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!

Appreciate the honest answer.

I think there's a lot of value in some management consulting but loathe the fact that sometimes the need to present a proposal, recommendation or change for the sake of justifying the invoice drives me over the edge!

I would much prefer an honest review and recommend the the strenghts be highlighted snd embedded to other practices or areas of the organisation.

But your point re the sponsor guidelines is very helpful.

Requesting a review rather than requiring recommendations may help. Thank you.

Oooh, I was a MC. I look back now and cringe at the charges clients paid for a bunch of 25-30 year olds who were undoubtedly very smart, but we def lacked experience. I do think that the world would be a better place if we had actually worked in those client organisations as full time staff, committed to that industry. But the pay could never match what we made as MCs, so going in-house would never have happened. It’s a bit like grammar schools creaming off the top students.

Without knowing about your exact expertise / experience, I have a lot of colleagues who do technical implementation. We actually have a few implementation partners eg solution / platform providers. It needs to be bundled up with a process improvement recommendation, meaning the solution should deliver productivity improvements. Technical implementation colleagues tend to understand business challenges and know how to deliver good presentations, so that tends to be the rough prerequisite as they are client facing.

Without being too outing, some companies do qualitative analyses comparing you to your competitors in the same industry, so you can trace where the recommendations are coming from and why they come up with the recommendations they are coming up.

Sorry meant to say quantitative analysis, not qualitative!

So what's the possible route in?

A job?

A course?

Something freelance?

I already help a friend with his business, so I am doing that, but it's informal

I would say a job rather than freelance, you can apply for jobs at different levels depending on your experience. Lots of people have master's, but a lot of them don't, so I wouldn't necessarily say a course / training is needed. It might help to get certifications accepted in your area but again depends on the role and definitely not a dealbreaker.

Could you please recommend degree apprenticeships that could help my son get into Management consultancy after he takes his A levels? If they exist that is!

I work for a similar company in a similar role.

Has your company faced redundancy rounds this year due to market dropping off?

80k is a low salary for a consultant if you work FT

I’m ex consulting. I was also support staff at McKinsey before.

There were bits of the job that were fantastic but a lot that wasn’t.

How do you find the ‘extra curricular’ busy work in your firm? Pre kids I quite enjoyed it, but after my first I started to really resent ‘practice development’.

My team is growing like crazy due to a number of different factors this year, but we had a very bad 2020. Utilisation levels dropped, deals got delayed and we lost about 20% of staff. Was tough.

Not working for them but I know PWC, KPMG and Deloitte have reputable programs!

Ha! I always hated them 😂 nowadays I play the "I have a young family" card to skip the evening events. The team is understanding as long as you do your job!

The big 4 have good training programs. It is hard to get in a lot of work, but a good start. Research for apprenticeship in Delloite, EY, PWC and KPMG.

I have left and never looked back. What are you doing now?

If you were to leave do you know what exit options would you consider?

@exstrategyconsultant i left to be a SAHM. I’m about to retrain in a semi medical type role.

In my 20s it was so much fun. I hated every second when I went back after my first baby. I literally counted down the days to my second maternity leave knowing I wasn’t going back.

I actually have two in mind. One is starting a business, actually working on a business plan as a side hassle but going very slow with full time job and DS. The other is going back to the industry as a financial controller as I'm a qualified accountant. I know I would find it really boring though, I was a junior controller for years before consulting.

I’m about to make the move over to consulting after only having a career in my area (which I will be consulting on). I’ve got two young kids and worried about how much work it would be. However the sector I’m already in is known for being hardcore. They made me an offer I couldn’t refuse to hopefully I will like it.

any advice?

Do you have a sales target? I suspect you are too junior at that salary.
How will you achieve a sales target, or are you happy to stay as a consultant level forever?

I get what you mean. Having my child made me prioritise myself. Finding a suitable next step actually took me a while. Breaking into a new industry was hard. But now I make so much more, I am more valued. I can't believe I worked so much for such a soulless organisation

Have you actually managed anything yourself? I ask because I've come across management consultants who had CVs full
of qualifications but had never actually run anything bar a bath.

@exstrategyconsultant i think things might be changing a bit at my old place. When I left they’d not had anyone return from a second maternity leave. There was only 1 women at director level and non more senior. That woman was also child free.

Given that our specialism was a traditionally female dominated profession it was awful. We’d be female heavy at entry level but they’d all leave.

Now I know there are a couple of senior women who have a young child. Still don’t think anyone’s managed to stay with more than 1 though.