| | "It's been buzzing.”
IBM
"I've been here
since 9am and I haven't
sat down yet." Tata
Consultancy Services
"There've been huge
numbers of quality
candidates through the
door." Serco
These were just some
of the responses from
exhibitors at last
month’s Consultancy
Careers Fair. Friday the
13th seemed to be lucky
for everybody as an
estimated 3,000
candidates, exhibitors
and organisers (plus the
odd journalist) crammed
themselves into the
Barbican Exhibition
Halls in London.
Everyone agreed that
the venue, atmosphere
and calibre of attendee
– on both sides of the
fence – were a marked
improvement on last
year’s event. One
interesting difference
from last year was the
increased number of
experienced consultants
attending – despite the
risk of running into
their employers.
"We were looking for
experienced consultants
and we've seen a lot of
good ones – we’re
definitely hoping to get
some people out of
this." m.a. partners
Another surprise was | |
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| | the geographical spread
of candidates.
"We thought it would
be very South East
biased, but we've had
candidates from
Yorkshire and the North
West." Project One
There have been a
lot of international
candidates with good
experience. We've seen
people from France and
Hungary, and lots of
people from Italy who'd
flown in especially for
the day." BT
As well as
experienced consultants,
the show also attracted
the usual mix of
graduates, recent MBAs
and the
"consultancy-curious"
from industry.
This mix appealed
particularly to the
larger firms such as
TCS, IBM and EDS who
work across a lot of
verticals, but even
firms like financial
services specialists EA
Consulting found the day
worthwhile: "We're
quite niche so the
greater number of people
are not for us, but
there have been a very
large number of people
we are very keen to see
– some had specifically
come to see us."
Some recruiters did
complain about the lack
of filtering, but for | |
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| | every stand looking only
for experienced
consultants there was
another targeting just
the junior levels. How
to tackle this problem?
In Victorian times the
shepherd attending the
hiring fair would carry
his crook, but what
could an MBA display
(the graduates you could
spot after a couple of
hours by the huge
numbers of plastic bags,
pens and freebies they
were toting)?
Fortunately, the
intellectual firepower
of (at least some of)
the consultancy
profession was up to
this thorny problem.
"We've printed all
the posters and
collateral especially
for this show – we've
got a very clear
profile, but it's not
just about what we want,
but what they want from
us." Project One
There we go – not
rocket science is it,
but a thought that
escaped many of those
exhibitors.
Talking to some of
the candidates, a real
turn-off were the
consultancies who had
printed out loads of
dummy business cards
with just the
switchboard number and
the web address of the
careers site. What's the
polite response to being
handed one of those? | |
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| | "Thank you for this
piece of cardboard. As
soon as I get back to my
home in Belgium at
midnight tonight I will
be sure to log on to
www.yourconsultancynamehe
re.com/careers, which
would never have
occurred to me had I not
made this expensive and
time-consuming trip."
One thing that became
clear as I toured round
the show was that this
was an event where you
get out of it pretty
much what you put in.
Some candidates
complained that when
they got through the
throng they sometimes
found themselves talking
to a junior
representative who
wasn't always entirely
up to speed. The moral,
if you're going to come
down, come in force.
"We had 20 people on
the stand – we want
people there that the
candidate can talk to
and get a good
understanding of the
business, and the only
way to do that is to
have business people
here." Atos Consulting
For a lot of
exhibitors the aspect of
getting the name and the
message out there had
almost as much
importance as getting
actual people on the
books:
"It's important for
us to be here and talk | |
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| | to people face to face –
we're selling ourselves
as much as they are
selling to us. We have
to do these shows to
demonstrate what's
different about us –
that it's not the same
old same old." Ernst &
Young
Everyone I spoke to
agreed they would be
back for the next show,
so the competition will
only be more intense.
How will the
consultancies stand out
from the crowd? The
prize for effort this
year goes to LogicaCMG
who hired a human statue
to draw attention to
their stand. The poor
chap was spotted at the
end of the show in a
fruitless search for a
shower to wash his body
paint off, and had to go
home painted black from
head to foot. I do hope
he doesn't live in my
neck of the woods – that
sort of thing doesn't go
down too well in
Brixton.
Stop Press: Top
Consultant is happy to
report that the human
statue did eventually
find a shower and was
able to leave the venue
looking his human self
again.
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