| | "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
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Another surprise was
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 | |
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| | complain about the lack
of filtering, but for
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 | |
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| | site. What's the polite
response to being handed
one of those? "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.yourconsultancynameher
e.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:
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"It's important for
us to be here and talk 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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