IT Consultancy - Please help

My questions may sound stupid, so please do bear with me. Firstly, how do I become a consultant? I've tried looking online and there's no clear path. Is the degree I'm doing relevant? Is it possible to become a consultant with no previous experience? My first year out of uni what would I do? Should I do a year in placement during my third year of uni?

You have 2 basic routes into consultancy:

1. Graduate scheme with a big consultancy - Cap gemini, Deliotte etc. These will typically be much more focused on the business side of IT rather than the in-depth technical aspects. Very hard to get onto, a huge amount of work required in the first few years. Alot of people burn out and drop out but it is the quickest way into consultancy.

2. Gain experience through support/development roles and then move into consultancy. This is the easiest way as you can literally start right from uni in a 1st line role, move onto 2nd line support and then onto projects/development before transferring to consultancy.


Your degree is much more relevant for the 1st route than the 2nd. Once you've got a few years worth of It experience (ie: the 2nd route) noone really cares about your degree anymore.

If you can find a year's placement then you should absoloutly do it. IT very very strongly values experience.

Feel free to quote me for any other questions.

How would I go about getting into a graduate scheme like that? Is it only a realistic option for people getting the top grades?

Competition is likely to be extremely tough. Most require at least a 2.1, A/B A-Levels, Relevant work experience and a strong CV to support.

To give you an idea of the sort of grades and person they're after; I have a friend who was accepted on one of these graduate schemes with a big london consultancy. He eventually decided it wasnt for him and so instead is now working in America as a rocket scientist and gives TED talks.


Also: It is still possible to get into the big companies via the 2nd path too.

Aah. Second route seems much more appropriate for me. So what would be my plan of action? What kind of jobs would I then apply for? If I'm asked to write down what I want to be, what would my reply be?

Apologies for the barrage of questions, I've always got so many questions about this and no one to answer them.