Landing a job as a senior management consultant is all about having a brilliant business, consulting or industry background; a fabulous CV reflecting all those years of experience; a sparkling skills set; a unique personality and a freshly pressed suit. But for one candidate applying to Axon Global, based in Egham, Surrey, it was the memory of somebody else’s hair clogging up her bathtub that clinched the deal.
“When I interview candidates who have the right credentials, it’s then a case of pushing them to the limits of their comfort zone to see how they react,” says Mark Wyllie, Axon Global’s business unit director, who is responsible for recruiting and overseeing more than 500 consultants. “If I want to understand how somebody handles conflict, I ask them to give me an example of a situation in their personal or professional lives where there was conflict, and how they handled it.
“One interviewee came up with a situation about who kept leaving hair in the bath in her shared flat. I hired her as she gave me a very good answer explaining how she resolved the issue. She first tried to confront it head-on by raising it, getting it on the table and seeing if anybody admitted to being the culprit. When that didn’t work, she resorted to observation, checking after each person had a shower or bath. Once she had factual evidence, she confronted the person based on fact, rather than supposition. Then everything changed — and the tub stayed clean.”
Getting a senior position with a management consultancy isn’t always straightforward. It can be especially tricky for professionals who may have the right skills and experience but are burdened with habits that are difficult to break. Top dogs are often used to delegating rather than doing the work themselves; they can be accustomed to taking charge without considering the needs of the client; and in some cases, they prefer to work on their own than in a team.
“We want them to have the right knowledge and expertise and be good communicators, to get on well with our clients and represent our brand,” says Philip Geiger, chairman of Xayce in Greater Manchester. “Senior people have to be willing to roll their sleeves up.”
Start with the basics. All recruiters say the same thing: to get in the door, you need a decent CV. “The challenge is that CVs only give you a rough idea of the type of work people did — they don’t tell you how they did it,” says Geiger. “For example, a classic phrase on a CV is they ‘led a programme of work’, which is what you want to hear. But that could mean they did the account management and turned up to the occasional board meeting, or that they shaped how the programme was going to be tackled and worked very closely with a number of board members. You can’t find that out from a piece of paper.”
When writing your CV, make sure you are transparent about your contributions to a specific project — if you have sold a project, say so; if you have led or delivered a project, be clear about your contribution to its delivery, describing it in succinct terms. After all, a CV is the first step in gaining an interview, during which obvious protocol should be strictly followed.
It’s vital that you dress for the occasion. “I’ve finished interviews in less than five minutes,” admits Wyllie. “One candidate came in looking completely inappropriate. He had a definite attitude problem, with several earrings in each ear and slits across the knees of his jeans. This was for a senior position, and this candidate was put forward by an agency!”
Assuming you know how to sew up your trousers and take out your earrings, research the consultancy’s profile, client list and recent contracts. And once you’ve asked all the right questions, make sure you take the time to take in the answers.
“The biggest pitfall is not listening,” says Roselyn Cason-Marcus, government services group recruitment manager at PA Consulting Group. Don’t, she says, try to wow recruiters with your exuberance. “We are looking for people with charisma, of course, but you don’t have to be an exciting person to be a great consultant.”
If you’ve passed the CV and interview stages, it still may not be all smooth sailing. More consultancies are relying on assessment centres, where individuals take psychometric tests and are then asked to perform tasks in groups, while future colleagues or trained specialists assess their behaviour.
“The key to success here is to try to be as collegial as possible, listening to others and giving them room to put forward their suggestions,” says Cason-Marcus. “People in group exercises also need to pay attention to their body language in terms of looking enthusiastic, energetic and alert.”
Other assessment centres, which are not always in-house, require applicants to write e-mails, have mock phone conversations and perform other exercises that simulate activities required in the target job. “If you want to hire 10 or 20 people with a similar skills set, assessment centres can be great. It’s insightful to observe their behaviour,” says Wyllie. “Some come to the fore as leaders, some will try to, but just come across as in-your-face personalities. It’s similar to The Apprentice. Some force themselves to be leaders, some are natural-born leaders, others pretend to be.”
Back in the loop
AS Kevin O’Reilly puts it, his career has flip-flopped twice. He started in financial services and capital markets for Lehman Brothers and then Credit Suisse, and was headhunted in 1995 by Booz Allen Hamilton, eventually becoming a partner. From there he joined the management team of Barclays Capital —- but it was only a matter of time before he was lured back into consulting.
“I was at Barclays for four years when I got a number of offers to do other things, the most interesting from Deloitte,” he says. “I wasn’t thinking about going back into consulting at all but a chat turned into a ‘Hey, maybe you’d be interested in Deloitte’. I realised the thing I liked about consulting was building a strategy practice. I would never have realised that Deloitte would want to build up a strategy business had they not had consultations with me. So I ended up back in consulting.”
O’Reilly started at Deloitte last November. He has focused on financial services, mainly in transformational change. In particular, he has concentrated on big changes in the payment infrastructure in banking and changes in derivative products and capabilities, in which he is seeing an “increased interest” from clients.
“There’s a much bigger market out there for informal networking when there is growth opportunity in firms that are not public yet,” he says. “You talk to them and shape what they need and they shape what they need toward you.”
Crossover skills that translate well from industry to consulting are paramount, he says. “Senior executive profiles today are much more multi-skilled. In the past, senior execs didn’t know how to run a computer — somebody else did the typing for them.
“Now we have multi-skilled people, people who understand the advisory service but who can also be analytical and objective, who can do management and get things done.”
Meeting of minds
AFTER overseeing an international call centre operation and running his own business, Alan Dawson became interested in management consulting. When a friend suggested he drop an e-mail to several consultancies, including Capita, he jumped at the idea and says he got an “amazing” response.
“People are crying out for individuals with good skills. If you target effectively and efficiently, and line up your skills, experience and business requirements, people are always interested in talking with you.”
Last November, Dawson had a meeting with Capita. “We got on like a house on fire, it was a real meeting of minds in terms of what I wanted to do and wanted they wanted me to do. It wasn’t a lengthy procedure; they knew I had the right personality, experience and skills set.
“I had another interview after that with another person in the group and they offered me the job. That’s part of the lure of working for an entrepreneurial company like Capita. Maybe at some consultancies you need up to eight interviews, but it’s refreshing that they knew what they wanted immediately.”
Dawson, 38, says of his new job: “I’ve never worked anywhere as good. Working at Capita is not about money, although the money’s good. Am I happy going there every day and doing what I’m doing? Without a doubt.”
