Leaving consulting after 12 - 18 months (Exit options?)

Question

Hi Everyone,

Currently, I’m working as a BA with OW/RB in Dubai, and it’s been a challenging and educational 12 months. While the opportunity to engage directly with senior clients — ranging from CEOs to senior managers — has made slightly the current project more rewarding, I’ve realized that consulting might not be the best long-term fit for me.

A few reasons for this include:

Long Hours: The demanding work hours have been particularly challenging.
Frequent Travel: The travel requirements are extensive and have started to take a toll.
Questioning Value Delivered: I’m not entirely convinced about the value we’re delivering to clients, from the Partner level down to Junior consultants.

Given these considerations, I’m exploring exit options and planning to transition within the next 3-4 months, ideally around the 15-18 month mark.

To give you a bit of context, I’m not from the region (nor from South Asia), and I hold a master’s degree from a top European university and business school (Top 5). I have an year work experience in investment as well. My interests are broad, with a particular focus on investment, startups, and other dynamic sectors, though I’m open to exploring various fields.

Questions I would like to ask are

1. Is there any tangible difference between 12 months vs. 15 months vs. 18 months of consulting experience? Or does it even matter?

2. What could I expect post-consulting in terms of exit opps?

3. Does job market consider BA and SBA very different? It might be the case that I could get a promotion in 5 months, at the same time, I am seeing a Psychiatrist so not sure I should stay any longer.

I would greatly appreciate any advice on identifying and pursuing exit opportunities at this stage in my career. Your insights would be invaluable as I navigate this next step.

Answer 1

Hi there,

First of all, I am sorry to hear about your situation!

I would be happy to share my thoughts on your questions:

First of all, regarding your next role outside of consulting, there should not be any major difference between 12, 15, and 18 months of tenure, as long as you wouldn’t be formally promoted within that time period.
Moreover, it depends on you what you make out of your work experience in terms of your future role. Therefore, think about where you want to transition to and reach out to people in the industry.

If you would like a more detailed discussion on your specific situation, please don't hesitate to contact me directly.

Best,

Hagen

Answer 2

Hi,

Sharing my perspective having also considered exit opps throughout my journey in consulting

1. Is there any tangible difference between 12 months vs. 15 months vs. 18 months of consulting experience? Or does it even matter?

I think there are 2 key dimensions when headhunters and firms are looking at your experience
- 1) Role/title
- 2) Tenure/experience
Very often it will be a combination of both, i.e. they are looking for someone with a given role/title because that role or title signifies or shows that that person implicitly has certain skills or has developed a level of capabilities that they are looking for
12 vs 15 vs 18 does not change the Role/title, so if they were looking at someone with min. experience of BA, that wouldnt matter
Tenure may matter if the HH or firm prefers someone with more experience WITHIN a certain role/title
Practically speaking and based on experience, I think the sweeter spot to leave is closer to 18 months than 12 months. If you are talking corp strat, many of the people hiring will know that at 1 year you haven't really built up the full consulting toolkit well enough yet.

2. What could I expect post-consulting in terms of exit opps?

Corporate: typically Corp Strategy, or BD/M&A teams
Tech: Hiring has drastically been impacted in recent years but pre-covid they used to be a key hirer of consultants into internal roles (though often as Individual Contributors)
Startups: You could also explore roles in growth/late stage startups with funding
2 key ways to look for opportunities / inspiration
- Reach out to your firm's career transition service
- Check on linkedin exit paths for people from your firm and similar tenure

3. Does job market consider BA and SBA very different? It might be the case that I could get a promotion in 5 months, at the same time, I am seeing a Psychiatrist so not sure I should stay any longer

Not as different as BA to Manager of course. or BA to Associate
From a negotiation perspective, it is better to wait for the promotion given you have a higher salary to negotiate
But if your mental health is at stake, this is something you need to figure out if you can find opportunities that you want, immediately

All the best!

Answer 3

Hi there,

Good answer by Benjamin here so I am just adding my 2 cents:

Generally, the biggest bump in benefits and exit opportunities comes after 24 months, so if you can somehow go for that, I'd set this as my ambition (also keeping in mind that the job market is horrible at the moment globally if you drop out now)
I discuss a couple of ways to improve your work-life balance AND add some tenure without breaking your back in this PrepLounge talk:

https://www.preplounge.com/en/video-tutorials/work-life-balance-in-consulting-workshop-by-florian-40

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VK8wL_xsmQ

All the best on your journey!

Cheers,

Florian