3 Tips to Help Baby Boomers Wondering How to Get Into Management Consulting

If you happen to be a baby boomer and you've lost your job recently, or you've simply been searching for a more meaningful and lucrative career, you might be wondering how to get into management consulting. You've probably heard about the numerous advantages associated with a consulting career, and maybe you've read some of the blog posts and materials here on the Ex3 Matters website. However, you might not be sure about the steps you need to take or the techniques that you should use to set yourself up properly for your new career.

To help you on your path, I've come up with a few tips that should be able to help you put one foot in front of the other on your way to a career in consulting.

1. Chances are, you already possess a wide range of consulting skills. Recognize them.

   Think about it – if you've been a mid- or senior-level professional in your career, you've had to perform like a consultant already. You've had to involve yourself with strategy and with the overall direction of your organization. You've had to make adjustments to strategies. You've had to align resources to accomplish strategies, and there's little doubt that you've had to advise other senior managers about how to make sure things get done. Essentially, the work you've been doing is the work of a typical consultant.

   Working as an independent consultant allows you to flex the muscles you've built during your career, but it comes with much more freedom in terms of accomplishing goals. As an independent consultant, you're unencumbered by internal company politics. What's more, you don't have to constrain your ideas by adhering to various company legacy issues and strategies. Simply put, becoming a management consultant is really just a matter of showing another side of the same coin. By recognizing that you have a consulting skill set, you can go forward in your new career much more confidently.
    

2. Think about how your resume represents you.

   Like most of us, you probably learned how to write a resume back in the 20^th century. You might even be using an updated version of the resume that helped you get your most recent job. Unfortunately, a 20^th century resume is simply not going to cut it in the 21^st century.

   If you're a baby boomer, you've probably structured your resume in the traditional, chronological fashion that was hammered into our heads by teachers and professors from high school to business school. These resumes are fantastic if you want to show a timeline of your career, but they don't really accomplish much if your goal is to highlight the skills, talents and knowledge that you possess. That's why I would advise using a skills-based resume. A skills-based resume retains all of the important information that would be included in a traditional resume, but it's formatted in a way that puts your skills front and center. If your goal is to get into management consulting, this type of resume is essential.
    

3. Stop worrying about organizational intricacies.

   The fear that we might not be able to understand something can be paralyzing. That's why so many people avoid consulting; they believe that if they don't understand the various intricacies of Company ABC's product, they won't be able to guide the company to success. People want to be able to feel confident in their abilities, so when they fail to understand something, they can shrink from responsibility.

   Fortunately, consultants don't need to understand the minute details and idiosyncrasies of the companies that they sign on to help. The fact of the matter is that manufacturing companies, for example, don't care if you worked in finance as long as what you did and how you did it are transferrable to the new industry. If you want proof of this, just take a look at the Wall Street Journal. When you see a headline about a professional being named a company's new CEO, you'll notice that the industry is really irrelevant. CEOs who had success in the food industry are signing on to helm technology companies. Business leaders from media companies are being sought by organizations in the agriculture industry and so on.

The point of this is that you don't need to get bogged down in details to find success as a consultant. As long as you are confidently focused on your abilities to drive results, build effective strategies and increase clients, your skills will be useful in virtually any industry.

These tips may not answer every question you have about how to get into management consulting, but they should help you enter into a more positive frame of mind. The basic takeaway is that you have the skills and the talents to be successful at consulting. It's now up to you to take your first steps toward your new career.

If you're interested in learning more about how to get into management consulting, we have some great resources available here on Ex3matters.com. Be sure to download our free consulting guides for some more excellent tips, and get your free copy of my eBook, “Experience Matters” for some in-depth consulting advice.