Konsultbranschens hunger efter egenskaper - En studie av tre konsultbranschers rekryteringsprocesser och sökta egenskaper
Consultancy as a profession has always been a debated topic and has constantly been surrounded with a kind of secrecy. People have a hard time defining what consultants actually do and how they do it. It seems that they are simply waving their magic wands, performing wonders. We have therefore decided that the purpose of this study is to unveil the secrecy around the profession. By conducting interviews and analysing literature we have examined recruitment processes in three different consulting industries and their wanted personal characteristics. By doing so we expect to explain why the recruitment process is so important for consultancy firms and how they contribute to the firm's performance. The paper focuses on the industries; IT-, PR- and Management consultancy. The theoretical framework includes theories of each industry as well as two main recruitment approaches; the psychometric approach and the social approach. The study then describes the shift that has happened towards the social approach, emphasizing the importance of personal characteristics and not just knowledge. When analysing the different recruitment processes against these two approaches we have derived some main conclusions. First we have identified that the three different industries actually have almost identical recruitment processes, secondly they are all seeking nearly identical personal characteristics. Since this paper is focusing on only three industries and firms there can be no general conclusions of the industry as such therefore we suggest further research.