Hi, I’m soon to graduate my one year masters degree, and have a job secured with AECOM in my home city as a Stakeholder Engagement Consultant. I find the work i will be doing interesting, however want to think longer term. what career paths are available to someone who is doing this work? will going with this job pigeonhole me into working in the infrastructure sector? i’m interested in doing more general consulting or going into tech long term- is this feasible ?

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Think about your professional life as set of pipelines. When you just started you have several options, but as time passes it narrows down . In my opinion the first big event that narrows down is making a decision on what to study ( considering you are not following a entrepreneur career), the second one that I think people tend to undervalue is your first job. I have studied with different peers and my college peers were about 100 in my year. I can tell you that more than 80 are doing the same kind of work they were doing when they first started after college. I'm an engineer so some colleagues went to work in logistics, some in banking, some in consultant etc, I do remember some of them being able to transition careers dramatically, but it involved great sacrifice ( getting back to college or downgrade substantially financially speaking)
My point is, think carefully before making this second narrowed step in your life, if possible try some assessments to figure out what is your careers anchor, the best career that would fit to your personality etc...

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thank you for your reply, noted

please feel free to tell me if i am making an error, i’ve asked elsewhere and consensus seems to be nah, start and gain transferable skills, it’s just good to ask and find out

I worked at AECOM for a number of years and never heard of that title - assuming you’re not in the US? Regardless, I would encourage you to learn as much as you can and don’t be afraid to take on opportunities outside your comfort zone. I was a PM when I was there and I wore so many hats that I got to familiarize myself with what I like and what I don’t like. Ended up realizing that I hate construction (I was on site) so I pivoted over to consulting. I still work on infrastructure projects but several layers away from day to day construction and I’ve loved it so far. In my opinion, you’ll only get pigeonholed if you allow yourself to be. Take advantage of trainings in areas you’re interested in, network with people, and you’ll do just fine. Good luck!

Thank you for your reply- I am from the UK. The role itself is basically being a consultant but dealing mostly with comms, stakeholder engagement, consultation of people and groups affected by major projects. I’d say overall comms are the major focus. I appreciate this input

Regarding it being a comms heavy role, would you say the same?

I worked for aecom for a number of years. If you want to do general consulting don’t spend a lot of time there.

Aecom are an engineering firm, their advisory and strategic consulting practice is poor when it is not nonexistent. The cannot compete with the strategy houses or the big 4 or even the more diversified engineering firms like Arup.

As an stakeholder engagement consultant you will be brought in to run comms for the team who are actually delivering. Your exits will be public sector or similar consultancies.

My advice would be to understand what your career goals are, how this role can help you, what your next role will be and how you bridge the skill gap between the two. Don’t spend more than 1.5-2 years at aecom.

No, I would say it is not a total waste of time. But the returns diminish fast as work gets repetitive and projects drag on for years. Also colleagues are good but not highest calibre. Stay for a year to get a bit of experience on how the corporate world works and then look elsewhere.

On how to bridge the gap… well that depends on what you want to do in your career, doesn’t it. Find that out and then try to develop those skills through work and courses. When you reach out to a big4 or other firm you can show them that you are already doing what they ask for.

I would also highly recommend you start networking with people in those firms, particularly people who went to your uni and then to your target firms. Strategy houses rarely look outside of Oxbridge, Imperial and LSE. Big4 are a bit more relaxed but the worst uni in my team is Durham.

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