I realise that anyone who has left consultancy will probably no longer read this site but... I was looking for thoughts on where other IT/strategy consultants have gone from consultancy work. I know there is the option of entering industry or starting up on your own, but are there any other realistic options - even off the wall options people have looked at?

Lex - depending on the consultancy you now have on your CV, to some extent &quot;the world is your oyster&quot;. Of my friends who are ex-IT/ strategy consultants, they now find themselves in the City (Barclays Capital, ABN Amro, Standard & Poors, etc.), in exec roles in commerce / industry (Tesco.com, Lufthansa, etc.) or have started in business for themselves or joined a fledgling start-up business. Then there&#39;s the odd one or two that have gone off to be scuba diving instructors in Australia or ski instructors in France - or decided to put their skills to work in a charity.<br><br>If you are going to leave the consulting industry, that&#39;s quite a major career decision and you are certainly right to look at all the options. If you do think of starting up your own business, do take a look at the event <a href=http://www.top-consultant.com/UK/events/Article_display.asp?ID=9>Have you got what it takes to become a successful entrepreneur?</a>.<br><br>Best of luck, Tony

Regarding your friends who are ex-IT strat consultants, what&#39;s the average years experience they had in consulting before they moved into the exec roles in the City? What type of qualifications do they have? My aim is to do the same, and I&#39;d like to know what route I should take to do that.

Bubba - I&#39;d say it&#39;s easy to move anytime after you&#39;ve got 3 years consulting on your CV. My friends moved mostly with 3-5 years&#39; experience, in a couple of cases taking an MBA as the route to switching out of consulting. Tony

Thanks Tony. I&#39;ve got seven months experience as a director in a small boutique firm (moved straight into director level from a projects role in industry), but finding it difficult to adjust to the work environment of a consultancy, in particular one that works mainly with the public sector. Not my cup of tea. I think I need to move back into industry some time within the next year. I&#39;m hoping that 1.5 to 2 years will be enough to give me an opportunity to move into another executive director role in industry.