Management Consulting

Crack teams of problem solvers.

Management consultancies are all about trouble-shooting for companies. A small team of consultants will work within a particular firm, for anything from two weeks to a year, to help solve complex business problems that will improve the bottom line.

Most consultants work across multiple industries, offering advice to some of the world's biggest companies in sectors like energy and industrial, consumer and retail, or banking and financial services.

Within financial services, consultants can advise on a whole range of issues, such as developing a growth strategy, portfolio management, enhancing capital ratios or (increasingly) risk management solutions - as well as operational and HR matters.

"The hot topic is helping financial services firms build risk and capital management into the fabric of what they do in a way that arguably hadn't been there in the past," says Patrick Manning, leader in the performance improvement practice and a partner at Bain & Company.

It's big business. Last year global consulting revenues were around $330bn, according to estimates by Plunkett Research. Top firms will bill clients between $300k and $1m a month, says Plunkett, with senior staff charging around $5k a day.

Key players

Roles and career paths

The route up the career path within a management consultancy firm is relatively straightforward. Fresh graduates start out as analysts, before moving up to junior (or associate) consultant, consultant, then case team leader, manager, principal and finally partner.

To make the move up to consultant, firms often require employees to undertake an MBA (usually funded by the firm). However, many management consultancies prefer to recruit people who already have this qualification and then fast-track them to a more senior level.

The analyst role involves a lot of quantitative work, but that's not to say you'll be stuck in the back office trawling through company accounts. You'll be part of a small team, on site within the client's office, performing a role while learning the ropes from more senior staff.

"Junior consultants are the analytical firepower of the team. From the start, they'll be integrated into a project team and be responsible for financial modelling and research, which goes on to provide the fact base the more senior staff then use in their problem solving and solution development for the client," says Catharine Tallantyre, global head of consultant training at Oliver Wyman.

As we said above, the majority of consultancies work across various industries, but you will typically be two to three years into your career before you'll need to specialise.

Pay and rewards

According to the Management Consultancy Association, graduate salaries for consultants in the UK start at 25-30k, but they soon rise.

Bonuses, where present within consulting, are not huge. Junior consultants received an average of 9%, according to Top-Consultant.com, but 50% of respondents didn't receive one at all.

In Germany, the average salary at a junior level (up to two years' experience) is between €44k and €53k, according to figures from www.personalmarkt.de. Partners can earn between €151k and €195k.

Skills and attributes

Rather predictably, consultants look for problem solving skills, and you'll need to be able to demonstrate them from the word go. Bain tells us it interviews on experience and qualifications, but it also uses 'case team' assessments where candidates are expected to find a solution to four or five real business issues. The emphasis is firmly on the latter assessment method.

"We want to see graduates who can show evidence that they are able to crack the most challenging business problems," says Manning. "These are the people our clients want to work with."

There's also the small matter of convincing clients that your solution is the right one.

"We expect our graduate recruits to be numeric and quantitative," says Tallantyre. "But beyond the analytical skills, you need to be able to think logically, express yourself well, have excellent interpersonal skills and understand how to use the data to implement practical solutions for the client."

In any given year, a consultant could be working on multiple projects for various organisations. And, although initial training is given, a lot of the core skills are learnt on the job. You need therefore to be adaptable and quick on the uptake.

The consultancy world is far from 9-5. As well as spending long hours working on large client bids, you'll also spend a lot of time away from home (within companies across Europe). Therefore, you need to be incredibly flexible, as well as energetic and outgoing, to ensure targets are met on time.