The usual with consulting. Your job changes with different projects especially at Sr Consultant level. Once you become a manager you are generally involved in project delivery with little time for anything else.
A mentor program has been started in 2008 which should improve the year-end review process. Before this program, the project manager who you last worked with was responsible for representing you in round tables. It could happen that you worked multiple projects in a year but are stuck with latest manager. Additionally, appraisals and promotion are somewhat based on round tables so even though your manager thinks you deserve a promotion it may not happen depending on how much he sells you and how the company, account and your project have performed.
Networking is important to know about new opportunities. Internal requirements are not posted on the intranet and you need to either contact the staffing manager or know about projects from your internal network.