Switching between teams/roles in consulting firms

consultingcareer
New answer on Jan 20, 2020
4 Answers
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Anonymous A asked on Jan 15, 2020

How open/supportive are Tier 1/2 consulting firms to their employees moving internally within the firm to other teams/locations?

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Vlad
Expert
replied on Jan 15, 2020
McKinsey / Accenture Alum / Got all BIG3 offers / Harvard Business School

Hi,

  • Switching the geography can be easy or hard. The key criteria - you should have some partner / director in that office to support your move
  • Switching from consulting to internal roles (building the org, acquiring startups, etc) is relatively easy but the roles are quite rare
  • Switching from research to consulting roles - very hard, since you should have a lot of people to support you

Best

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Nathaniel
Expert
replied on Jan 20, 2020
McKinsey | BCG | CERN| University of Cambridge

Hello there,

Moving locations really depends on the dynamics between your current office base and destination. If you are from a global hub, looking to move to a more locally-based office, then it would typically be easier than vice versa.

In moving though, you will need several things as already mentioned in prior answers:

  • Interaction and support from Partners / Directors of destination office
  • Being a high performers with great ratings
  • Alignment of your industrial and functional focus with the destination office
  • Going through the internal movement application which will takes some time

Moving to other teams is typically easier, especially if you are a generalist. Shifting from other roles to generalist is more challenging, with the exception if you are have specialized skills such as advanced analytics, big data, or data science.

Hope it helps.

Kind regards,
​Nathan

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Clara
Expert
Content Creator
replied on Jan 16, 2020
McKinsey | Awarded professor at Master in Management @ IE | MBA at MIT |+180 students coached | Integrated FIT Guide aut

Hello!

It´s possible, and whether it is difficult or easy depends on several factors:

  • Do you know someone in the target office who is willing to do a referral?
  • How fancied is that office globally? (e.g., forget about Singapur, everyone wants to go there)
  • How good is your rating and how tenured are you?
  • Are you an expert?

I know many people who have moved, but not from one month to another.

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

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Antonello
Expert
Content Creator
replied on Jan 15, 2020
McKinsey | NASA | top 10 FT MBA professor for consulting interviews | 6+ years of coaching

Hi,

there is a structured process to change office, many consultants do it every year for personal reasons or to expand the international background. Changing teams instead is different: easy to move from generalist to specific practices, more difficult the opposite, very rare from internal roles to consulting.

Best,

Antonello

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Anonymous A on Jan 15, 2020

Hi Antonello, in your personal experience, how supportive is the org with respect to employees' personal career interests and with genuinely trying to supporting that?

Vlad gave the best answer

Vlad

McKinsey / Accenture Alum / Got all BIG3 offers / Harvard Business School
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