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I don't want to work today.
your best feature? I’ll go first, my hugeeeeee heart
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If you don't have a network - it is quite hard to get a senior role.
One suggestion I could make is to join a couple of non profits that have industry leaders as patrons. It is an expensive way to do it - they will need your money.
Aside from completely independent search and external avenues, most often than not this will come from your client network, either by them proactively pulling you, you putting it on their radar with those you trust, or your senior partner sponsors paving the way for you with the same client network at the most senior levels. Are these three avenues of approach not available to you now?
Makes sense. If you need to look external then and find your opportunity, i have found being extremely active on LinkedIn has gotten me numerous inbounds. Differentiated thought leadership, engagement with others and groups where you are targeting an exit, optimizing a killer profile, buy LinkedIn premium.
Position yourself as an expert in a particular function rather than a particular industry. Network with people to discuss that function.
It is unlikely you would be able to get a leadership role in an industry when you have no experience in that industry.
As a partner at a big four for the last 12 years and 10+ years of experience as a senior officer at a $22 billion company prior to that, I think it will be very difficult to get a senior role in industry if you’ve done consulting for your whole career. Senior roles in industry require a much broader skill set and are far more difficult than a partner role in consulting. There is no substitute for actually doing the work versus just telling others how to do it. As difficult as it may be, you will have to be willing to accept a lesser job title and pay to get into industry. The good news is that you already know how to interact with senior people, you just need to build the industry skill set.
I have worked in consulting at a senior level and Pharma up to global VP commercial. I would be unlikely to recruit above Associate Director from pure strat consulting pool. The roles are vvvvv different client side and agency. You experience 20% of what a typical commercial client side person does. The best advice would be to build a network of senior people client side and expect that you would have to take a more junior role and once you have the knowledge and experience you would likely progress v quickly. It’s also about targeting the right role.
What I have witnessed a few times are partners exiting as chief transformation officer within their focus industry (eg cpg, transportation etc)
What does homegrown in consulting mean?
Well I don’t know about you but I don’t think talking is what I’ve done all my life.
F
Mentor
I exited and found that the jobs I expected were equivalent a) paid a fraction of what I was already making b) were incredibly competitive to get and c) if I’m honest I was woefully under skilled for. I routinely advise C suite, but in the end, I had never done that job
This is a tough market for senior roles right now. Have you tried any of the exec recruitment firms to have you on their radar?
Use LinkedIn to find alumni from your firm who have moved into Industry and leverage that network for advice / introductions
Generally the only equivalent consulting roles in Industry are either Sales or similar Consulting positions. Business Operations could be close, but internal roles are a different motion and expertise. Pay will generally be lower unless you get stock or equity. Position yourself as a leader for external services or growth and it may help, unless you are looking at Tax or Audit.