Anyone work in consulting?

[goldengirlz]

A recruiter from one of the big consulting firms reached out about a position that fits my skill set, and I’m intrigued.

Other than frequent travel, I know nothing about consulting. (They only said 20%, which sounds reasonable to me, but who knows.)

I’m curious about what the culture is like. I’m used to working in an industry where everyone wears jeans to work and knocks off at 5pm and the entire experience (from the free food to the wellness perks) is about keeping employees happy. Is consulting a gig where people are generally happy to be doing it, or just trying to muscle through until they move on to something else? Does seniority matter?

[ellipses84]

I don’t think my experience is aligned with what you are describing, but I’ll share anyways. I started my own consulting business last year but I’m basically still doing a similar role, as my own boss, providing my own benefits and equipment. I can go work in the offices of those I consult for but I typically don’t (Covid plus I like WFH).

I used to work at an international firm that had a consulting department within my large office. Most of the people in that department came from a similar background to me, but their experience made them subject matter experts and they preferred more of a niche role. Our work is project based and a traditional role would be a team-member from start to finish, but our consulting colleagues would only be involved for a short time for a specific task that aligned with their niche. They spent a lot of time with clients, so I’d say they were only in the office 50% of the time but out of city travel could be as low as 20% for people who didn’t seek out travel (we had lots of offices and not many had in-house consulting so some people volunteered to travel). When they were in the office, they did a lot of data analysis and reports of their findings from clients. From a benefits and retention standpoint, they were viewed the same as any other employee. Culturally it was the same - dependent on office and city - our southern offices were pretty formal, our west coast offices were very causal, but any time you were client facing you’d dress nicer (in a way that was acceptable for the clients office or the region).

[scm1011]

I work for a global consulting firm (but a tier below McKinsey or Bain) and there is definitely no knocking off at 5pm where I work. I’m in a non-consulting role, but consulting staff regularly works 60+ hour weeks and it’s not uncommon for them to still be plugging away at midnight.

A good friend has been at McKinsey for many years and it’s a similar dynamic for her.

[aprilsails]

A good friend works for Deloitte in Canada and it is not a casual job nor a 9-5 job by any means. I know he has some big perks monetarily, he gets long breaks between assignments sometimes if he wants to go on a month(s) long vacation, but it’s never really on his schedule. He’s a major rover and I had to laugh when he moved to my town for at least two years and was talking about settling down and having a family (I’m not kidding when I say that Ottawa is known for a high marriage rate), and was gone within 3 months. We saw him twice.

[scout8]

I've had a lot of friends who were consultants (especially right out of college) and it always seemed like a long hours, high stress job.

[laterz]

This was 20y ago, but I did out of college for 8y. Lots of travel, lots of work and long hours, high client expectations. And a lot of fun as I was single. That being said, it taught me a lot and I was very well positioned for local jobs when I left (both in terms of opportunity and salary.)

If I had to do it again, I would. As a single 20-something.

But as a 40-something, hell no.

[MrsE]

I’ve worked in the Consulting practice of a big 4 firm. I am currently in an internal role, supporting the Consulting practice. Feel free to PM me any questions or I can try to reply here. Which firm contacted you?

[sandandsea]

I’ll echo the others. Any “big” consulting firm will require long hours and late nights. Making clients happy is key and bending over backwards for them is expected. I’d expect 50 hour weeks year long and a requirement for weekends and late nights as needed and at a moments notice. The pay and benefits are good and it can be a great, rewarding career, but it’s a lifestyle, not a job.

ETA. Especially right now the market is crazy hot and the firms can’t find talent. So all firms are looking and hours are crazy because there is so much work to do.

[steamboat185]

Almost everyone I was friends with was in consulting at some point and no one still does it. The travel always seemed to be more than expected and the hours are long. A lot of friends did it for a year or two in part to get status with airlines and hotels and the cred on their resume then moved onto something better.

[goldengirlz]

Thanks everyone!

The pay might actually be less than I’m making now so it might not be worth it (though, in theory, all the international travel sounds pretty cool.) The base salary range is $30-50k more, but so much of my total comp comes from bonus and equity that it could be a wash, at least in the beginning (I’m not really clear on how their bonus structure works).

I’ll hear them out but I’m leery about giving up a unicorn job. Usually people leave finance and consulting to go into my industry — not so much vice versa (unless it’s one of those coveted VC jobs)!

ETA: And actually, I was working on a project once with someone who had just been hired from a consulting firm. He was THE WORST. He was so competitive and demanding. I like him now, but it took him a good year to settle in and calm the F down about everything. Several people had problems with him, and the excuse was always, “He came from consulting; he’s not used to our culture.”

[shortstax]

I would for a boutique consulting firm, and although our culture is more "mild" than top tier firms, it's still demanding. I came into from the world of Higher Ed and the gap of getting accustomed to all work requests being considered reasonable took me a while.

ie--weekend meetings on occasion, new assignments at 5pm due to client by 830am next day, stuff like that.

The weird thing is, I don't think it has to be this way. However, so many managing directors went through this grind (and are still in it) so from my perspective, there's a lot of "that's how it is, I had to go through it, you do great work--I know you'll make it work, etc." There have been a few times where I've been all "ask for forgiveness, not permission" with a few clients and it's turned out FINE (as in "can I get this to you on Wednesday instead of Tuesday?) Not everyone has this leeway though.

In your interview I'd ask what the standard utilization rate is for people in this role in the group. It may help you estimate the level of grind in that environment. Here's a quick rundown of the (flawed, IMO) metric: www.thebalancecareers.com/staff-utilization-rate-in-consulting-firms-1286921

[jaylea]

In consulting firms, the more hours you work, the more money they make. I’ve worked in three. I’d be hard pressed to try a 4th as I had zero work life balance.

You won’t be “knocking off at 5” in my experience. And I’ve had consultants literally in another state while partners are giving birth at home. It’s wild and not sustainable for a lot of people.

[rikki]

I worked at a large consulting firm for years. Traveled most weeks and never worked fewer than 55 hours a week, not taking in account team dinners, etc. It was definitely not sustainable and something I would consider doing now with kids but I did love the work.