EPTHi all, it's been about 3 years since I posted my last blog regarding my consulting career:
http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/428764-my-consulting-experience
I suppose it's a good time to write an addendum since so much has changed since then.
The initial bunch of advise and insights I wrote in regards to consulting still applies, but in many ways it was more of a guidance for entry level which obviously has evolved as my career progressed. Since the last blog I have left the consulting world and rejoined it and learned hell of a lot in between. I'm currently a Principal now and only one level detached from being a Partner (which I may or may not want to pursue).
Some of the key learnings I wanted share is really around what being a career consultant looks like, which seems to be the path I'm likely going to take.
So...around 2 years back I got to the point where I stopped learning and developing as fast as I was initially, it wasn't unexpected since I had been doing the whole consulting thing ever since I graduated. It was here that I faced two big hurdles:
Business Development: The issue was that for me to progress I had to start making sales, unfortunately I still look like a 16 year old kid, I also have very limited connections as all my friends are not at the C-suite level, this made the whole selling/business development issue very difficult for me, it was also something I have 0 interest in doing. I enjoyed doing deliverables, managing the team and client, presenting and so on.
Industry Experience: Further to this, I had effectively 0 industry experience, so when I had problems with my employee regarding certain issues and started looking for roles, I was getting constant pushback because I lacked the "industry experience" and it was very difficult to find a lateral move. All the offers I had was a junior role with a massive paycut (which I couldn't afford due to mortgages and getting married). I absolutely hated this, I hated being undervalued just because I haven't have the industry experience, I can understand it to a certain extent but in general I felt it was their loss (not trying to sound too highly of myself). I have demonstrated an ability to continuously succeed, in all client industries and all different type of roles, but I had being disqualified because I wasn't in an embedded role... suffice to say I was mad, moreover I felt I really needed the industry experience to build my skillset...it wasn't a great few months for me.
Industry
So when I was in junior roles, I was often getting job offers from the client to switch sides. But the economy started going to shits and it basically just stopped. Luckily for me I had a client who got bought out by Private Equity and needed high performance resources to help the transformation. I decided to make the jump, things were going ok but what most people said about industry was pretty accurate; it is incredibly slow, nobody gives a shit what you do and most of your colleagues are stupid. Even in a transformation environment where it's more likely to have a higher performing team, it was just unfulfilling. I won't get into the details but basically I got a new boss, who proceeded to throw me under the bus and I was made redundant after about 6 months. Figures show that on average a person gets made redundant twice in a lifetime, I will tell you it's the hardest thing to take. My whole life had been a cruise, everything went as planned and proceeded on my terms. This was a massive kick in the guts made even worse to the fact that I was about to get married in 2 months.
What now
I was in the gutters, no idea what I wanted to do, hated industry, didn't want to go back to consulting, didn't have the money to start my own business... I basically slept and played dota for 2 months. Had a couple of interviews but got back the same feedback - "not enough industry experience"... what a joke. So I decided to say fuk you to industry.
So, lucky me, I got headhunted by a management consulting firm, pay was great, no more traveling. But I still had some doubts whether I wanted to do consulting again... my thoughts are that this is really going to determine my career... did I really want to be a career consultant? Well, had no choice really, money pretty much decides most things at this stage. It worked out well in the end I guess, I enjoy what I'm doing, learning a lot more and reporting to CEOs/CFOs. If I continue I may be able to retire quite early and don't have to worry about a post-consulting career... but if I want to make partner, I need to do business development. Always comes back full circle.
I'm not sure how helpful this blog really is, it's not really about how to become a consultant or what it's like (as covered in the previous blog), but more down the track of how to think about career progression and so on. Anyway. Hope you guys got something out of this. Feel free to PM me any questions you have regarding management consulting.
Cheers
