Take your next step

We don’t define your career stage by one fixed number of years. Two people with similar experience on paper can be looking for very different things. What matters more is the professional foundation you already have and what you want from your work now. Our career framework also looks at how you work and the impact you have, not at years of experience. Take your next step is aimed at professionals who want to deepen or broaden their expertise, take on more complex challenges or increase the responsibility and impact of their work.

Yes. Growth at AE does not automatically mean moving into people management. You can deepen your expertise, broaden your scope, take on more complex responsibilities, coach others, contribute to an expertise area or move closer to strategic work. The question is not simply which title comes next. It is which direction makes your expertise and contribution stronger.

Potentially, yes. Your existing experience remains your foundation. Depending on your expertise, ambitions and the opportunities available, you can explore another technology, client context, responsibility or expertise area. People within AE have already made non-linear career moves between technical, analytical, strategic and other roles. The aim is not to ignore what you already know, but to find ways to build on it in a different direction.

Your development remains your responsibility, but you do not have to make every decision alone. Your Long Term Coach gives you a perspective beyond your current project. You can discuss longer term ambitions, the expertise you want to develop, whether you need a different challenge and which people or opportunities within AE could help. Depending on your project and context, your Short Term Coach can also remain an important point of contact for feedback and your daily professional environment.

You are actively involved in project matching. When an opportunity comes up, we look at your expertise and experience, but also at your ambitions, the complexity of the work, the responsibilities you could take on, location, timing and the client’s needs. You can discuss which roles and contexts appeal to you and use the client conversation to assess the opportunity yourself. That does not mean every project is available whenever you want it. Consultancy comes with real constraints. But a client saying yes does not automatically mean the decision has been made without you.

Raise it. A long client relationship can be valuable. You build trust, understand the organisation more deeply and can often take on greater responsibility over time. But if the work becomes too familiar, your development slows down or the context no longer fits where you want to go, you can discuss that with your coach, business unit or allocation team. Together, you can look at whether a different responsibility within the same context, a broader role or another assignment would make more sense.

No. Changing projects is not a goal in itself. Staying with one client for longer can give you deeper expertise, stronger relationships and more responsibility. A different context becomes relevant when it adds something that your current one no longer does. The question is not how often you move. It is whether your current context still lets you learn, contribute and develop.

Your development does not have to stop between projects. That time can be used to explore new opportunities, sharpen your direction with your Long Term Coach, follow training or certifications, explore new technologies, contribute to internal projects or propositions, share knowledge and expand your network within AE. The goal remains to find a relevant next client assignment. The period in between can still be used to strengthen what you bring to it.

Yes. As your expertise grows, there are more ways to use it beyond one assignment. You can contribute to knowledge communities, internal training, coaching, account development, new propositions, internal initiatives, thought leadership or external talks and events. How much you take on depends on your interests, role and client context. The point is that your contribution does not have to stop at the edge of your project.

That is an important part of the experience AE wants to create for experienced professionals. Your professional network goes beyond the people on your current project. Through business units, knowledge communities, account teams and internal knowledge sharing, you can connect with colleagues working on similar challenges in different contexts. The aim is not for you to always be the most experienced person in the room. You should also have people around you who question your assumptions, bring another perspective and keep your expertise sharp.

AI is not treated as a separate career path that replaces the expertise you already have. For experienced professionals, the focus is on combining existing domain knowledge with new AI capabilities. That can mean identifying where AI genuinely creates value, judging quality and risk, redesigning processes or translating technical possibilities into business value. Your experience remains the foundation. The tools around it keep evolving.

That depends on your role and client assignment. AE has offices in Leuven, Antwerp, Ghent and Hasselt, and many of our clients are based in Brussels. For most consultancy roles, client presence is part of the job. In practice, that usually means two to three days a week on site, with flexibility around travel time, not a daily commute. We discuss location and mobility early in the recruitment process, so you know what a role involves before you decide.