If you run marathons in your spare time, can keep a sense of humour even when stuck in a lift and consider yourself a problem solver, then management consulting might be the career for you. But prima donnas should take note.

“People who have an overinflated sense of importance don’t get very far,” says Varya Davidson, a principal at Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH), for whom she has worked for ten years. “All consulting firms have a team-focused mentality. It’s very important that you get on well with the people you’re working with.”

Management consulting is a popular career choice for new graduates, who are lured by the variety of work, the opportunity to travel and the good pay. Davidson says that there is no such thing as a standard day. “One day you can be preparing and presenting to a board of directors,” she says. “The next you can be walking around the assembly line of a plant.”

As well as recruiting young graduates, companies also look for those with five or more years’ industry experience or with MBAs. Competition for jobs among those in the first category is fierce. BAH gets up to 1,500 applications a year for 15 positions.

Davidson says that recruiters are looking for analytical, interpersonal and communication skills, and motivation. Interviewers test for people skills by imagining whether they would enjoy being stuck in a lift with the candidate. Evidence of motivation can be found in their extracurricular activities. Successful BAH candidates run marathons and climb mountains at the weekend, have led university societies, founded charitable projects, excelled at a musical instrument and won academic prizes.

Salaries range from about £35,000 for junior consultants to more than £100,000 for partners, according to www.top-consultant.com.

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