careernav.

Leading Companies & Markets

Consulting is a great introduction to the world of business. While consultants often experience intense workloads and hours, the work can be rewarding in many ways. It can offer the opportunity for travel, work variety, high salaries and bonuses. Some of the best global firms are in Boston, San Francisco and New York - all cities attractive to young graduates.

In Australia there are selective opportunities for employment and project work. It is common to work for a management consulting firm, which will give you the security of ongoing clients and projects. Management consulting firms can be large with an extensive range of services and specialities, or they can be smaller and offer specialist advice, skills and industry knowledge, aiming for a niche market.

Some of the better known firms include McKinsey & Company, Boston Consulting Group, Bain & Company, Booz & Company, AT Kearney and Accenture.  The top accounting firms (PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, KPMG) also have consulting arms.  Other firms have prospered as a result of a particular philosophy (LEK, Marakon), measurement discipline (SpencerStuart, Proudfoot, Mercer) or system / outsourcing expertise (Capgemini, IBM).  However, there are literally thousands of consulting firms, many that were originally founded by alumni of the top firms.

Once you have gained enough experience and knowledge, you may choose to start your own consulting business. You invariably will start with a select few but well serviced clients and like all small businesses, will need a focus on business development, cashflow and sufficient working capital.

Career opportunities are expected to grow for management consultants, due to corporations and governments increasingly needing the advice of experts to solve their problems. Due to the globalization of businesses, and advancements in technologies and management practices, competition is increasing in the field, both for clients and the best staff.

Environment & Culture

You will spend a considerable amount of your work time on the premises of your client. Whether you are walking around conducting interviews or collecting data, your tasks will vary from one day to the next. Primarily you spend time in an office environment.

You usually follow a standard full-time week, though project deadlines take priority over weekly hours in the major consulting firms, and long hours often result. Young consultants should expect 60 hour weeks as the norm, with harder weeks on occasion.  If you are self-employed, the combination of servicing existing clients, finding new clients and general management of your business will usually have you working evenings and weekends.

Your work will often be driven by deadlines, and so the atmosphere can be stressful and demanding. Consultancy tends to be project-based, so you can expect to work across a wide variety of functions and industries, depending on the current project at hand.

Management consultants are usually intelligent and highly self-motivated, so you are likely to be surrounded by high achievers with have strong academic credentials, quantitative ability, and well developed leadership and teamwork experience. It is common for you to travel to the premises of the current client for the duration of a particular consulting job.