The Consultant's Makeover

Moving On
At this point, you may decide that you need a change. It might be because you want to branch out into another field within consulting, but find that opportunities keep eluding you. Perhaps your firm fails to attract the right type of clients or decides not to risk extending their services to include the latest, hottest technology craze.

When you do decide to leave, be prepared for resistance from the people you work for and with. Your partner may not understand your need or desire to expand your skill set. After all, your current bill rate is partially related to your expertise, and may drop if you begin as a novice in a new field. And if no one else in your firm knows as much about your specialization as you, your partner may fear the consequences of displacing the firm's top industry leader.

Whatever your reason, if your time to move on has arrived, start looking. The momentum to move lasts only for a limited time. Visualize the challenge of changing your image from an expert in one area to someone equally qualified in another, and begin to strategize.

The Before and After Pictures
Just as when you get a makeover or go on a diet, take a "before and after" photo of your present state and your goals. Create a resume that reflects your goals as if you already achieved them. Write the r?sum? as if you currently worked at your ideal firm, performing ideal assignments, with the title you deserve or strive toward attaining. Make sure to include all the correct buzzwords for whatever you are targeting, since each industry, technology, and function uses different vocabulary.

Compare your future resume with your current one, and do a gap analysis. Determine what you need to do in order to go from what you do today to what you want to do tomorrow. Your results might include additional skills, classes to enhance current knowledge and gain new knowledge, projects that represent your interests, and a promotion or two. Do this gap analysis at a high level, because you will go through a much more detailed analysis in the next steps.

Hop, Skip, and Jump
Your gap analysis might appear reasonable to you or it may seem insurmountable. Either way, you still need a strategy. And the time to implement the strategy is directly after you get some sense of what you need to do from the gap analysis. Even if your tasks feel overwhelming, know this is not impossible. Just take it step-by-step.

Step 1: Personal inventory
List out every skill and knowledge set you currently possess. Cross out the ones you no longer want in your skill set, and highlight the ones you want to continue developing.

Step 2: Firm inventory
List out every engagement type by industry, technology, function, category, etc. (whatever service matrix your firm might use). As you did with your personal inventory, cross out the ones you no longer wish to do, and highlight the ones you feel are necessary to your goals, as projected in your "future resume."

Step 3: Engagement inventory
Think about what you lack in order to get placed on the projects of your choice. Think also about what you can contribute to the engagements of your choice, based on your personal inventory. Take this list and assign weights to each, and determine the likelihood of your getting assigned to one of these. Based on the one with the highest score, decide which of the skills you need is most important AND easiest to attain in the shortest amount of time. Do whatever is within your resources to gain this skill/knowledge, and document how you got it. You want to be able to prove your worthiness to be on this assignment.

Step 4: The pitch
Take your findings and put them together in a fine presentation format - as if you were going to present it to a client. Find out from your scheduling manager, mentor, or whoever might have access to the schedule about who will run the project you chose. Approach that engagement manager and ask for an informal meeting (lunch is usually a good one).

Take your presentation to the meeting. Explain why you want to participate in the engagement (without mentioning why you no longer want to continue in your current track). Demonstrate what you can contribute and what you did to acquire the necessary skills for the project. This should be enough to impress the manager of your ambition and personal initiative. Most likely, you will be asked why you no longer wish to pursue your track. Have a ready answer! Make sure you post your current track in the most positive light, but emphasize your desire to grow and add additional skills to your toolbox - note how you will add more value to your clients and to the firm, etc. - with these new skills.

Step 5: Ongoing maintenance.
Always keep an updated and ready-to-go resume. You never know when you will need it. Go back to the future r?sum? that you originally created. Use it to update your current resume, so that it reflects how your current skills can translate into your future job. Remember to throw in the right buzzwords and technical jargon.

Be truthful about your responsibilities, but make sure to emphasize only what you want. Even if you performed at a superior level on your last assignment, leave it off the resume if you want to steer clear of that type of project. Highlight any common threads you can find between your "now" and "tomorrow." For example, if you currently do operations consulting and want to get into strategy, forget about how you saved your last client $100,000 through automation. Instead, emphasize how you brought your client into a new strategic direction in how to approach business practices on the manufacturing floor.

Hang in There
Changing directions can be challenging and time consuming. Hang in there! Even if you absolutely hate your job as it stands today, remember that you control your future to a large extent. If your firm continues to pay you nothing but lip service about how they want to help develop your career, consider making a few calls to your local recruiters. They will be very pleased to talk with you! Otherwise, seek out your mentor's advice. In the end, you know what you feel comfortable doing. Just keep yourself bully-free, patient, proactive, and assertive.