Just got a question about consulting in general.
I understand that people start off as generalists, doing work in all sectors, but need to specialize in a particular industry or function soon. When does this specialization begin? Is it a choice made by people or must everyone do it? What if I want to keep working on different projects throughout my career? Is that possible?
requesting experts to please share their experiences and opinions
Each consultancy has people specialise at its own level and within a company some offices are different and individuals are different. Generally though for MBB you're looking at specialisation somewhere a bit before or a bit after Manager promotion. Most specialisation is by industry (e.g. oil & gas, financial services), but there is also capability specialisation - mergers and acquisitions, cost control, etc. Within each area there is of course a ton of variation (oil & gas could be growth, turnaround, innovation, acqusition, etc etc.).
As you get more senior and go through your career you're not necessarily stuck in one place either - People move around due to business and personal needs and so you might develop a speciality in a couple different areas, or you might more from one to another.
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