Firm and team size have a huge impact on your ability to learn and add value quickly. Larger, more organized companies will typically allow you to take advantage of training, processes, client base, and candidate base. Larger companies have typically been around longer and have had greater resources to build the systems that are often key to their success. In this more structured environment, new hires can typically slot into a less expansive role that can be learned quickly.

Firm and team size have a huge impact on your ability to learn and add value quickly. But there is a downside.

The downside is that a larger firm can slow your ability to become a truly independent and well-rounded consultant. In a smaller firm, scrapping around for clients and candidates forces you to refine all aspects of how you do the job. You might make a bit less money for a while but you will walk away with a broader skillset. And learning this self-sufficiency earlier can mean quicker career development as you become more marketable more quickly.

If you are more cooperative than competitive, you`ll save yourself a lot of frustration by trying to identify companies that have a more cooperative culture. If you like to drink and socialize a lot, you`ll probably want to check the average age of the consultants within the company or team you`re applying to. If you perform better with a hands-on manager who pushes you, try to figure out if the team you`ll be joining fits that.

If you are more cooperative than competitive, you`ll save yourself a lot of frustration by trying to identify companies that have a more cooperative culture.

And if you are generally self-motivated and results-oriented, you might prefer a company that doesn`t place a high priority on granular KPIs. (OTOH, if you can`t produce revenue consistently, at some point you`ll be accountable for your performance regardless of KPIs. Sometimes it`s better to have baseline KPIs to keep you on track.)

Another important question regards who “owns” the candidates and clients. When you make a placement, will you be credited for the candidate portion of the placement? Or put another way, if you sourced a candidate who ends up getting placed by someone else, will you be credited for the candidate side of the placement?

There is no best/worst answer to this but a firm`s policy on candidate/client ownership can tell you a lot about how it prioritizes and rewards work.

There is no best/worst answer to this but a firm`s policy on candidate/client ownership can tell you a lot about how it prioritizes and rewards work.

The same for Clients. Some firms organize their consulting teams by Function & Industry, with client ownership spread out over a variety of Front and Back Office teams that are further split out by industries. This can be a nightmare for clients having 7 or 8 consultants repping the same agency across different role functions. But it can be great for consultants who can leverage the business development that is done across the company.

Conversely, some companies have a Client ownership structure where a consultant will handle all or most roles within his/her clients. This is great for clients since they tend to only deal with a couple of consultants from the firm. And it tends to ensure greater knowledge and understanding of the firm and its culture by the consultant. But from an agency perspective, this structure can be less efficient than a highly segmented approach based on role specialization.