Manager-level hires at MBB / Tier-2 in London

Question

Dear Community,

I would like to ask for your view on my situation, which is the following.

My current situation:

I am a Managing Consultant at a management consulting firm (not MBB or Tier-2), with a total of 7 years of Consulting experience, 10 years of overall work experience. I am somewhat of a generalist, though I have some varying degree of specialization in two industries: transportation and banking. I am currently based in an EU country but I do not hold any UK pre-settlement or anything that would allow me to work without a sponsor.

My objective:

I am planning a move to the UK and would like to keep working in consulting in London if possible. I know manager-level entries are somewhat less spoken about in general and I see some ambiguity regarding this potential move. The move is not urgent, so I am open to trying and applying and do interviews if needed even for longer periods.

My questions:

Do MBBs or Tier-2 consulting firms even hire externally for Manager-level (in London)?
What about boutique-level firms or in-house consulting firms (in London)?
If so, how much different is the hiring process or the interview vs entry-level?
Is there anything you can suggest I do to keep some competitive edge, given that I am of course less competitive due to the fact that I need a visa sponsorship which is additional admin and cost?
What is the current state of the consulting job market in the UK (or more specifically in London area) and what directions is it heading towards? (I am thinking about e.g. how saturated is the market, esp. with the settlement-related rules that are changing recently)

I am thankful for any insights you can share with me on the questions above. Many thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Hi! Happy to give you my view on questions 1-4, based on what I have seen for senior lateral hires at BCG, while deferring question 5 to people closer to the current state of the UK/London market:

Yes, MBB and Tier-2 do hire externally at Manager level. Experienced-hire (or "industry hire") entry at EM/PL/Manager level is a real channel, just lower volume and less visible than campus recruiting, which is why it feels under-discussed.
Boutiques and in-house are worth running in parallel rather than as a fallback. They are more varied, the bar is typically lower, and some weigh sector expertise over pure case performance.
Same building blocks as entry-level (case plus fit), but the bar shifts. At Manager level they are not testing whether you can structure a framework, they are testing whether they can put you in front of a client and on top of a team next month. Expect more judgment-led cases, deeper probing on how you actually led projects and managed clients. There can also be meaningful variation by office: in Spain, for example, the final round is a panel with partners where you present a project you ran in the past and field any questions on it, while in other offices the final round is the standard fit plus case.
The visa point is the real variable, and the way you offset it is by not being a generalist they could hire locally without the hassle. Your edge is specialisation: transportation and banking are concrete sectors a firm will pay the admin cost to bring in, especially where a specific practice has a gap. It may even be worth picking one of the two sectors to lead with, to make for a sharper, more memorable case. Referrals matter more than usual here too, to get past the first screening.

The move is very doable with the right positioning, so take your time and target deliberately. Hope it helps, feel free to drop me a message if you want to go deeper on any of these, and good luck with the move!