“An extra certification is only going to bring good things”

“It’s a badge of honour,” says Maria Fairbank-Azcarate MCMI ChMC, referring to her Chartered Management Consultant certificate, which takes pride of place on her office wall.

“I think there’s a misconception that a consultant is a bit of a jack of all trades, so it’s really nice to have that validation and recognition that consultancy is actually a profession.” 

It has even made an impression on her 94-year-old Spanish grandmother. 

“In Spain, they don’t recognise professions in the same way, so if you’re not a doctor or a lawyer, you’ve not done much. Now I can say: look, I’m Chartered, I’ve got a profession. My grandma’s definitely a lot harder to please than any client,” she laughs. 

Selling the dream

Maria is a senior manager in the UK at Capgemini Invent, the digital innovation, design and transformation brand of Capgemini. Over the past decade, she has worked across a wide range of industries in both the public and private sectors, often helping to build, maintain and lead services that form part of critical national infrastructure used by millions of people and which civil servants depend on every day. 

“When you’re running live services across seven government departments, the margin for error is zero.”