You are a consultant who just got laid off. Here is what is actually happening.

Where your skills transfer

Adjacent industries hiring people with your background.

Not retraining tracks — places that already pay for what you do.

In-house strategy and operations roles

Many ex-consultants land best in in-house strategy or business operations roles at companies that have always hired from consulting. Healthcare, finance, and large industrials in particular treat consulting alumni as a primary talent pool.

• Strategic operations lead at a health system
• Corporate strategy at a bank
• Strategy and ops at a large industrial firm

Healthcare and life sciences consulting and in-house roles

Health systems, payers, medtech, and life sciences companies are among the most active hirers of consultants in the current market. They want operators who can run cross-functional change with executive partnership.

• Health system strategy director
• Pharma corporate strategy
• Medtech operations strategy

Financial services and insurance corporate strategy

Banks, insurers, and asset managers have always hired ex-consultants for corporate development, strategy, and transformation roles. The work is structured, the comp is competitive, and the layoff cycles are rarer than tech.

• Bank corporate strategy
• Insurance transformation lead
• Asset management strategy associate

Boutique and specialised consulting firms

Boutique firms in specific verticals — healthcare strategy, climate, cyber, life sciences — are still hiring at senior associate and manager levels and pay competitively. The work is more focused and the firms are often more humane than the major firms.

• Healthcare strategy boutique consultant
• Climate-tech boutique consultant
• Cybersecurity advisory consultant