words they just tag along to existing "consultants" and provide the same sausage machine advice that they provide to every company they visit.... I worked for a large management consultancy at a client that is a very well known company. They had a payments team of around 200, 80 of whom set up new direct debits and another 80 corrected the mistakes the first 80 made. The whole process needed no more than 60-70 people to be done properly. But the "manager" of that team had no interest in sorting that out as his status was dependent on a high headcount. Unsurprisingly he was one of the first out the door Well done for spotting the bleeding obvious - but it's the managers manager who should have been able to spot that one and deal with it.. How to get into management consulting - go to the right university, elitism is the norm, rather than competence. Also, be prepared to lose your conscience, what you say one day, you will contradict the next and after wrecking a company with one set of policies, you will then try and rebuild it with another. MC is one of those city jobs that means nothing. When people tell me they are a 'consultant' laugh because they don't know the meaning if the word. Perhaps it's just snobbery from the science world, but come on, MC is a non-job. I currently have to work alongside a squadron (there's about 20 of them) of consultants.