FAQs

We work with clients of all shapes and sizes from many different industries. Our consultants commonly help ambitious organisations improve their market position, explore investment opportunities, and revise their business strategies. For a full range of project specific examples, please see our client case studies.

Our pro bono consultants are expected to spend 10-12 hours per week individually on their project and to meet their colleagues once a week in Central London.

There are three project cycles per year, starting in late September, January and June. The duration of a standard project is usually around ten weeks. Applications are open year-round, but we encourage you to apply at your earliest convenience so that we can discuss your application in detail.

In a standard project, there are 6-7 volunteers who work with our core team members and we manage every project professionally.

The team meetings are organised collectively at the beginning of each week, depending on the availability of each individual team member. In instances where team members are not available during business hours, we meet during the evening or at the weekend. The meetings take place in Central London.

As a not-for-profit social enterprise, our guiding mission is to help volunteers from of all backgrounds and age groups gain career-enhancing work experience – primarily ambitious university students and recent graduates with a wide range of prior experience. In order to achieve our mission, we need to maintain the autonomy to select, train, and work with volunteers of our own choosing. Therefore we intentionally do not ask our clients to budget for the remuneration of our volunteers – meaning that all of our pro bono consultants work on a voluntary basis. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us.

This depends on the project and the availability of our clients. In some cases our teams provide consulting services to organisations based outside the UK. Therefore it might be hard to arrange physical meetings with the clients in such scenarios. However, in a standard project, all of our volunteers directly collaborate with their clients, even if this is achieved primarily by means of online communication. There will usually be a final client presentation at the end of each project during which all volunteers are invited to make an equal contribution.

We make every effort to offer a choice of multiple projects to each successful candidate in order to try to match their preferences and specific project ambitions. Despite this, it may not always be possible for each candidate to be assigned to their first-choice project.

We look for our mentors to become role models to ambitious university students and recent graduates volunteering with our team. Our mentors share their knowledge, experience and expertise to help support the career progression of these volunteers. This can be done in several ways, from holding group mentoring sessions, pairing up one-on-one with one of our volunteers or running a training session aimed at developing valuable skills. Our mentors sometimes even organise workplace insights by inviting volunteers to visit their company. For further details, please see www.firststepconsulting.co.uk/mentoring

The amount of time which you dedicate to the mentoring sessions is determined at your own convenience. We seek to work flexibly with our mentors and do not ask for a fixed commitment. You can meet with us periodically or sporadically, and the sessions usually last between 45-60 minutes.

Some of our mentors live outside the Greater London area - if you are not able to meet in Central London for any reason, we are happy to organise online conference calls as an alternative.

We believe professionals with a number of years of full-time experience can reflect on their own career paths more effectively and easily. This is required to be able to share useful suggestions and insights with our ambitious volunteers. At the same time, we understand that entry level professionals often feel that they should fully focus on their own professional development at the start of their career. Despite this, please don’t hesitate to make contact with us even if you have less than two years professional work experience, as there may be alternative ways for you to support our mission.

Our mentors are successful individuals coming from a range of professional services industries, such as finance, healthcare, law, engineering and technology. We believe that such individuals can offer wisdom and advice which transcends the specific intricacies of their own industries, offering insights into professional life that can support the career progression of any and all of our volunteers.

Please feel free to contact us at your earliest convenience. We aim to organise mentoring sessions throughout the year.

You can meet your mentees either in person or through an online conference. We try to organise these meetings at your own convenience, whether that is during business hours, in the evening or at the weekend.

Yes, all of mentors generously support the ambitious university students and recent graduates in our team by donating their time.

Please fill out the contact form at www.firststepconsulting.co.uk/get-involved. We will contact you shortly to answer your questions and to tell you more about our programme.

First Step Consulting has pioneered a new model of management consulting that is the first of its kind. We recruit and professionally train ambitious and hardworking volunteers from many different backgrounds and age groups to work with us on consulting projects. Supported by our dedicated volunteers, we help an eclectic mix of clients develop effective business strategies.

This model uniquely equips us to serve organisations of all sizes, from early-stage ventures to large enterprises, as it allows us to minimise unnecessary expenses and bring more value to our clients for a fraction of the cost.

For more information about what makes us different, please visit www.firststepconsulting.co.uk/our-difference

We work closely with our clients to understand their specific needs and conduct extensive research to gather a wealth of information for each client. In every project, our team meticulously analyse research findings and provide clients with practical recommendations. To learn about what we offer to clients, please see: www.firststepconsulting.co.uk/services

Our range of services includes:

– Customer Strategy
– Market Entry Strategy
– Competitive Intelligence
– Growth Discovery
– Global Expansion
– Health Technology Economics
– Brand Strategy
– Product Development
– Talent Strategy
– Fundraising Strategy

First Step Consulting adopts an industry agnostic approach and our pioneering business model enables us to serve clients of all shapes and sizes. For more information, please see: www.firststepconsulting.co.uk/who-we-serve

Our core team members professionally manage every project and closely collaborate with clients to assure quality throughout the entire process. They work directly on every assignment, train and lead our volunteers, and create a rigorous foundation for each consulting project.

Our team of volunteers includes undergraduate and postgraduate students, recent graduates, MBA and PhD candidates, and working professionals. After carefully selecting and professionally training our volunteers, we assign them a management consulting project for which they are best suited. Our volunteers dedicate a minimum of 10-12 hours per person per week to their assigned project. In every project, they conduct targeted research and extensive analysis under our close supervision.

Yes. Using modern means of communication, we are able to effectively serve clients based outside the UK.

Since our inception in 2014, we have managed to successfully deliver over 40 major management consulting projects. To see the wide range of projects we have previously worked on, please take a look at our client case studies: www.firststepconsulting.co.uk/past-projects

In order to protect their confidentiality, we do not disclose any reference which may reveal the identity of our clients in any case study. For more information, please see: www.firststepconsulting.co.uk/client-confidentiality

We are happy to answer your questions. Please follow the link below to tell us about your organisation and outline your enquiry: www.firststepconsulting.co.uk/submit-rfp

You will be contacted shortly.

We primarily aim to help ambitious university students and recent graduates aged 25 or under to get a better start in their professional life by gaining career-enhancing work experience. Our volunteers work with us on challenging management consultancy projects in their spare time, gaining an insight into the working world and developing transferable skills valued by employers.

At the same time, we strive to help purposeful organisations gain access to high quality management consulting services. Traditional consulting firms normally work with highly resourced corporations. First Step Consulting has pioneered a new model of management consulting that enables us to serve clients of all shapes and sizes.

Since our first project cycle in January 2015, we have rigorously selected, trained and guided over three hundred volunteers through our programme. See what our former volunteers say about their experience: www.firststepconsulting.co.uk/testimonials

We are currently operating from London, United Kingdom.

We are happy to cooperate with all inquisitive university students and recent graduates who are proficient in English. To submit your application please visit www.firststepconsulting.co.uk/publish-articles

For general enquiries and more information, please fill out the contact form at www.firststepconsulting.co.uk/contact