The Best and the Worst Parts of Consulting Life

THE GOOD & THE BAD

OF MANAGEMENT CONSULTING LIFE

the good & the bad

of management consulting life

Listen: Nice What – Drake

“Workin' hard, girl, everything paid for

First, last phone bill, car note, cable

With your phone out, gotta hit them angles

With your phone out, snappin' like you Fabo

And you showin' off, but it's alright

And you showin' off, but it's alright (alright!)

It's a short life, yeah”

The Best Parts of Management Consulting

The sell is, if you’re going into consulting, chances are someone has told you it’s a coveted industry/job and the title sounds cool [opens a lot of doors]. I don’t want to sell you on that. Instead, I’d like to focus on the fact(s):

You’ll Be Exposed to All Sorts of Industries, Fortune 500 Companies, and the Corporate World at Its Finest

The truth is, the work isn’t that glamorous – at least early on – but you are exposed to the insides of numerous Fortune 500 companies and a diverse set of industries that you’ll soon learn how they work. What does it mean to operate within a large multi-billion-dollar company? How do all departments come together to make the many business strategies function? How is the orchestration? What are stakeholders like and how did the executives with power get to where they are today? Who are you?

I’ll come back to “Who are you”, I promise. That wasn’t a typo, lol.

You’ll Meet Intelligent People Who Will Challenge You

I’ve met some of my best friends in consulting and a reason for that is due to the very nature that I love nerds – I mean smart people. I like to be challenged and it’s refreshing to look beside me and always be learning more. I never feel like the smartest person in the room.

You’ll Get to Travel and See the World in a New Light

While this depends on the firm you’re in and the office you’re based out of, most manage consultants get to travel for their cases. I had the chance to travel to the Bay area and understand how the landscape of software tech worked, and then the world of wealth management in New York. Toronto, London? Check, check. I got to understand at a deep level the typical industries that drive the economy for those cities in stereotypical ways but, I couldn’t be more grateful. What players are in those cities and markets? How does the ecosystem function? What is the dress, the language, political climate? All of these intricate details I was able to learn on the job.  

You’ll Learn More About Yourself Than Ever Before

Who are you? I told you I’d come back to it.

I used to complain about consulting because I felt like I learned more about myself than hard skills I was yearning for. While I looked down on soft skills before, I’m glad I learned a lot about myself…and if that was the greater focus, so be it. Ultimately, emotional intelligence is more important and if you get to fail and learn from yourself, you’ll be prepared to handle tough challenges along the way.

The Worst Parts of Management Consulting

You Have to Be Flexible  

Consulting is all about the client. You’ll often hear management directors and partners go on and on about making the client happy. It’s ultimately like working in the service industry…well it is called “professional services”. So, that means the culture of consulting is rooted in having consultants be “flexible” to the point of putting their lives last. Family, social life and health are not the priority, and that can be hard to reconcile with. For instance, if you’re paying $4K for an apartment in San Francisco, where you’re based, but a client needs you to travel Mon – Thurs to Chicago for 6 months, you may not be able to push back. It’s part of the job.

Management of Egos

Professional services are provided by people where a consulting firm’s greatest asset is its people. People are complicated. And where there is money and power, a lot of decision-making and strategy is like a game of chess and sometimes it feels like you’re working in the management of egos industry…not management consulting.

You May Not Be Able to Specialize in What You Want

At a certain point, you’ll have to decide what industry or function within consulting you’d like to specialize in. While its good to have an inclining for what kind of work you want to do to get promoted within the group or specialty of your choice, it’s very hard to do without luck / cards falling into place. Most of the time you’ll be given assignments you may not want because of the market, where you’re based, availability of projects and other external reasons.

The Corporate Diary

---