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RH wrote:
Marquis,
Thanks! Your advice was spot on and exactly what i needed. I have been focusing my efforts toward Booz Allen because i know several people who work there, so that makes it easier to get in the door.
In your opinion, is it possible to move from a company like Booz Allen to a top-tier firm (M/B/B) after a few years of consulting? I dont want to pigeon whole myself into government consulting, especially if they government continues to cut defense spending. I will like to be a little more diverse. Any thoughts you have on this would be appreciated.
Thanks again
RH
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My response:
RH,
Good move to focus on Booz Allen because they’ve got the top reputation when it comes to gov’t consulting. Also, they’ve got a global footprint, which could open up a world of possibilities for you to work in different locales.
Regarding your question about moving from a place like Booz Allen Hamilton to a M/B/B firm, I believe that it might be possible after a few years, but I don’t personally know of any examples of folks who’ve done it. If this is something that you’d like to target, you would need to push to get staffed on true strategy work and not the IT, program management office, or deeply gov’t operations work that BAH for which BAH is best known.
You’ll want to stack your consulting experience up with projects that will have you solving big, mission-critical issues using methodologies that could be used in either governmental or private sector environments. This will allow you to make the pitch that, while your consulting experience was gov’t-focused, you’ve got a skillset that will allow you to add value to a client, regardless of its institutional form (I.e., for-profit, non-profit, gov’t agency).
Marquis
