Becoming a consultant: investigating the strategies used by postgraduate students to gain behaviours and skills appropriate to consultancy

A number of different authors have highlighted the need for postgraduate students to be work ready for a career in consulting. This paper examines a cohort of 21 MSc students from a UK based University and how they addressed this issue through an assignment geared up towards this aim. The completed assessments ranged in terms of the strategies the students used to assess their development needs for a career in consultancy. Strategies used consisted of: competency analysis, SWOT analysis, psychometric tests, use of the British Psychological Society consultancy cycle (from the Qualification in Occupational Psychology) and use of consultancy cycles from other sources. Interestingly there was a lack of consistency between students in terms of what strategies they chose to be future consultants. This research is useful because it systematically demonstrates which strategies may be used by postgraduates to identify the skills and behaviours they need for a consultancy career.