I have an unconventional background. I am European, I have 4 years experience in London working mainly in the UK market, I have worked for 3 companies in 3 vertical markets (Technology, Pharma and Financial) and 3 horizontals (Research, Sales and Recruitment) before joining a small but smart tech sales & marketing services consultancy. I have tried to apply to largish management consulting companies and got a couple sort of interested but never got to a proper first stage interview with them. I had a couple of interviews with smaller firms on the look for worm bodies for the public sector but didn't really like that. If I want to work for a big consulting company, lets say in 2-3 years time, which sort of experience would be best to go for now? Small & aggressive start-up, large IT vendor, big multinational, smallish but already established business consultancy... or just try to relocate to the US where I have heard the market is more open to unconventional backgrounds?

Unconventional backgrounds are not normally a huge problem. It just means you need to be quite targeted in your approach. Of the options you've suggested here, my recommendation would be to go for a smaller consulting firm - although pick carefully! I smaller firm would enable you to get a broad range of core consulting skills - which would make you more attractive to a top tier firm. You need to start thinking about your "sale-ability" - and establish a track record that consulting clients would find attractive.

Thank you, I think I know what you mean, at the end of the day the consulting company I’ll work for will have to sell me onto some clients and I need to be sold because of some sort of recognisable and sellable skill I have on the CV. I am a bit too much of a generalist as I had changed area so many times, possibly the only common trait across my experiences is sales. I can sell and I know how different companies in different sectors go to market and I have a consultative, highly analytical approach compared to a standard product sales man. Maybe I should get a job with a company like MarketBridge (but they are looking for 5-7 years experience) or the like of Gartner, Forrester, IDC… or stay where I am now for 2 more years and gain more experience. Anyone else with some more ideas please?