm that specialises in the SME sector. The good news is that they might value your breadth of experience and your knowledge of running and SME firm and your JFDI approach.Your background does not lend itself to working for the big4 consultancies (or similar) or their clients, for the following reasons.They don’t value general experience – if you have more than three strings to your bow, then you are too generalist.They don’t value SME experience. The guy that runs mortgage processing at Barclays wants to be advised by the slightly older guy that used to run mortgage processing at Abbey (for example),not someone that owned there own SME.They don’t value entrepreneurshipEven though they complain that consultants do “do anything”, most clients hire consultants to bring structure to a project – not to JFDI.

terrible typing and spelling in my message above!

I'm with Dave, I smell a troll. Or an attention seeker.As a recruiter (in-house) executive level, I would seriously smell a rat with you mister. 45 branches, 600 staff, sounds like a serious nest egg.Yeah mate, come work for me, pack yer suitcase, yer off to the arrse end of Pretoria tomorrow, cattle class, one family ticket every month. Tch tch tch. Pull the other one.

Shoe Polisher?My original post was vague purposely because I didn't want to get pushed around, rather ask questions on what I thought was a professional forum to seek information. However, I was "encouraged" to provide more info, which I did in an effort to get some insight. Isn't that the way to go given the questions asked??I am a women, not a Mister. Yes the company really did have over 600 employees, 45 branches, wholesale, retail, third-party and a whole loan purchase division (it was sold, thank you). Yes I was the owner and I am no troll. As hard as it is to believe, a women can be successful in any business given a fair shake. Since I didn't ask anyone for a job, send shameful pics or give out my number, you might have just come to the conclusion I really did need help.I didn't come one here to have a pat on my back, I wanted to know how to change careers. Its recruiters like you and your buddy that make your industry impossible. There are some really helpful things I got from "exposing" myself. I did apply to EY as suggested and many others and I have an interview (but not telling you with who so you can crush my spirit). I would send you the link to my professional profile to prove my story, but you probably wouldn't believe it anyway. Many thanks to the guys who gave me ligit advice, it helped. Now I will depart this site and sign my name as I have no shame. I hope you open your mind, you could be missing some great talent because you ASSuMEd. ps: If you worked for me, I'd fire you.Cheers,Susan M.

Hi everyone. This thread caught my interest because I'm also considering a move. I have run my own business and which now operates in 30 different industries and employs around 20,000 people internationally. I am interested in moving into Strategy Consulting and was wondering if you have any tips as to what the Big 4 might be looking for in a hopeful candidate? Any tips to help me get into the Big 4 (SC level or above) would be appreciated. Many thanks.p.s. My friend Bill Gates is also considering a similar move so I will point him in the direction of this forum. Thanks guys!

Dear Susan, Consultants, past, present, and wanna-be consultants here are just jealous with you. Don't take it personally, they'd be jealous with anyone with entrepreneurial skills, or anyone capable of running a business of whatever kind. Its one of the many things consultants simply can't do. :) :)

Susan the Troll,Let me make this absolutely clear: I have absolutely no prejudice towards your gender and I am not going to quanfity or justify my point or argument further.Fire me? Hmmm..I doubt it.

Would firing a Polisher lead to a claim for racial discrimination?

I want to fire my shoe polisher.