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Consulting recruitment spree gains focus     By Tony Restell    The last years have seen a dramatic growth in hiring targets at many of the world’s best-known consulting brands. In the last 12 months this has even spread to the top strategy consulting firms. Yet 2007 is seeing a perceptible change in emphasis, from mass recruitment to a more targeted approach. The implications are profound, for candidates and recruiters alike.    Whether you aspire to joining Accenture or Deloitte, McKinsey or Bain, the last couple of years have heralded a transformation in the recruitment market for consultants. Hiring targets have spiralled across the industry – from strategy consultants to business transformation specialists, from IT     consultants to M&A advisors.    But one thing that has characterised these recruitment drives is now changing. Throughout 2006, our team were seeing consultancies initiating campaigns to recruit consulting staff across the board. The need to meet growth in client demand and combat staff loss meant that recruitment initiatives were focused on bringing in candidates across the spectrum of practice areas.    Until early 2007 that is. In recent weeks we’ve noticed a perceptible change. Now a number of years into a resurgent consulting market, leaders of consulting firms have been undertaking strategic reviews of their businesses and many are now focusing on growing particular     practice sectors or starting to serve new niche areas. My gut feel is that one out of every two major firms has gone through this type of exercise of late. The repercussions in the recruitment marketplace are that firms are now being far more specific about the sector skills they are looking to hire and the profiles of individuals they are looking to bring on board.    It’s not that the recruitment targets have shrunk per se, but many firms have turned off the hiring taps altogether in certain practice areas – whilst simultaneously ramping them up in other areas. This has led to the bizarre perception (as seen on our forum) that many well-known brands have initiated a recruitment freeze. That     this conclusion has been reached is quite understandable – talented candidates who’ve progressed a long way down the interview process and been given all the right hiring signals are suddenly left out in the cold or told that the hiring process is on hold. More often than not, though, this is because the firm has just received instructions from on high that the strategic direction of the company has been altered – and so too, therefore, has the firm’s hiring needs.    If you’ve seen a cooling of your relationship with a prospective employer – or an unexpected delay has occurred in the issue of a formal job offer – then chances are you may have got caught up by this phenomenon. We’re seeing it in most     of the world’s major consulting markets – and at all levels of seniority – so this summer may need to be spent in a new job application drive if you’ve been trying to move of late but haven’t yet secured your dream post. Rest assured that significant volumes of hires are still being made – this is still very much a candidate-driven market – but strategic decisions being taken within the industry are now filtering through to all those of us involved in the consulting recruitment cycle. Which, if you’re a job-seeker right now, means they are impacting you too.

Bluerock Consulting reports record growth     Bluerock Consulting, the UK-based financial services strategy and change delivery specialists, has announced healthy unaudited year-end results for 2006-7, with revenues up by 65%.    Revenues had grown by 60% the previous year and the growth looks set to continue through 2007-8 with the number of consultants doubling to meet demand.    Bluerock said that, in addition to a     significant increase in new business, 2006-7 has seen great success in a number of initiatives that will reinforce and expand the growth of the consultancy in the future.    These include recruitment of senior hires to help manage the growth transition – such as Kevin Webb, the former head of KPMG's UK Financial Service Technology practice, and Karen Gutierrez, former deputy head of Atos's UK     Retail Banking Group. Bluerock has also set up a wholly owned subsidiary to supply both specialist and contract skills that lie outside the core Bluerock capabilities – Aldermans.    Julian Sawyer, founder and CEO of Bluerock Consulting, said: "This has been another outstanding year for us. Our clients clearly value our industry-leading knowledge, commitment     and experience and the word is spreading. As a result, we have significantly outperformed the levels of growth seen in the consulting industry. The growth is set to continue and this can only happen if we recruit the heavyweight consultants our clients expect. To our recruits, we offer a challenging and exciting career path and the chance to build something special."    Mark Tennant,     chairman of Bluerock Consulting, said: "This year we worked for a broader base of clients than ever before and have built new competencies, particularly in the area of strategic planning in the asset management industry. Given the size of our pipeline, next year is going to be even more challenging and exciting."

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