Consulting experience

Hi there, 

That's an interesting situation!

To get a factual answer, it might be worth asking your colleagues from within the practice or your mentor from within the firm. These things tend to be quite practice-specific. My expectation is that it won't affect your chances of promotion, but some practices do emphasize a lot that people do engagements mostly within their area and that's what they measure them against. 

That being said, in essence, none of this matters. If you take a long-term view, it's always best to do whatever you are most interested in doing. If you'd like to get a more well-rounded experience you will surely benefit from that and the only risk you have is that of your promotion being delayed. In years from now the delay is not going to make any difference, but the additional experience you gained will. 

Best,

Cristian 

Hi there,

Q: Would this move impair promotion chances given I will be off team for some time? 

I think the best person to talk to about this is your career advisor (or manager or senior colleagues if this is not present). 

It is unlikely they will “officially” say it will impair promotion but you will lose some specialization. This may still be worth if you want to see other things more interesting to you.

Best,

Francesco

If you really and genuinely feel like diversifying and getting that experience, then do it. Dont make it conditional to promotion or getting a better exit- basically a future event which may or may not happen the way you want. Focus on what you want to do and will enjoy doing …and good things will happen.

Hi - great question and congratulations it sounds like things are going well.

There is always a short term trade off between progression and diversification of experience. The path to short term promotion especially at junior levels is almost always doing the same thing over and over again (and hence becoming very good at it).

Long term however, it really depends on where your destination is. Getting a more diverse experience will likely help build your overall toolkit and may also make you better within private equity long term as you will understand the target businesses from a broader perspective.

Consider the trade off and see what works for you - my advice would be to always prioritize long term career growth over short term promotion

Hi there,

I often flip these questions and try to figure out what the asker truly wants/values.

That said, I'm happy to share my personal view here.

Personally, I would do it! In my view, you have plenty of time to specialize, but not much time to be a generalist (as you get older and progress you just have to specialize).

Firstly, it should not affect your career progression (and, honestly, even if it does, who cares? It's 6 months….there is no end destination in life…there's no race)

Secondly, it will indeed make you more rounded, it will be interesting, and, you never know what new passion you might discover.

Go ahead! Just check with HR and people in your firm first to make sure there are no major problems with it. (There shouldn't be)

Hi there,

You have your story straight, which is important. The way you’ve laid out your story clearly serves your employer.

With regards to making it happen and minimizing any downside, you should seek help from your mentors/PD partner/HR (whoever is looking out for your interests).

No doubt there’s a way forward, it sounds like a good idea (I did something very similar at McKinsey).

Best of luck!

Hello!

It all depends with what you want to do next. 

If you like PE and you will be doing something related in the future, there is no point in changing at all. If however, you don´t know and want to keep the doors open, it does make sense to rotate a bit in general consulting (this will also give you info about other industries and roles, and may help you refine the search). 

Hope it helps!

Cheers, 

Clara

Absolutely rotate to experience something different! It will not have any negative impact as long as you run it past staffing and your mentors etc.