Depends on what you want out of industry. Some former consultants love industry and some hate it. Based on personal observations and experience, moving from an advisory role in a consulting firm to a managerial role in industry is generally associated with the following, 1. Real bottom-line responsibility - You'll start worrying about the company not hitting the Q1 target and how to make the numbers for the next quarter. Consultants don't have to worry about this 2. Internal politics - Lots of it, especially in bigger organizations. More hierarchy and less flat than consulting, where consultants could call up anyone in the organization when they had a question / idea 3. Expanded authority - You have your own headcounts and budget, and are free to use contractors and external advisors. Even partners at consulting firms don't have their own permanent staff (You know what I mean - you don't have control on who's on your project and on anyone outside the project) 4. Cross-functional coordination - You'll likely be THE expert in the role that you're hired into, e.g. marketing, but there're many other areas that you don't know, e.g. manufacturing. Decisions are made during meetings where functional managers contribute their own ideas. In consulting you'll never be THE expert in one area, as consulting firms have lots of expert globally in every sub-function, e.g. customer segmentation 5. Better work-life balance - Need to elaborate. Less travel in general, and less benefits, e.g. business class travel or attractive dinner allowance (if you value them at all) 6. More reliance on subjective judgment calls than conclusions based on analysis - People make statements start with "I think we should do xxx", rather than "based on xxx data/research, the returns of doing xxx is higher than doing yyy. Therefore we should do xxx" 7. More time spent on tactical stuff, i.e. fire-fighting. Less time on strategic stuff
It's always easier move in from a position of strength. Since you've lots of experience consulting clients, clients should have noticed your value. If your client recruits you, life would be really easy, because you'll get support from your boss and other managers. You'll also be able to negotiate to get things you want, e.g. team, newly crafted role, etc. The worst thing to do is to go in without knowing the organization, typically through search firms. As a air-dropped outsider you'll face obstacles. People will want you to fail. Also companies hiring search firms usually have high (sometimes unrealistic) expectations on what the recruit can offer, and as they have no relationships with you, they'd have no mercy on you
So my suggestion is that if you wanna move, demonstrate your greatness during projects and let your clients poach you!
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发表于 2009-1-10 05:28:00
