The business of consulting is large. In 2000, over 140,000 consultants sold over $70 billion of advice. Today, technology planning, strategic services and enterprise consulting represent 35 percent, 20 percent and 15 percent roughly of the worldwide consulting spending.

It is very hard to break into the top firms in consulting like Bain, McKinsey and Mercer Management Consulting. McKinsey hiring chief Howard Williams targets hiring at top MBA schools including Harvard Business School, Wharton, Stanford, Sloan (MIT), Kellogg (Northwestern) and INSEAD. That said, the firm hires heavily at these schools. Ten percent of the 1993 Harvard graduating class went to work for McKinsey.

Integrated or not, the pursuit of specialized knowledge is rising rapidly. Firms are looking for consultants with very specific knowledge in areas like logistics management, knowledge management, data warehousing, multimedia, client-server development, sales force automation, electronic commerce, brand management and value management.

Some of the best people in consulting work in small firms. The reason is that the best people may prefer the autonomy and impact that they can have there. The responsibilities of a consultant are significant, regardless of the size of the practice. Its much more like being an attorney; an attorney in a small firm can have a very large case.

While consulting firms have traditionally targeted MBA students, they are becoming more willing to hire students with Ph.D degrees, lawyers and engineers and put them through business training. McKinsey has a 30-day mini-MBA course.

That said, its important to show an open mind as an engineer or techie entering consulting. While consulting firms are always looking for sharp people with good analytical skills, surprisingly they are often hesitant to hire engineers because of fear that they can't break out of the box. Rigid thinking that cant adapt to business situtations is the worry. A good way to get a consulting position with engineering experience is to convey flexible thinking in an interview. Even better would be successful business experience where you applied your engineering know-how to solve a business problem.

"Relationship consulting" is on the rise. This involves working with a company over many years to ensure continued monitoring, discussion and implementation of new ideas.

SBU analysis is hot. If you can go into a firm and analyze which strategic business units are profitable and which are not, youll be of interest to consulting firms. If a telecom firm has a lousy phone cord manufacturing operation, outsource it. If your company has a low cost, profitable engine making operation, keep it. Maybe grow it. Consultants have lots of names for this type of thinking like growth share matrix analysis, ABM etc.

Yet another hot practice area is value management. Value management is the practice of creating incentives in an organization to maximize cash flow returned to shareholders as measured by the change in a firms market value over time. A lot of firms provide value management services. The best ones back it up with training and communication for clients up and down the organization in order to create real change.

One of the largest practice areas is health care. Health care payment and delivery systems are changing rapidly, generating high demand for consultants to help health care organizations change through alliances, innovation, management care, access strategies and quality improvement.