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Haven't posted in a while, but I've been keeping up with the casts - I consider them essential to my career and future. As always, gotta thank you guys for doing these :)

Anyways, the subject of my post...

In my job, I started as an Associate Consultant - essentially, my job description is working with a Consultant or higher level person by doing a bit of design (audiovisual and telecommunications) on CAD, and maybe a few documents (all pre-done stuff). I have furthered myself to the point where I've been out doing marketing work, such as interviews with prospective clients, managing budgets, so on and so forth. This year, I've gone far past my job description, and I believe it will be recognized as I get to move into more of a project management role. However, I fear I may be stuck here - I couldn't afford to go to college, and couldn't get financial aid. As a result, I'm 25 and in a good job, but without the paperwork to back up my claims of what I know.

Now my question to all of you is, in general, what would you consider a necessary next step? From a technical standpoint, those within the firm feel very comfortable with what I'm capable of Within my industry (which is a pretty small group), others either know me and what I can do, or recognize what I can do through the company - again, from a technical design standpoint.

Aside from continuing listening to the words of wisdom found in the MT casts, what would you recommend I do to stand out in the future for high level positions? Is an MBA worth it? Should I at least get an associates degree?

I'm moving in with my parents for a bit for the... economical advantage :) So I'm thinking now is the time to consider school again. But is it necessary? As high-level personnel, would you turn someone qualified away because they don't have a degree?

If it helps, I've got my resume available - don't want to post it up for general reasons of privacy (such as home number and address), but I'll send it if someone wants to look.

Thanks in advance!

CuCullin's picture

I thought I should clarify what the positions are - I just realized how little I explained :)

In my area, these are the positions:

Associate Consultant - as mentioned, some CAD work, and a little designing and budgeting
Consultant - Previous, plus managing smaller projects, and sometimes having Associate Consultants assist them. Responsible for maintaining the budget for the project.
Senior Associate - Previous, managing large projects, with consultants and associate consultants assisting. Responsible for bringing in a small amount of business.
Senior Consultant - Previous, and responsible for bringing in regular business.
Discipline Manager (by office location, we are worldwide) - Management as could be assumed, plus acting as oversight on some projects.

Then its partner and up. Partners have projects dedicated to them, and while the consultants manage the projects, they have final say in their projects. Sometimes, projects end up being across multiple disciplines - we do AV, telecom, security, and acoustics. Some areas overlap, some don't. I guess that about covers it... though I may be exceedingly tired and forgetting something important :)