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I started Movemeon with Nick because we (and all of our colleagues) were fed up with spam & cold calls from recruitment agencies. There are some good ones out there. But it seemed they were very few and far between.

There are amusing similarities between estate and recruitment agencies. I’ve moved house a few times. Each time I’ve had a good idea of what I’m after. X number of bedrooms. Within Y minutes of these tube stations. Etc. More often than not the agent tries to sell you something that’s not remotely right. Sometimes you even go to do a viewing just to shut them up while knowing full well – from the photos, map or floor plan – that it’s not right.

Same stuff with recruiters. I had an initial meeting (read investing my time despite working 80 hour weeks). I was specific about what I wanted: the size of company, industry, location, nature of the job. Soon after, the same recruiter rings up to pitch the ‘perfect fit’ at a ‘leading company’. Of course, they won’t give you the company name on the phone (you might sidestep them and they won’t get paid). So you go to meet them again. And the company, industry, role and location are nothing like what you’re after. Sound familiar?

Unfortunately, if you're actively looking to move job, recruitment agencies are 1 of the channels that you should use. They do get hold of opportunities. And it’s not inconceivable that 1 of those will be a great match. So how should you work with them? Here are some simple golden rules.

1. Never send them your ‘standard’ CV

There are plenty of agencies out there who simply mass email CVs to as many businesses they can think of. They might find a job on the company’s website, track down the likely hiring manager on LinkedIn, work out an email address and spam your CV across without you knowing. These agencies hope the hiring manager bites (and if your CV is good, they might). They then try to back sell you role despite already having told the hiring manager that you’re super interested.

How do we know this? A number of Movemeon members have applied for a job directly through Movemeon (where all jobs are fully branded). They’ve even had interviews arranged. A few days later an agency contacts them to say that ‘they’re already in the process’ for the role. Despite never having once discussed the opportunity with the candidate. Never mind sought permission to share their CV. Shocking. But true.

2. Only send PDF, tailored CVs referencing a specific opportunity

It’s not good for your personal brand to look uncoordinated (as with the above). Equally, you should always take the opportunity to tailor your CV to specific roles (as a consultant, you’ll have a range of experiences, some of which will be more relevant than others).

To avoid these situations, only send a recruitment agent a CV after they have shared a specific opportunity with you. Write on that CV something similar to: “For circulation with [Company name] in reference to [job title], [date]”. Then PDF the CV and lock it for editing / send read-only.

3. Don’t rely on agencies

An average agency regularly works with 5-10 clients. And generally, it’s only larger corporates that use agencies. You stand a much better chance of discovering & landing your perfect opportunity by being proactive. Define industries (even companies) of interest. Use web platforms (like Movemeon and others) to discover their opportunities. And then apply for them directly. Not only will you find more exciting opportunities, but you will also come across far more authentically interested in the role as you’ve bothered to track it down rather than being put forward. So you’re chances of success go up too.

When you meet an agency for the first time, ask them who their clients are and how many they’ve had. Ask them for a list of jobs they’ve recently placed and the background of the candidates. Ask them to email you following the meeting with a summary of your requirements (so you can check they’ve understood you correctly).

I hope that’s helpful. Don’t avoid using agencies. Just track down the better ones and use them wisely. And then, not as the mainstay of your job search. And if you’re a consultant or alum and would like to use the Movemeon platform to discover opportunities on your own terms, you can register here.

At Movemeon, we connect (ex) consultants and freelancers with job opportunities, advice & events. Register now to view and apply to jobs, for insider advice & networking/industry events.

The Allbright Academy (spearheaded by two of the UK’s most prominent businesswomen, the AllBright Academy teaches female business leaders how to build and grow their own ventures) recently got in touch to ask us to create 2 ‘how to’ videos: the first on when and how to hire and the second on how to create a great team culture. If you’re interested in hiring find out more by contacting us here. Rich (one of our Founders) took the plunge in front of the camera and here’s a summary of what he covered on hiring, including some links to other helpful content. If you’re after his write up on culture, you can find that here.

WHY ME?

For a summary on recruitment, I’m perhaps an odd choice. I don’t have a recruitment or HR background. In fact, movemeon was established to disrupt traditional recruitment. My perspective is one of a Founder of a growing tech business – learnings from growing our own team embellished with our experience partnering 100s of start-ups and global companies. So here’s a step by step list of things to think about as you consider hiring a new employee.

WHEN TO MAKE YOUR FIRST HIRE

There’s a tricky balance to strike here. Don’t hire for the sake of it. But avoid hiring so late that your growth slows down. In a nutshell, hire when you can foresee a lack of skills or capacity that would slow down your growth. And you have the funding to pay their wages!

Before that, put in the very hard yards yourself (as doing more yourself & developing your own skills takes less time in the early stages than hiring & managing others). Your first hire is going to differ depending on the type of business you have. But if you always hire to drive growth, your first hire is going to be filling the gap that is slowing you the most at the time.

Here is some more detailed advice on hiring and engaging top talent – once you make that successful hire.

PERMANENT VS PART-TIME VS FREELANCE VS OUTSOURCE VS INTERNS

All too often Founders default to hiring full time, permanent employees. But that’s the most costly (both in terms of time and money) type of team member you can have (see the write up on culture vis what it takes to create & retain a high performing team).

Start by sketching out a basic organisational structure (i.e, what teams you foresee). Then go through and determine which would genuinely benefit from being full-time employees and which could be part-time/freelance or an intern. Equally, consider outsourcing tasks. This is particularly good for admin, research, finance, simple web development, etc. Some things are better and cheaper done by 3rd parties, either at home or overseas. – For an insight into the increasing quality of freelancers, take a look at this article.– See why we predict a further increase in the use of freelancers in this article.

CREATING A JOB DESCRIPTION

This sounds simple but isn’t, mainly because most of the job descriptions you’ll have experienced in the past (particularly if they were with big companies) are poorly written. The key is to put yourself in your candidate’s shoes. A great job description entices people to apply. It’s a piece of marketing (picture things you buy and the marketing campaigns behind them). It starts with a compelling job title & one-line overview. And is followed by a one-paragraph ‘best bits’ summary and then the detail. The main things people miss are:

• you and your current team (the most common reason people enjoy their work is that they like the people they work with);
• the vision for your business (most Founders talk too much about historical achievements, funds raised, etc, and not enough about the future – which is the part that this employee will contribute to);
• the nice to haves vs the must-haves (be strict – if you make a massively long list of must-haves, it will rule too many people out. Better to speak with a wider audience and screen people out early in the interview process if needed).

– We describe how to write a great job description here.
– In this article, we outline why candidate experience matters.

WHERE TO ADVERTISE

Obviously, this very much depends on the role and on your budget. The fact is that very early-stage businesses can’t spend on advertisement. So you may want to focus on free publicity. Here are some channels that we’ve used:

1. University careers sites (great for junior hires at grad/intern/1st job move level), 
2. Angelist/Work in startups (and other free start-up focused sites),
3. personal networks, 
4. social media (your own and your company’s),
5. ask for a free trial.

If you are paying to advertise, favour sites where you pay only on results rather than upfront – be that a % of fee only if you hire (in which case it’s only a small incremental cost on top of the total cost of employing & massive ROI if that employee proves instrumental in your growth). For instance, movemeon has a success fee model of 15% of basic salary (which is about half the cost of a traditional recruiter focused on strategic/commercial hires). If you are going the agency route, make sure you read this article on working with recruitment agencies.

Interested in hiring? Get in touch today

INTERVIEW PROCESS

Our golden rule is that it’s better to do a 15-minute video call with 10-15 candidates than decide on 4-5 candidates to meet in person purely on the basis of the paper. Experience shows that very rarely do your favourites ‘on paper’ remain the front-runners after an initial chat.Be clear from the start as to what your interview process will involve. Our interview process is 4 stages:

1. video chat (30 mins max);
2. in-person interview (1 hour);
3. case study interview (2 hours and involving them talking you through their thoughts to a problem you’ve sent them in advance;
4. social setting – lunch, meet the team etc;
5. throughout this, we always give feedback as to why someone isn’t progressing to the next round (and it’s almost always appreciated).

Lastly, make sure you set aside enough time to get through the process quickly. The best candidates always have irons in the fire and we’ve witnessed so many companies miss out because they have been too slow to complete their interviews and the candidate has taken another job in the meantime. And if you need this person ASAP, don’t forget that they’ll probably have a notice period too (typically at least 1 month but up to 6+ for senior hires). All told, the average process for a permanent hire takes ~4 months from going to market to the candidate starting (clearly the process is far quicker for freelance hires or graduates/others who don’t have a notice period).– For the importance of phone/video interviews & how to make them successful for recruitment, read this article. – For a more detailed account of what we learnt from recruiting for movemeon, click here.

GETTING AN OFFER ACCEPTED

If you are clear from the start as to what your budget is, you are much more likely to have an offer accepted. Our data shows that you are 400% more likely to hire first time round if you specify the ballpark compensation in the job description. Never finish your first round (in our case, the video chat) without establishing a candidate’s expectations and current earnings. There’s no point trying to hire someone you can’t afford and it’s a hugely frustrating waste of time if you only work that out at the end of the process.

In order to entice senior hires, you may need to create a share options scheme. More junior hires tend to value basic salary, bonus and perks more. Ideally link bonus very clearly to company and personal performance; clearly rewarding those who smash it out of the park. If you don’t have loads of cash, don’t worry. Start-ups are very popular so you should be able to factor that into what you have to pay. Also, employees value perks and a thoughtful environment as much as they value pay. So be very conscious about putting all of these in place (holidays, flexible working, pension, snacks, team drinks, team away time, etc, etc). At movemeon, we go on a yearly company holiday. We described its benefits for business performance and morale here.

Last but not least, be able to talk about progression. If the business continues to grow and this person performs well, what could their role (and team) look like a year or two down the line? And how might their compensation shift?– We took a closer look at the best holiday allowances here.– Here we outline the benefits of flexible working.

CONTRACTING

Make sure that you have a robust employment contract and be mindful of appendices designed to offer you and your business necessary protection if someone leaves (e.g, confidentiality, restrictive covenants vis joining setting up a competitive business).  There are plenty of inexpensive disruptive law firms focused on start-ups. And also platforms that will look after your HR tasks (contracts, staff handbook, payroll, pension, etc) as well as your accounting tasks and statutory returns.

ONBOARDING

When a new team member joins, you need them to be as impactful as possible as quickly as possible. This takes more thought than you first realise. So think through:

• what they and you can sort in advance (useful background reading, PAYE admin, IT equipment, system set up);
• plan for week 1 (a combination of introductory sessions and learning through doing).

When you’re doing this thinking, try to construct and codify a process that you can repeat for all new joiners. That way you’re not having to reinvent the wheel every time and can have some template emails and documents saved.

At Movemeon, we connect (ex) consultants and freelancers with tailored job opportunities, industry insight & events. Register now to view and apply to jobs and for networking and events.

After spending 5 years working at Deloitte, Al Dea made the move from management consulting to become a Product Marketer at a tech company. In addition to working as a Product Marketing Manager, Al also is a career coach, he runs CareerSchooled, a career advice blog, and advises professionals including many consultants on career changes of their own.

This article is based on the main changes that he found when moving from consulting to an industry role. 

AUTONOMY

In consulting, the work I had to do was dictated by the client, the project scope and more specifically the deliverables that were signed in the Statement of Work. There were clear deadlines and while there was some leeway in the team.

As a Product Marketing Manager in industry while I still have deadlines (ex: a product launch, customer presentation, training for salespeople) there’s also a lot of time when I have some flexibility and autonomy over the work I do. For instance, right now I have a few things that I have to do, but I also have some flexibility to pick certainly projects that I want to do, and I didn’t really have that choice when I worked in consulting.

CLIENT SERVICE

When you work in client service, if the client says jump, you say “how high?” This often meant racing to finish deliverables to hit deadlines, or working over the weekend to finish off a proposal/pitch to help a partner win new business.

The shift to industry has taken some of the daily pressure of this client service demands – and while I still do have some customer-facing responsibilities, there are fewer pressures to bend over backwards on a daily basis. Sure, there are still fire drills and things that unexpectedly come up, but it’s not necessarily baked into every single day of work.

DIVERSITY IN BACKGROUNDS

When you work at a consulting firm, you work with pretty much everyone who is a consultant. Sure there is difference and diversity but to a great extent, you are all cut from the same cloth. Working in industry I’ve found there to be a lot more diversity in terms of not only the roles but the mindset and skills of the people who have those roles or functions.

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If you’re interested in hearing more from Al, please check out his website, connect with him on social media, learn more about his career coaching services.

Francesco, a former Pediatric Neurosurgeon, left his clinical post in 2010 to join McKinsey as a Consultant. In his near four years at McKinsey, he consulted for Pharmaceutical and medical device companies, health organisations, authorities and several hospitals across Europe, the US and the Middle East.

Since leaving McKinsey in 2014, Francesco moved to Dubai, founded a healthcare consulting company, accepted a director role for a large hospital group and created GulfSpecialists.com a marketplace platform helping doctors and other international healthcare professionals find the right work opportunities in the Gulf countries.

At Movemeon, we connect (ex) consultants and freelancers with job opportunities, advice & events. Register now to view and apply to jobs, for insider advice & networking / industry events.

“That’s it, I quit!” Almost every doctor has at some point said they wanted to leave the medical profession. This is sometimes said out of stress or fatigue, sometimes out of a longstanding professional dissatisfaction, but in the vast majority of cases it does not translate into any concrete action, mainly because the long years of study to become a medical doctor represent a huge sunk cost that people aren’t easily willing to give away to pursue a new professional path. I am one of the few doctors who isn’t working as a doctor.

I changed tracks after getting my medical degree, going through the whole residency and practising neurosurgery for a while before changing. In this blog post, I try to explain the reasons why a medical professional might want to change his/her professional track, and why one might want to become a consultant.

SO WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO LEAVE CLINICAL MEDICINE?

• I don’t love you anymore. The main reason why doctors want to leave medicine is that the passion they had at the beginning of their path has worn off, and they no longer feel excited about what they are doing. I was usually very bored of spending long hours in the surgical theatre and was not feeling inspired by operating anymore. On the other hand, I was usually very satisfied when I could interact with others, develop innovative solutions to problems on the ward, or manage the hospital’s resources. That was an early indicator that surgery was maybe not the path for me, and I was probably more fit for managerial roles. Medical practice is very demanding, and when the passion is gone some serious reflection is needed on what possibly to do instead.

• Oh, the stress! Although it is a common understanding that doctors should be able to cope with emotional stress because of the nature of their job, the medical profession actually has an extremely high rate of burnout. This can be a driver for people to leave clinical practice. (Spoiler alert: it doesn’t always get better in consulting.)

• Are you in it for the money? Being a doctor will normally give a decent earning more or less across the globe, but the financial implications of being a doctor vary widely depending on which geography one is practising in. Usually, a doctor’s pay level plateaus relatively early in the career and increments very slowly until very senior positions, so some medics seeking better compensation prefer to look elsewhere.

As a result of these drivers, there is an increasing number of medical doctors who choose to leave clinical practice and start different jobs. Although consulting might not be right for everyone who wishes to leave clinical practice, I personally found some very good reasons to become a consultant.

• Keeping your options open. When I left neurosurgery I did not know what I wanted to be “when I grew up”. I felt I couldn’t commit just yet to a long-term profession, but I wanted to stay busy until I found the right career choice for me. Consulting is a very good way to postpone any long-term career decision, acquire diverse skills, increase one’s network, see what’s available out there, and it even looks good on your CV!

• In what did you graduate again? A major advantage of consulting is that you don’t need any specific educational background to apply. Repositioning yourself professionally can be quite daunting when you’ve only done medicine for the previous twelve years. Although mainly seeking people with a business background, the largest consulting firms are open to people of all educational and professional backgrounds, and value the diversity this brings to the company. That is hugely important if you are looking to move away from the only thing you ever studied or worked in. Not to mention that your medical experience is a great asset if you end up consulting in the healthcare sector, which is usually the case.

• Although saying one is a consultant doesn’t quite achieve the same effect at parties as to when you “drop the brain surgery bomb” (wink-wink – just kidding) consulting is widely considered as a prestigious profession to be in, especially if you are working for one of the global blue-chip consulting companies. When you’re looking for your first landing spot after medicine, going into something that can be considered at par with your previous job by the people looking at your CV is very important.

• The learning and challenges. In my case, the moment I actually decided to leave surgery was when I realized I wasn’t learning in my job as much as I was learning in previous years studying for it. Consulting is a true goldmine of learning opportunities. The ever-changing business environment to which you are exposed, the different projects, problems and colleagues provide a wealth of opportunities to learn.

• Career growth. Going into consulting for a while AND having deep sector knowledge in the medical field can put you in a very narrow sweet spot to compete for senior positions when you decide to leave consulting for a different industry.

• Click here for more of our candidate's unique career journeys
• From Consulting to Industry
• From the Police to Consulting to Industry

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If you haven’t spent the time thinking about what you’re good at and what you really want in your next role, how can you know what type of job you’re looking for? Here are some great practical tips to get you thinking about what you should be looking for in your next career move.

Dr Lindsay Joyce is an HCPC registered psychologist specialising in bringing psychological theory to work-place contexts. You can find out more about her work here. In this blog article, she helps you work out how to reach fulfilment in work.

MOVING JOBS

Moving jobs or changing career is scary at the best of times, but when you know you want a change yet aren’t sure what you want, it can be terrifying. In this first section of my blog, we are going to talk about insight, and how a little bit of self-evaluation can be endlessly helpful in the long run.

If you are looking at movemeon then I am assuming that you are a successful graduate from a top university with a few years of a challenging career under your belt. You will be used to setting goals and achieving them, if not excelling them. You will be a motivated individual, who probably seeks achievement in your personal life as well, be it through competitive sport, a strict exercise regime or dedication to a hobby. However, all of these accomplishments don’t necessarily lead towards fulfilment and contentment.

PURPOSE DRIVEN CAREER

Consider yourself a racehorse that has exploded out of the start gate, leading the pack and clearing hurdles consistently. However, if you’ll forgive me the analogy a little longer, you may suddenly be unsure that this is a race that you want to win, or you may have noticed that the other horses racing with you have left the track and are charging towards other, more interesting finish lines. In order to be motivated to succeed, you need to be sure that you are racing towards something that you believe and have an interest in.

This is where insight becomes a valuable tool. If you know yourself well – your strengths and your weaknesses – then you can begin to evaluate various career paths on their merits and their worth to you as an individual. This is a different process from achieving goals because they are expected of you, or because your peers are all doing the same thing.

EXPLORING YOUR INSIGHT – DO YOU HAVE IT? CAN YOU FIND IT? TRY THESE EXERCISES:

1. Write a list of your five strengths and at least two of your weaknesses – show them to someone who knows you well; do they agree with you? If not then why not?
   
2. Ask some of your close friends and family to compile a list of your strengths and weaknesses. Do you agree with what they are saying about you? Try not to become defensive – perhaps leave yourself an hour or two between reading their lists and discussing them. Can you see any patterns in the strengths or weaknesses they have identified?
   
3. Think about a few times in your life when you have felt most satisfied and engaged – try to identify what you were enjoying about these activities and note these ideas down. Again, do you see any recurring patterns – perhaps a sense of control, maybe you enjoyed challenging conversations with new people?
   
4. If you are still completely stuck, then there are some online tools which can help. Seminal psychologist Martin Seligman has set up a website called ‘Authentic Happiness’, which has some psychologically valid questionnaires to help you identify your key strengths – try the ‘VIA Survey of Character Strengths’. All the tools are free, although they do ask you to register and give consent to use them.

These exercises should have armed you with a little more knowledge about yourself and your strengths and weaknesses. However, it is useful to note here that this is not a CV-writing exercise.

You need to be really honest with yourself about your character traits – just because you would write ‘strong leadership potential’ on your CV doesn’t mean this is necessarily one of your greatest strengths. The problem with true insight is that it’s not necessarily what you want to hear, or what you want others to know; however, if you are able to play to your strengths, not only will you be happier, but you’re more likely to be successful. You mustn’t be judgemental about your strengths and weaknesses – that’s being skilled at self-criticism rather than insight.

In the next week or so, try to look at new jobs and career paths honestly to see if they would match your strengths and weaknesses. You’ll find it to be a satisfyingly proactive and clarifying step.

Movemeon: jobs, insight, events and career tips for (ex-)consultants and freelancers. Click here to create a free account and access all our opportunities.

There are lots of reasons people leave consulting. When we polled our members, the top 3 were: working unsustainable hours, advising rather than doing and spending too much time travelling away from family & friends. In another poll, we also found out what the dream post-consulting industry. 

But when people leave, there are often things they miss. Some go back. For others who decide to move to an industry role, for example, the cons still outweigh the pros (particularly for those who only went into consulting as a means to an end). Here are the things most people seem to mention that they miss the most*

(*please pardon the generalisation. Obviously, there will be plenty of exceptions!)

1. The consistently high calibre of colleagues
2. The variety of work
3. The problem solving – big juicy ones
4. The expenses (posh dinners, reward points, taxis & air miles)
5. The travel (some are great; just not quite that much!)

So if you’re leaving consulting or know that you’ll leave eventually, take time to appreciate all the things you’re likely to miss when you’re gone!

Related topics:

• What are the benefits of staying in consulting? 
• Which pays best? Staying in consulting or leaving? 
• The future of consulting in the digital age 

In this article, we look through four trends that we’ve seen over the past few years:

- The changing needs of clients
- Increased hiring of consultants in-house
- The growth of large “one-stop-shop players”
- The rise of smaller, more flexible consulting boutiques.

Finally, we look at the immediate reactions from strategy firms, as well as what we think is going to be required for the industry to avoid Levitt’s “Marketing Myopia”. Strategy firms have clearly started to adapt, but in an increasingly digital world, they need to think of delivery models beyond just throwing smart people and industry experience at the problem. To do this, they must fully embrace technology.

Finally, we look at the immediate reactions from strategy firms, as well as what we think is going to be required for the industry to avoid Levitt’s “Marketing Myopia”. Strategy firms have clearly started to adapt, but in an increasingly digital world, they need to think of delivery models beyond just throwing smart people and industry experience at the problem. To do this, they must fully embrace technology.

“MARKETING MYOPIA”

On the first day of our consulting “mini-MBA”, we were taught about marketing myopia – a term coined by Theodore Levitt. It explains the pitfalls of focusing on marketing strictly from the standpoint of selling a specific product rather than from the standpoint of fulfilling customer needs.

At some point in its development, every industry can be considered a growth industry, based on the apparent superiority of its product. But in case after case, industries have fallen under the shadow of mismanagement. What usually gets emphasized is selling, not marketing. This is a mistake, since selling focuses on the needs of the seller, while marketing concentrates on the needs of the buyer.

As I re-read this paragraph now, I can’t help but feel it’s a message to be heeded by strategy consulting firms. Having helped their clients to overcome marketing myopia for years, there are some strong indicators that the early “disruption” we’ve seen in consulting, has only just begun.

THE CHANGING CLIENT NEEDS

As the world’s online interactions continue to grow, the needs of a large proportion of clients have changed.

• Firstly, the prevalence of data has changed clients’ needs. Previously, strategy consultancies were able to bring data from a market to a client. Insightful analysis of this would help identify trends and potential drivers of future change. Now, this data is not only far more readily available, but there are also far more internal data, which is often even more pertinent.

• Secondly, companies have built up more in-house skills and tools. They are becoming more effective in using their data. Products are now built around data, rather than seeing what data comes out as they sell their products/ services. This helps companies to constantly iterate and evolve. Fast-growing tech corporates are constantly iterating strategies, at all levels in the business, directly as a consequence of better data and insight.

• Thirdly, companies with a large online presence face very different challenges to more traditional industries. New worlds of UX, product management and Big Data are suddenly of critical focus.

• Finally, with the constant threat of recession and low levels of GDP growth, clients are more budget constrained than previously. In years gone by, the promise of 10x Return on Investment was sufficient to defend the large up-front fees. However, with more constraints, clients are starting to look for more flexible models that can be delivered at a lower price.

INCREASED HIRING OF CONSULTANTS IN-HOUSE

There’s always been a steady flow of consultants into the “strategy” teams of corporates. In fact, most graduates choose consultancy to “open doors” in industry. Traditionally, consultants would make their first step into a strategic role, and then look to move into a commercial role when they understand the business fully and had built up the necessary stakeholder network.

However, what’s starting to change is consultants are being hired into non-strategy roles. As the skills of consultants (analytics; insight; communication to senior-level stakeholders) become required in more areas of the business, consultants are increasingly being hired into commercial/ operational roles straight out of consulting. Equally, as consultancy becomes more functionally specialized (i.e., supply chain consultants; tech strategy consultants), there are more obvious entry points.

This is a self-fulfilling prophecy: as more consultants are in these teams, they look to hire “what they know” (i.e., more consultants). As numbers increase, not only is there less “need” for external consultants, there is also more competition for this talent.

THE GROWTH OF LARGE ONE-STOP-SHOP ADVISORS

The largest growing strategy firms over the past few years have been at the Big 4. Through the acquisition, and hiring senior partners, they are building strategy teams out of alumni from the familiar strategy brands (i.e., hiring from McKinsey, BCG, Bain, Oliver Wyman, LEK; acquisitions of Booz and Company (PWC) and Monitor (Deloitte)).

The Big Four are able to boast an impressive point of difference: these strong strategic minds are backed up with scale. On the functional side, they become a one-stop-shop: use them as a trusted advisor across accounting, tax, legal, strategy and operations/ implementation consulting. This scale is positioned as not only offering a more connected, end-to-end solution but also as providing large savings in cost.

On the people side, their immense size means they have more flexibility. They can offer smaller projects, and more flexible models – as capacity can be more easily managed.

THE SMALLER, MORE FLEXIBLE BOUTIQUES AND FREELANCERS

The other exciting development is the rise of freelancers and small two to three-person boutiques. This has become a popular career choice, offering more flexibility and independence. At one end you have boutiques, who staff whole teams and are positioned as direct competitors of the strategy firms. What’s less publicized is the smaller boutiques and freelancers.

At Movemeon, we are seeing a lot of interest in either a junior manager resource (stand-alone; good stakeholder management skills) or putting together small teams (manager and two analysts) to deliver strategic projects. Whilst the cost of these projects might appear very different to a traditional strategy consulting project, the set-up and delivery might not be all that different. While it’s unlikely these small boutiques/ freelancers will attack the core of strategy consulting work (i.e., critical Board decisions), the periphery of work that has slowly built up over the years is very much in danger from this more flexible, cost-effective model.

HOW ARE STRATEGY FIRMS ADAPTING

There are some notable reactions to the changes in the market. Not only are we seeing a new series of business innovation models, but consulting firms are also looking at new ways to have access to a larger, more flexible workforce.

The new innovation business models were well documented in the HBR article “Consulting on the cusp of disruption” in October 2013. This trend has continued, with new implementation, operations, analytics, benchmarking “arms” to the top strategy firms. Typically these are operating under the strategy brand name (i.e., McKinsey Solutions; McKinsey Implementation), but there are a few subsidiaries (i.e., Finalta is a subsidiary of McKinsey focused on benchmarking in FS). These are going to continue to develop, and am sure are a large part of the disruption we are going to see.

However more recently, another interesting trend has occurred. Consultancies are starting to respond to the requirement for more flexible delivery models. No longer is the “manager plus 2” model as relevant to some situations. Clients need longer-term engagements, typically for less intense periods. As the work becomes more functionally based, it also becomes more entrenched with the business. As such, things will move more slowly. No longer is delivery seen as buy-in from the excess – it’s delivering change to these functional areas, which will always take longer to embed.

We’ve noticed two interesting trends in consultancies looking to offer more flexibility:

• More flexible employment. The top-tier strategy firms are looking for innovative ways to keep talent. We’ve had a number of very interesting discussions around how consulting can become more flexible – this is to counteract losing great talent as a result of the lifestyle. Whether the 3-day working weeks or 7 months on 5 months off type models have more traction, will be interesting to see.

• Freelancer pools. We’ve seen the strategy firms look to introduce “surge capacity”. At Movemeon we are currently working with 7 strategy firms to help them build “freelance pools”. These are pools of strategy consulting alumni, who are now freelance. This not only allows these firms to better manage utilization, but it also allows them to provide more flexible models of delivery to clients (i.e., longer-term; lower touch). This has traditionally been very hard to offer unless you have the scale of the Big 4.

CUSP OF DISRUPTION – WHAT DOES THE FUTURE FOR STRATEGY CONSULTANCIES HOLD?

Consultancies grew rapidly over the past two decades. As a result, the share of work that is classic strategy has been steadily decreasing and is now about 20%, down from 60% to 70% some 30 years ago, according to Tom Rodenhauser, the managing director of advisory services at Kennedy Consulting Research & Advisory (Consulting on Cusp of Disruption, HBR). If strategy consultancies are going to keep their current scale, they need to innovate to keep this non “classic-strategy” periphery.

Consulting has been on the cusp of disruption for two years now. Whilst there are clearly changes afoot, we think this is just the beginning. We expect to see further hollowing of the centre, with more specialized firms/ freelancers and continued consolidation of larger firms. We are also expecting freelance to continue its growth, and will increasingly take the more peripheral work from the larger consultancies.

However, for us, the most important change that needs to happen is more flexibility in delivery. Clients needs have changed. Whilst steps are being made to offer more than just traditional consulting teams – there needs to be more innovation. Consulting needs to move away from smart people helping to solve problems and embrace more technology – the ability to provide products for their clients to provide them with solutions to their problems.

Strategy consultancies can keep the “periphery” (non-classic strategy work) they have grown over the past few decades, by providing “products” that serve their clients over the long-term. Strategic advice can then take the form of shorter projects focused on solving particularly thorny issues. Given the exciting innovation and number of startups in the space, expect some acquisitions in the not too far future. Consultancies will start to see innovative products not only as high-margin delivery lines but as critical to continuing to provide their high-end advice.

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CEOs of many leading companies employ a ‘Strategic Assistant’ as a right-hand. They are the CEO’s eyes, ears and problem-solver across the business. It’s a very popular role for consultants as a stepping stone into industry and a seniority accelerator in that company.
This sounds like a fascinating role – but it’s difficult to picture exactly what it entails and therefore whether it might be a good option for you.

Fear not – help is on hand! We’ve been busy interviewing successful young professionals who are currently in this job. We’ll publish a series of articles in which they will bring the role – good bits and bad bits – to life.

For this, our second article in the series, we’ve interviewed the Strategic Assistant to the CEO for one of the UK’s largest retailers.

WHAT DOES YOUR ROLE AS STRATEGIC ASSISTANT TO THE CEO ENTAIL?

Four areas of focus:

• Analysing business performance (e.g. analysing drivers of an underperforming category
• Assessing strategic opportunities (e.g. analysing and scoping a new corporate initiative
• Supporting the business planning process (e.g. coordinating the development of the annual business plan)
• Structuring high-impact and creative communications (e.g. writing analyst presentations for external results, preparing keynote presentations for internal conferences)

WHAT COMPETENCIES/STRENGTHS ARE MOST HELPFUL IN THE ROLE?

The required skill set is similar to that of a strategy consultant; however, there is a particularly high requirement for strong communication skills and creativity as, in addition to strategic and performance analytics, the role supports the CEO and Executive team in engaging with multiple external and internal stakeholders.

The core competencies/strengths which are helpful in the role are:

• Creative thinking
• Great at building professional relationships across all levels of the organisation
• Highly analytical and structured
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Understanding of accounting/corporate finance

WHAT DO YOU LIKE MOST / LEAST ABOUT THE ROLE?

The most attractive parts of the role are:

• Variety
• Exposure to priority business issues
• Opportunity to learn from a senior executive team

The least attractive parts of the role are:

• There is no responsibility for a budget or a team
• There is limited opportunity to see projects through to completion – initiatives kicked off by the CEO’s office are typically handed over to the relevant business lead after diagnosing and scoping and phases

WHAT OPPORTUNITIES HAS / WILL THE ROLE OPEN UP FOR YOU?  

The role has been a fantastic opportunity to build an understanding of how an FTSE 50 business functions and how senior executives operate.  It has enabled me to become familiar with the major initiatives and performance drivers in the business and to build a strong network within the organisation.   It has the potential to be a great career stepping stone into an exciting operational role within the business.

It has been a chance to refine the skills I developed as a consultant and complement this with deeper exposure to the operations of a major corporate, rather than to learn a radically different skill set.

WHAT WOULD BE YOUR ADVICE FOR ANYONE CONSIDERING THE ROLE?

The role is essentially a career stepping stone lasting 12 to 24 months – it is not an end in itself.  Consequently, make sure it is a stepping stone to somewhere you want to go.  Make sure you’re excited by the industry and the business you’ll be working in and can see yourself working in the sector and ideally the business for the medium to long term.

You must be able to see yourself working well with the CEO – you’ll only support them effectively if you get along and they’ll only help you access future opportunities if you build a strong relationship.  Working style is clearly a very personal thing, so make sure you see a good fit, otherwise, it will not be good for the CEO and will not be good for you.

It’s a great role but there are always trade-offs – make sure you’re comfortable with them.  If your background is in consulting, the role is less likely to be broadening but will give you a deeper understanding of an industry and the way senior executives operate – you may not learn a lot of new skills but you will have a great experience.  Make sure you’re comfortable with the trade-off compared with say developing finance and valuation skills through a role in PE or banking or team management skills through a line management role.

Movemeon: jobs, insight, events and career tips for (ex-)consultants and freelancers. Click here to create a free account and access all our opportunities.

Consulting firms tend to have pretty simple compensation packages – especially at below Partner level. So if you’re leaving consulting for ‘industry’ what elements of the pay package could be available to you? Or could be open to negotiation?

Consulting firms pay a basic salary and a bonus. Typically at the more junior levels bonuses range from 10-20% perhaps up to 30% for a high performer in a good year for the company. Some of the larger companies have benefits like health care and company pension contributions. Many of the smaller firms don’t even have that. So when one comes to leave consulting, one can be pretty naive as to what other companies may offer. Here are some elements for you to think about and you’ll see that there are plenty of building blocks to consider. The more senior the role you’re taking, the more of these elements are likely to be available and open to negotiation.

Are you looking for a senior role outside of consulting?
Have a look at our live positions

SIGN-ON BONUS/GOLDEN HELLO

Not hugely common but no unheard of particularly if you’re leaving your current company at a time such that you’re sacrificing a bonus that’s only a few months away.

GOLDEN HANDCUFFS

This can take the form of a cash lump sum or stock. The idea is that you only receive it if you stay working for the company for X number of years. Options & company stock (see immediately below) have similar commitment tie-ins.

EQUITY/SHARE OPTIONS

Particularly relevant if you’re joining a growing start-up in a relatively senior position. These generally have vesting periods i.e, you will need to stay with the company for a certain period of time in order for the equity/options to become yours.

COMPANY STOCK

Like options but for larger corporates. The company will give you X number of shares per year (generally X is a multiple of your basic salary). Again, these shares have a vesting period – generally 2 or 3 years – before they are yours and can be sold (or held). In that way, they are commonly referred to as Long Term Incentive Programmes (LTIPs). For very senior positions – like FTSE100 CEOs – the vast majority of annual compensation will be in stock.

SHARE SAVE SCHEMES

These allow you to buy company stock – often at a discount to market value.

BASIC SALARY

Often open to negotiation as companies generally have salary bands for roles dependent on the seniority categorisation (e.g, this Growth Manager role is a level 5 and the basic salary band for level 5 is £72-90k per year). Usually, a company’s opening offer will be towards the bottom of a salary band which leaves them room to move – and room for you to negotiate – while keeping the seniority categorisation the same. Companies will be reluctant to bring you in on a salary right at the top of the band as it gives them no room to give you a pay rise without changing your seniority. So be wary of the knock-on effects of pushing too hard.

BONUS

Tends to be related to individual and company performance. However, some companies will set a cap in your contract at a certain % of basic salary. You may be able to negotiate the cap upwards. And this cap can often be far higher than the 10 or 20% you’re used to, particularly in a company realising aggressive growth targets.

CAR ALLOWANCE

In the UK, most larger firms will be able to pay car allowances. This can often be taken as cash (and can, therefore, be treated as basic salary). Like basic salary, car allowances are often set in bands relating to seniority so you may be able to request an allowance towards the top of your band.

PENSION

Larger companies can offer quite generous pension contributions. It can be hard or even impossible to negotiate an improved contribution but the range could be from:

• the company makes all of the pension contribution (generally a % of your basic salary) and you have the option to contribute also but don’t have to;
• the company will double match your contribution to a certain cap (i.e, if you contribute 4% of your salary, they will put in the equivalent of 8% of your salary);
• the company will match your contribution (i.e, 4%, 4%).

Remember that pension contributions in the UK come out of your salary before tax so will reduce the earnings that you are taxed on.

BENEFITS

There are all sorts of other things that a company can offer you. Some of these will be taxable benefits (i.e, count as something you have to pay tax on) and others not. The list includes life assurance, critical illness cover, private healthcare cover (for you and often for your family), dental care cover, commuter cost loan, season ticket loan, gym membership, cycle to work.

RELOCATION

If you’re being asked to take a job abroad, these are some of the costs that a company may cover:

• your accommodation abroad;
• travel to your new place of work;
• shipping your stuff to your new place of work;
• return trips to your home city (i.e, x number of trips per year);
• private school fees for any children;
• daily per diem on top of your salary to recognise the potential inconvenience of having to relocate (often the per diem amount is negotiable and also relates to an assessment of the risk/comfort of the country you’re relocating to);
• some or even all of your living costs abroad (e.g, utility bills).

CARRY

This is particular to private equity and is effective equity in a portfolio company vesting on sale.

LEADERSHIP COHORT

Although this is not a monetary benefit, it can help your career trajectory. Lots of companies have a “top 100 leaders” or “top 250 leaders” cohort. These cohorts tend to meet once a year or so for group training, networking or conferences. If you’re entering into a manager position, you may be eligible for such a cohort and might want to discuss it after an offer has been made.

Movemeon: jobs, insight, events and career tips for (ex-)consultants and freelancers. Click here to create a free account and access all our opportunities.