Guys,As everyone here seems to be pretty knowledgeable about FS consulting careers, I thought I'd subject myself to your scrutiny. I've got 2 years of consulting experience with two different employers, and have been identified as a bit of a high-flier with both. I'm currently at a Big4 and largely enjoying the work I'm doing, having gone from analyst - senior associate pretty quickly, and now my counselor is suggesting I put myself up for a manager role.Now, in 2 years it's clear you can only get a limited amount of exposure to the markets and different kinds of projects, but I reckon my projects have been pretty good, always showing progression in at least one area, and I'm quite happy about having built some expertise in a few discrete areas.The question is, what's a meaningful way to plan myself for the future. Being pretty ambitious, I don't particularly enjoy staying at a level if I know I'm punching over my weight and could do more. I've also been on a great forward move, and got the impetus to get to manager level ASAP. So that's me. Here's my questions:I - If I now move to manager level, will my opportunities reduce to the few areas of specialisms I've built? If not, how much of lateral move could there be to move from a largely retail banking world into asset management and IB where I have relatively little experience?II - Should I think myself incredibly lucky in having made my move at the right time, now intimating I could work on higher level after less than a full year at my new Big4 job, or might I be able to leverage this in talking about further options in trying to move into industry or possibly more strategy based MC, like MBBB? How would my experience be viewed? And obviously there's the eternal pay question - I've managed to get around 30% increase whenever I've moved jobs - is this likely to continue with each incremental step? Let's say I started around the 30k mark.III - If I choose to stay in Big4 arena, which I am currently enjoying, how does the following feel like? Doable? Year 1 - Analyst. Some general post-grad insurance, little underwriting experienceYear 2 - Associate. Consulting in largely project management space, also some large scale gov projects in FSYear 3 - Manager. I've been told I should go for this in this year's cycle and not wait until next year as already tick many of the boxes.Year 5 - Senior ManagerYear 7 - Partner / DirectorFeel free to slap me down - I know there are quite a number of guys out there who can manage a few bashes across the relatively newbie consultant's neck! For the others, cheers for all your help.

Hi Newbie Big4erIf do you get flamed for your post – ignore it. A bit of arrogance poking through here and there, but what the heck, blind confidence is 50% of your asset base when you are 25. Use it ‘till you lose it.As for your questions:1) Yes, moving to manager will require that you narrow you experience. You cannot waltz into new areas because they are interesting. You will need to lead teams and start to support the winning of new business. Your partners will only have confidence that you achieve this in an area where you have proven expertise. Partners are not known for taking risks on, or indulging the whims of, new managers. Opportunity to move from retail banking into IB or Asset Management is likely to be very limited. The reverse is much easier. The problem is the arrogance of IB folks who look down their nose at RB folks (I have successfully worked in both – I know the pain). If you want to do this, you should make that move while a promising analyst, do 18 months and then move to manager promotion as dual-skilled. 2) Your job move. This is not uncommon. All the MC firms indulge in a spot of “cream stealing”. i.e. about 12-24 months in, they look at who has come out on the top of each grad intake at competitors and the offer a whopping 30% (or a measly £10K is another way to think of it) to encourage the jump. Well done to you, but you cannot now do this again. Jumping early suggests you are the cream, jumping twice suggests you are a tart, and no one wants to hire a tart. I’ll let others comment on the likelihood of a string Big4 consultant making it into strategy/MBB. Can you continue the 30% raises? Why not. I went from 12K in 1989 to 125K in 1999.3) In a word NO. Making partner in seven years from grad intake would be next to impossible in a boom market (and we are not in a boom market). Fast career progression is used at a Big4 firms “ensnare” top performers (believe me, they are “buying” you with promises as we speak), while it is a slow “death march” phase that precedes promotion to partner. This is nothing to do with you – it is how the system works. The highest ratio of revenue generation/salary-out is from the “not quite partner” guys who sell multi million deals and yet earn only £150K-200K. Most Big4 firms will keep these folks at that level for as long as they can without losing them and during this phase most of the guys that enjoyed your early career pace will in fact burn out, and not make partner. As you get older you will realise that one of the most common phrases from mid-level cross-firm transfers is “I was on track to partner”. Bollox. No one truly likely to make partner in the following two years leaves an Mc firm to start again – these were people who knew (or were told) they simply were not going o make it.4) There is a second reason why partner cannot be made in this timeframe. Life. Sorry, but it just gets in the way. The path to partner will kill your internal organs, your stress levels will leave you bald, your “friends” will stab you in the back, you will meet a girl/boy and they might like you to spend more than one weekend in six away from the office, your parents/relatives will become sick/die and you will start to wonder why you are wasting your short life in such a dull way, you will get fed up eating cream and fat in restaurants with clients with bad breath who think its okay to make racist jokes when they’re a bit drunk. Good luck and do take my advice seriously – I was after all, once on track to be partner.

Mr Cool,Some tough but very helpful messages there!Perhaps the most useful piece of advice relates to the immediate moves of manager-level progression: it sounds like to do this at the moment will tie my hands inordinately. Currently doing the CFA, it would be utterly senseless to waste all that effort only to work in retail etc. - so t sounds to me like your advice on keeping where I am at the moment is sage. And I don't mean the delicious condiment.Also helpful to get a bit of realism on 3. There are plenty of examples in my current environment where the guys have done very well to begin with, but then other priorities have emerged to keep them back - some of them external. Perhaps the confusing thing to me is why would someone stay in a position responsible for selling a large amount of the business but being inappropriately compensated for it. Wouldn't the sensible tactic be to get out there and get another offer, leverage it and agree a plan. Should the partnership not execute as planned if performance fits the requirements, the only way up is out... But then again, that's a consultant who's still rather wet behind the ears talking...I'd be interesting getting a little more input - if you can spare the time. Thinking forwards, the next 18months at my level sounds perfectly sensible, and it'll allow me to be a little more strategic about the clients and internal stakeholders (rather than scrambling on the level above). I am, however, wondering where a cycle in the industry would be useful? Once qualifications, SME and pay negotiations are in the place where a move feels right? Or should one take the view that to get a rounded CV this should happen after you've worked on manager level for a few years? Grateful for all your advice,Newbie Big4'er

Hi Newbie Big4erIf you are investing heavily in education that will open up IB work, then moving too quickly up the ladder in retail may be counterproductive. If I was your mentor I would however advise you to make the most of this sacrifice. Ask to meet with one of the senior managers in the IB practice. Explain to them that your current RB boss is suggesting you go for promotion, but as you’re studying with a view to doing at least some work in IB, then you think it might be best to stay at analyst slightly longer. Ask if that would make it easier to get placed on an IB project. Any senior manager worth their salt should interpret your sacrifice of promotion as true commitment to working in IB (as is the course work). In addition to getting their second opinion on the question of promotion now or later, one would hope they will be making a mental note about you. This is NOT toadying. This is NETWORKING, and it is how to keep those 30% raises and your career on track. Do this right and the 18 months you mention will actually only need to be six.f you have already noted the fast-trackers that have gone before you have suddenly slowed down, then you are being admirably perceptive. Why do these people stay? A number of reasons:1) Consultants are often so focussed on making partner that when that target is removed after 10-15 years of trying, they have no idea how to alter their behaviour. It’s like an amputee that keeps on reaching out with the missing arm. Don’t end up like this.2) By the time the slow-down hits them most consultants are in financial hock. Sure, they’ve earned big, but they also have massive mortgages and expensive lifestyles. It’s not easy to downsize your entire life, when it’s been built up on the idea that you’ll be a millionaire one day. It takes a degree of courage most people don’t have. Find it in yourself if you ever need to.3) Skills. Many consultants get a shock when they interview at “client” organisations. They come across as consultants that offer advice but don’t get anything done. The move to a client gets harder with time, as consultants become more focussed on engagement management and less involved in delivery. 4) Self-awareness? Most consultants DON’T have it. Ability to bullshit even oneself? Most consultants DO have it. For every twenty guys at Senior Manager or Director, there are nineteen that still think they might just make partner, even though they’ve been at it twenty years. Kid whoever you like, but never yourself.You mention leverage and this in my opinion is the key to all careers. Someone cleverer than me could write a book on it, but the simple key is to realise that at certain times you are in credit and sometimes you are in debit. When you are in credit, you can make polite and sensible demands and expect them to be met. At other times (just after a promotion for example), you’re in debit and will be expected to deliver for a period of time to pay off that debt, before building up credits again. The plateaus between the credit and debit points get longer as you get more senior, (which is why it is almost impossible to move from Director to Partner after just one year, for example).If you really want to aggressively move your career then the winning strategy is too use credits to get internal promotions and then after the minimum period on the plateau stage, arrange an external move to the next level. Beware, however, that many people have applied this strategy and arrived at Director without ever having delivered any Director level work. This is where they are normally found out. The higher up the tree the monkey climbs the more it shows it’s bare @rse. As for a stint in client organisations, there is no simple answer. To me it’s still a question of leverage. What do you want out of life and when can you go get it without leaving uncashed credits on the table? Personally I’m not an advocate of dipping out of consulting just to dip back in. In the time you’re away learning about a single client, your peers will be moving up the ladder. If on the other hand you get fed up with consulting then do not walk away from it. RUN. Nothing worse than clinging on, moaning about travel, admin, partners, and how boards like this are clogged with PA garbage, all while the beauty of our short lives passes us by.Wow- I’ve written a novella.Good luck

I very rarely hand out compliments, but Mr Cool that post stands out as among the best and most constructive posts I have EVER seen on this forum.Absolutely top drawer.

I second that - should be required reading for any newbie consultants on the boards.

As someone moving onto a Consulting Grad Scheme this Summer I cannot tell you how refreshing it is to read a constructive, positive, practical (and amusing) post that motivates me to go down the path I've just chosen. Thanks to Mr Cool for taking the time to write such a post.

Thanks