I'm a management consultant, ask me anything.

[Mc1234]

Might not be the juiciest thread, hoping to be helpful to those who are considering to work in consulting, so ask me anything!

Are you like Beth on Yellowstone?!

What do you actually do? Have always wondered…

How have things changed since covid. Do you find clients are still expecting most of your work to be delivered remotely or are things shifting back to lots of travel and being away from home?

What exactly is your job? Probably a real dunce question but I actually have no idea.

How much to do you earn ? I have had several conversations with consultants who say I would make a good one but I warn well client side.

can it be family friendly . I current work from home . Would you have to be on site loads to be a successful consultant ? How does it fit with family life .

Is being a management consultant your dream job? The understanding I have is that a firm gets the management consultants in and then a load of people get made redundant. The employees left behind get a much increased workload. And the consultants earn a very fat fee.

Depends on the project but usually around analysing client's processes and finding improvement opportunities based on the industry data and our respective functional expertise. I do a lot of project management too!
A lot of my colleagues write thought papers to help clients make informed decisions and do round table discussions.
I do admit I finish some projects feeling as though we left a bunch of slides but a lot of the times we deliver a tangible product!

"Management consultants help organisations to solve issues, create value, maximise growth and improve business performance. They use their business skills to provide objective advice and expertise, and help an organisation to develop any specialist skills that it may be lacking."

From google

I could be wrong but I guess Beth is more stock market type, dealing with mergers, acquisitions , the stocks and shares side of banking and finance.

Yes it absolutely can but I must say you need to find your lot. I would look beyond big 4 and consider boutique companies. We are a global one but much smaller than the obvious ones and a lot of my colleagues do school drop offs at home. I work from home a lot, which helps with a toddler!

What was your career route to this job? What steps led to this?

And I meant to say - I earn around 80k, mid level manager.

What is your view on the 2008 financial crisis ?
How or what do you think were the main drivers of it all.

No, but that's me. I don't find any office job a dream job, they aren't that important in my opinion! Having said that, I enjoy my job. Every day is different, there is no repetition (drives me insane) and I analyze, think and read a lot. Can be very stressful but it pays my bills and I prefer it over other jobs I could do!

If I give you my watch, will you tell me the time?

Yes! There is a lot more remote work going on. There is some gradual return but I don't think it will go back to where it was. Precovid I used to travel and stay overnight a lot, I can't imagine it being like that anymore. I tend to go to the office 1-2 times a week.

Is there snobbery in the industry between the McKinsey and Bain types and the more run of the mill Big 4 consultants?

I worked in another industry in Finance for about 10 years. Then got really bored with the routine and wanted to change countries, so did an MBA. Consulting is a pretty typical route after an MBA for many - it helped me move countries which was what I wanted at the time. I noticed I really enjoyed the job and stayed!

How many hours a week do you work?

Varies a lot! Some weeks 60+ hours (not that often) and some weeks much less than normal, especially in the beginning of the year because we don't have many projects. In my experience it's the stress levels that can be very high is the problem. Stakes get high, the clients can be awful, you might have to produce work on the spot. It took me a while to learn how to keep my anxiety under control. People who are at the top are working insane hours - close to 100 and I have zero interest in that.

Yes can be sometimes but then you come across with attitude like that everywhere

No, because you'll charge me £600 p/h plus expenses.

Have you ever been given a something to review, like a process or a team structure and genuinely thought that it couldn't be improved. What do you do in that situation?

Or if you can't genuinely add value or improvement do you just fudge it?

How do you manage the delimma between income generation v the need to recommend something even if unnecessary?

That's a tough one, you need to take the executive sponsor's steer on the strategy. We usually try to position it as a challenge to our seniors rather than "we are blocked" as you are supposed to be seen as resourceful and constructive.
Some clients genuinely only pay for the analysis, so no problem with being honest there. When it comes to recommending a solution just for money, we tend to have to leave it to the senior management but with an eye on our reputation. Some people just don't like how the seniors are leading in these cases and leave as they feel as though they are always uttering BS!

What is the route to this career? Can you spell it out?

I'm 40 and have worked in many different organisations and implemented systems.

Could I get into it? I've been self-employed doing minute taking since 2015.