Many young management graduates decide, after their studies, to go into consulting. Paradoxically, many of them enter fully aware that it will be a short career, one to three years, after which they will go somewhere else to do something they really enjoy. Consulting is therefore seen as a default passage, a third cycle allowing both to acquire skills and to develop its value on the labor market.
But concretely, what to expect from a career start in consulting ? What advantages do you hope to derive from it? And in the end, above all: is it worth it?
A well-marked path through the labor market jungle
The attractiveness of the firms owes a great deal to their numerous actions on university campuses. In an environment where growth is generally double-digit and where turnover is very high (a consultant stays on average between 12 and 18 months in a firm), competition is fierce to attract the right profiles. Consulting companies therefore tend to develop their actions to reach young graduates : presence at the school forum, interventions in masters, coaching sessions and preparation for interviews , invitation of students to afterworks or door-to-door evenings. open… It’s an opportunity for them to identify the best profiles and encourage them to apply. For them, consulting offers opportunities for rapid development: a visit to the firm’s website is generally sufficient to see the time horizon for promotions allowing you to gain in salary and responsibilities – often in less than 2 years. The strong growth of firms and the rate of staff turnover offer enormous opportunities to the most motivated.
In exchange, many firms apply – more or less strictly – an up-or-out principle : after a set time, the consultant is either promoted or pushed out. This system avoids any career stagnation.
Valuable famous brands on a CV
Consulting firms also benefit from extremely rewarding brands, because they benefit from the notoriety of their clients, and are recognized as experts in their field of expertise. The presence of a big name on a CV is therefore a valuable asset . Two reasons for this:
first of all, the selection at the entrance to the firms is extremely rigorous, and joining a prestigious firm is both the pledge of a brilliant previous career (CV, university success, associative commitment) and of great practical, human and intellectuals .
In addition, a stint in consulting means acquiring excellent analytical methods , and developing a strong capacity for work and flexibility . The experienced consultant knows how to deal quickly and effectively with complex problems. Highly autonomous, he quickly develops the qualities of a good manager : analytical skills, ability to prioritize… Qualities that are highly valued by recruiters.
Finally, retraining is easy in the small world of ex-consultants : most young recruits only stay two to three years in the firm, the network of alumni, or alumni (pronounced a-loum-naï), is vast and diversified. , which multiplies the number of interesting opportunities.
Varied missions, versatile environment
The missions to which the consultant is assigned are of short duration – a few weeks to a few months. Consulting is therefore one of the careers that allows you to see the greatest number of functions, sectors and companies from the inside in such a short time. From one mission to another, the consultant will not work with the same client, nor in the same type of function (he can go from production to logistics), nor on the same issues (going from the creation of a new product to a cost reduction mission…), or even with the same team or the same manager within the firm! Constantly pushed out of his comfort zone, he learns a lot about how the business world works, because he is very quickly called upon to take action and bring results.
