Management Consultancy

Have a look at Prospects and targetjobs to find out what roles in this sector involve and how to get into them. These are some of the job profiles available:

• Management consultant
• Innovation consultant
• Business development manager

• excellent interpersonal and communication (verbal and written) skills
• strong analytical skills and the ability to solve complex problems
• the ability to work in a team
• negotiation skills and the ability to work collaboratively
• leadership skills
• commercial awareness

Starting salaries for graduate jobs in this sector can be high. According to Prospects, recent graduates could earn between £25,000 and £33,500. With a few years experience, this could increase to £50,000.

To get an idea of typical starting salaries use the following resources:

• our Discover your Earning Potential Pathway offers access to The Pay Index. This shows you how salaries vary across different roles, industries and locations
• job profiles, such as those listed on Prospects or targetjobs
• vacancy sites such as Glassdoor and LinkedIn

For information about how to negotiate a salary, visit Handling job offers.

• browse our Work Experience and Graduate Employment directories. See where our students and graduates have had work experience, or been employed
• use LinkedIn’s Alumni tool to find out what Newcastle graduates are doing now. You could ask to connect with them, to gain advice and insights into their career. See Newcastle Alumni on LinkedIn to help you get started, or watch our quick tutorial on Getting inspiration from others [3:13]
• attend alumni events, such as Newcastle Develop, to hear directly from our graduates
• sign up for mentoring support with Graduate Mentor and The 1 Hour Project. These aim to match students with industry professionals who can provide invaluable insights. Register to be connected for a one-hour meeting
• attend events, including recruitment events and employer and sector insights. Hear about graduate jobs, placement schemes, build your network and ask questions

Searching for reviews online can be a useful way to get an idea of what to expect from certain roles or employers. Reviews are written by employees with different opinions about what makes a good employer.

Use the following review sites for inspiration and insight into the recruitment process:

• RateMyPlacement placement year reviews written by students
• The Job Crowd – graduate job reviews
• Glassdoor – company reviews from employees

Read career guides for this sector, such as:

• targetjobs: Management consulting, including What does a graduate consultant do? and The skills consulting recruiters are looking for
• Bright Network has a career path guide to consulting. This includes articles on different types of consulting and leading graduate employers
• Climb in Consulting is a series of podcasts which include advice on how to get into consulting. It also offers insights into a range of consultancy firms
• Guide to jobs in innovation

Use online magazines and journals to follow news from your industry. Reading about trends and developments is important for applications and interviews.

Examples include:

• Management Consultancies Association
• Financial Time's Special Report on the UK's leading management consultants
• Consultancy UK
• Top-consultant.com
• Consulting Magazine provides news on the industry in the US

Attend events to hear directly from professionals in the industry.

Many large employers and the professional bodies in this sector run events and other opportunities, for example:

• PwC run a programme of events for undergraduates and graduates
• Accenture list recruitment events on their website

See also our events, including our recruitment events and employer & sector insights.

Student societies are a way to make connections and share information. Some societies organise invite guest speakers to talk about their careers.

You could consider joining the Consulting Society.

Use social media to find industry insights

Join sector-specific groups on LinkedIn to keep up to date. Posts often include news, events and opportunities. You can also find useful insights on careers on X and TikTok. Treat these with caution, as not all content may be accurate.

Find out more about how to use social media for your career.

Consider joining a relevant professional body/industry network

Professional bodies often:

• run networking events
• have specialist groups you could join
• post vacancies on behalf of their members
• have member directories, useful for speculative applications

Key organisations include:

• Management Consultancies Association
• Institute of Consulting
• International Council of Management Consultancy Institutes – national management consulting institutes

Finding professional bodies worldwide

GoinGlobal’s country guides include details of professional bodies. Find them under ‘Professional and Personal Networking’ on each individual country guide.

Applications for internships with larger consultancies generally open around August. Closing dates are as early as October and November. The majority of advertised internships are aimed at penultimate year students.

Some of the larger consultancies such as McKinsey, Accenture and EY offer insight days. These give you an insight into consulting and working for their organisation. These are often for first year students. Opportunities are usually advertised on their websites..

Smaller consultancies often don’t advertise opportunities. You may need to contact them with a speculative approach. You should do this early, as it can be competitive. See Non-advertised work experience and graduate jobs below, to help you search for consultancies.

Use the following resources to get started:

• MyCareer - search for internships and placements in the North East, UK and overseas. Register/log in to access vacancies and sign up for personalised email alerts
• Internships, placements & shadowing - links to vacancy sites
• Global work experience - for internships or placements abroad
• targetjobs
• Prospects
• Bright Network – internships and placements
• RateMyPlacement
• Consultancy.UK

Individual consultancies will advertise internships on their own website. Use the resources in Non-advertised work experience and graduate jobs below to identify consultancies.

The Careers Service runs flexible term-time and summer internships with local employers and on campus. NCL internships are aimed at all students, from any stage and are a great way to develop relevant skills.

Search for these under Vacancies on MyCareer. Type in ‘NCL internship’ into the text search box.

You can find these advertised throughout the academic year. Full-time summer opportunities are advertised from around March.

Access GoinGlobal for internships in over 120 global locations, updated daily.

Search for opportunities in the local language, as well as in English. You can also use their country guides to find:

• additional vacancy websites
• CV, application and interview advice
• advice on living and working in different countries and cities around the world

If you’re looking for inspiration, try searching our NU Work Experience Directory.

You can see where our students have had internships and placements in the last five years.

To see all results in a search category, keep the search field blank.

The resources in this section advertise both graduate jobs and graduate schemes. See our graduate jobs page to understand the difference between them.

For graduate schemes, apply as early as possible. Closing dates are usually early, around November to January.

A smaller number of consultancies will recruit for graduate jobs all year round. You are more likely to apply for these towards the end of your studies.

Use the following resources to get started:

• MyCareer - search for graduate schemes and graduate jobs in the North East, UK and overseas. Register/log in to access vacancies and sign up for personalised email alerts
• Graduate Jobs – lists graduate vacancy sites
• targetjobs
• Milkround
• Prospects
• Consultancy.uk
• Bright Network
• Guardian Jobs - see also jobs in innovation
• Glassdoor

See International jobs for details of overseas vacancy sites.

Access GoinGlobal for job adverts in over 120 global locations, updated daily. Search for opportunities in the local language, as well as in English. You can also use their country guides to find:

• additional vacancy websites
• CV, application and interview advice
• advice on living and working in different countries and cities around the world

Start by identifying organisations you are interested in. Our guide to finding organisations below can help. Then use the following steps to approach them speculatively about possible opportunities:

1. Identify a contact name to address your cover letter to. Call or email to find out who handles recruitment within the organisation. Or, find a key contact in the department you want to work in.
2. Send them a tailored CV and cover letter. Express your enthusiasm for the sector. Show that you have researched the company.
3. Follow up your speculative application with a phone call, or email, around a week later. This shows you are serious and motivated.
4. If your application was unsuccessful, ask for feedback or advice, and keep trying!

You can use this approach at any point in the year. We recommend that you:

• start your research as early as possible to gather relevant contacts
• contact organisations around three months before you want the opportunity to begin

• find organisations on MyCareer. Select ‘search' then 'organisations’
• use the business directories and databases on our Researching employers page
• search for companies on LinkedIn. The Find Alumni tool shows you where Newcastle graduates are currently working
• browse our Work Experience and Graduate Employment directories. See where our students and graduates have had work experience, or been employed

North East organisations

A high proportion of consultancy roles are London-based. Some of the larger firms have regional offices in cities such as Newcastle, eg KPMG, PwC, Accenture and Oliver Wyman

You can also try the following business directories to search for consultancies in the North East:

• North East Chamber of Commerce: Directory
• Yell.com

UK organisations

• targetjobs - search employers by sector
• Management Consultancies Association (MCA) – directory of members
• Consultancy.uk
• The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers - pick up a free hard copy in the Careers Service
• Financial Times: UK's Leading Management Consultants
• Board of Innovation: Top Innovation Consulting Firms
• LinkedIn: Alumni tool - see where Newcastle graduates are working across the world, for inspiration

Worldwide organisations

Search GoinGlobal’s employer directory for company information in 196 countries. Their country guides list professional bodies around the world.

GoinGlobal’s country guides include details of recruitment agencies in specific countries. They are listed under the following headings:

• staffing agencies and temporary help firms
• executive recruiters and search firms

Recruitment agencies may not operate in the same way in different countries. In the UK agencies are free for job seekers, but this may not be the case elsewhere. Explore the terms and conditions of an agency before signing up to use them.