Hi recruitment consultants - Wondered if you can help. I am currently a manager within a large consulting firm, in their Strategy and Ops division. I have worked in consulting for the last 8 years (started at PwC and then moved across to a competitor 4 years ago) so pretty blue chip background. I am also a qualified accountant and PRINCE 2 qualified. My specialist field is Public Sector.I am now finding my non work life suffering from long hours on top of 4 hrs + a day travelling. Can you recommend any firms that place more emphasis on sensible work life balance,and whether they are recruiting, or indeed if you can advise on leaving profession altogether and jumping the fence to the public sector (in as senior a post a possible). Any help appreciated. Thanks

I know a few of the big firms are trying to address this, but it really does seem to be a fact-of-life for consultants. If the work-life balance is getting you down, I would recommend that you seriously explore the option of moving into the public sector - You might get less money, but you would certainly get your life back! Check out the Guardian on a Wednesday for their Society Jobs section - they tend to have quite a few senior roles in there, and I imagine you would be an attractive proposition for them with a combination of public sector expertise and private sector mindset. You could also quietly explore the option of 'jumping the fence' with your current client groups?

Thanks for advice. I look at Society Jobs section, but my preference would be for applications through a recruitment consultancy as at least there would be a bit of filtering beforehand. Although I am not sure if public sector actually use recruitment agencies. Do any of the smaller consultancies have more emphasis on WLB? I have heard HEDRA are quite good at this having more emphasis on business development than pure chargeability? Any thoughts??

PA have a strong emphasis on WLB, and they have a huge public sector workload. For me, its a problem as I'd much prefer to work with private sector clients, but others like it. The corporate culture in PA is very strong, and there's a really friendly atmosphere. Might be worth you talking to us. Check out our website on www.paconsulting.com, and click on "Join Us"