Yvonne Thompson is a tax partner with PwC and heads up the firm’s global aviation leasing tax network. Her work involves clients in banking and insurance as well as leasing and sees her working with colleagues and clients across multiple time zones and a business trip to San Francisco presents the opportunity to market Ireland to potential clients.

A career in financial services consulting can provide so many very different career paths and learning opportunities, that it's a good idea not to start out in this career with too fixed an idea of what you will be doing, recommends Gillian Comerford, who works with Accenture. Consultants need to be able to listen, be flexible, and be open to exploring every opportunity that comes along, she says, as sometimes the greatest and most unexpected of outcomes can stem from what initially appear to be very mundane opportunities.