What do consultants exactly do?
Hi guys,
The title is self-explanatory. I know that consultants are hired to solve problems that companies are incapable of solving or simply do not have time to deal with; but what problems are we talking about? Increase revenue? Reduce costs? Strategic planning?
Could you share your experiences/past cases (maintaining the company's anonymity)?
Hah! This is awesome. That look he shoots the camera when he's talking about snowboarding. "Wikipedia motherfucker!" Fucking great.
Lol this show definitely makes consulting seem cooler than it is but I love it
Seriously thinking about reading this book, as watching the show might be too time-consuming. Btw, is this the consulting version of Wolves of Wall Street?
They handle managerial functions. They'll do pricing studies, market feasibility studies, assist in the M&A/divestiture process (source the target, facilitate and structure the transaction and work on post transaction integration), work to rearrange the supply-chain (minimize costs), handle inter-company transactions for tax purposes and for corporate restructuring, various IT functions, etc. Consultants do everything and anything that can be done by Management.
Story time! A few years ago, I had joined a consulting firm right out of college. The practice that I joined had a lot of turnover with their associates and that is how I was able to land something out of cycle. The first client that I was placed on was a large Midwest T&D Gas project. Since there had been a lot of turnover over a short period, I was asked to take on some high level sub-projects, (we simply didn't have the people). Once I had stable footing in the company 6 months in, I was tasked to lead one of the most important assignments I've ever done.
My assignment was developing a solution and business process for how almost every single part of the organization could come together and determine what were the 'inputs and outputs' for the preparation of new commercial and residential construction (in Utility companies the 'construction group is held in very high regard).
For certain applications such as cooking, water heating, etc. that can be studied over time in certain commonly recurring commercial structure types, we use an EFLH method to translate the equipment capacities into the annual therm values. This can vary slightly based on how the capacity is entered for each piece of equipment, and specifically, if it is entered as CFH or BTU from the equipment nameplate rating.
I had no Utilities background and my company (90k employees) did not provide a formal training program, so everything was trial by fire. But it was a huge success and every time I see the Utility company in the news I am able to think to myself that I outlined, configured, and implemented one of their most important processes.
They take your watch and tell you the time - usually for a hefty fee.
Consultants do what nihilists believe in Lebowski
A day in the life of a consultant (Originally Posted: 03/26/2017)
As someone who will be a full-time consultant soon, I am curious what your day to day life is like! I am interested in just about everything that happens so the more detailed the better. I can bear to live without the 6:00 "Take a dump".
This is a pretty impossible question to answer as it drastically varies project to project, whether you are/aren't staffed.. it can even vary workstream to workstream on the same project. I've seen everything from start time to end of day to whether dinner is had at a restaurant or youre ordering room service comes back to the consulting cliche of "it depends". Please excuse all typos: Here's my experience though.. let's call it Tuesday because travel days have too many variables.
Get to the client site around 8ish - If you have a client with a good cafeteria, grab some breakfast/coffee to bring back to the team. If you are on a client that is in the middle of no-where and most likely has prison grade food in their caf, you will have already picked up Starbucks. (Veteran move- Download the Starbucks app, monday ask everyone what they want and just pick it up Tuesday morning. I would say this is never expected from a junior staff, but really appreciated).
8-9 is normally reserved for team catch up sessions. For the most part 9-5 is packed with client meetings, interviews, workshops, info gathering calls etc. The hour or so breaks between these meetings are normally utilized to prep for your next meeting or debrief / put together some type of output from the prior meeting.
5-7 is the period where you actually try and get work done and/or debrief with your team about takeaways and gearing up for the next day.
Personally from that 7-9 period, I'll grab dinner/go to the gym. I've gotten into the habit of trying to limit team dinners to once a week, but this is project by project team by team type of situation. I've had projects where we wrapped up around 6 each day and went to dinner every night.
9-Midnight - Normally use this time to do some work. A lot of time focusing on internal initiatives, engagement management, or client stuff that was left behind from that day.
Hope this helps.
-Signed a consultant with Sunday Scaries procrastinating while working on a deliverable but super thrilled to travel to the Midwest tomorrow morning.
Awesome! Thank you. I will be starting in August and don't really know what to expect in terms of actual work. Everyone I have talked to says the same "solving business problems," but I really am unsure how those can vary. I have never interned as a consultant so I am pretty excited. With that said, a lot of people have told me how to flourish/grow into the consultant I want to be (sector based and specialty), but no one has really provided me some real insight into what it is like. Basically everyone says that you have to network into the roles you want and aim to work hard (obviously).
As Big4MC mentioned, the "typical" day varies so much between projects and sometimes between workstreams. Here's what I've experienced on a representative Tues/Wed:
07:00-08:00 - Wake up; get ready; flip a few NYT/WSJ articles 08:00-08:30 - Either walk to the office/client site or hop in a cab 08:30-09:00 - Review any emails that came through late last night or early this morning; make my prioritized list of activities/goals for the day 09:00-09:30 - Process check-in: Align with the rest of my team on the priorities for the AM 09:30-12:00 - Some combination of meeting with the client, cranking in Excel, or churning out decks 12:00-12:30 - Eat lunch with team, generally while working but preferably not 12:30-06:00 - Continue cranking on Excel/PPT/meeting with clients; maybe have an internal read-out with partners to share where things stand (1-2x per week) 06:00-06:30 - Evening check-out: Discuss what is still outstanding and align on what is a "must have" for the evening vs. a "nice to have" 06:30-08:30 - Commute back to home/hotel; read a few non-work articles online; call a friend; eat dinner; maybe gym if I'm feeling inspired 08:30-09:00 - Internally struggle with procrastination and try to get back into a working mindset 09:00-11:00 - More work; send final output to manager
Mondays and Thursdays can feel longer because of the hassle and unproductive time caused by travel. Fridays in the office are often chill (unless everyone on your project is based locally and co-locates on Fridays).
Some projects are lighter in terms of hours or, at the very least, are more predictable (e.g., PMIs). Some projects are typically more intense with some nights at the office of >12:00 (due diligences and strategy projects come to mind).
So a typical week, including travel, looks something like: M: 7-11 (you may not work while traveling, but you're leaving your house by 7 if you're taking a flight) T: 9-11 W: 9-11 T: 9-10 (some teams/projects strive for no work after landing, so sometimes your day ends at 8ish) F: 9-5:30/6
Hope that helps!
Why aren't there more 'life of a consultant' blogs? (Originally Posted: 07/03/2013)
Although there is more content than banking/finance analyst blogs, there really isn't much out there. Is it due to compliance issues?
Have you checked out managementconsulted.com?
http://www.intheexitrow.com/
http://www.gettingdrunkinfirstclass.com/
Because no one wants to read a blank blog.
Is management consulted the best forum out there for consulting?
Most consultants suggest Economist :)
From what I hear, consultants hardly have the time to write a blog, at least M-F.
Consulting Careers (Originally Posted: 03/25/2011)
What's the best way to get an entry-level consulting job? I come from a non-target school (graduated Magna) and was immediately picked up by a money manager. I decided I didn't want to work in Finance and quit after 6 months. Now looking for a way into a consulting position.
Coming from a non-target, should I pursue a strategy consulting position (which I really want), or stick to the Tier-2 positions (system integration, etc...).
Also, just general advice about getting picked up by a prominent consulting firm.
Just apply to both segments. You never know if MBB is going to bring you in for an interview. This isn't an either/or situation. Keep your options open and cast the net broadly.
Your perception about the strategy consulting market is incorrect in a couple of aspects:
There is no "systems integration consulting first to then move to strategy". These are completely different jobs despite both titles probably involving the word consulting, and you've got a snowball's chance in hell to move from systems integration to strategy. So if you're interested in strategy, do it right away, or something that sets you up for it nicely, please never ever accept an Accenture type job if your ultimate goal is, say, MBB (which often isn't a long-term goal but your door-opener to sth else, like Corp Dev, start-up, PE, etc.).
The consulting market doesn't simply segment in "tier 1 = strategy" and "tier 2 = IT". As per 1. these markets are completely different and trying to come up with a tiering system that allows to compare the relative prestige of IBM/Accenture with MBB is something that works for Vault perhaps but is complete utter bullshit. Within strategy, tier 1 firms are clearly MBB, with M the absolute leader, and BCG and Bain supposedly on par. After that, there's a lot of tier 2 strategy firms (OW, Monitor, RB, LEK, OC&C) which often do identical work, albeit on average 'less prestigious', considering client size, or impact of projects. The tier 1 strategy firms classically attract the very best applicants on the junior level, with the tier 2 firms marginally less selective (and that's just marginally less, basically once MBB have taken their picks from the target schools the tier 2 firms will have their go) and it's from my experience fair to say that there isn't any difference among quality of staff at all the further up you go.
If you want to get into consulting now, here's how you do it: *Network, send out your CV to every friend you have across the firms I mentioned and try to join them in a graduate role *If you get rejected by all these firms look at viable alternative paths in, which most likely is via a top MBA. For that you'll need a few years of strong career progression in ideally something seen as 'prestigious' and 'competitive', and that can be IB, large cap corp dev, etc.
Odds are agains MBB - non-target school and less than 1 yr in your first year out...heavy networking will be your only way in. Agree that there is no harm in trying both routes..just be realistic about your chances.
In terms of general tips, have a clear story around why consulting and why you needed 6 months to figure it out when you should have figured it out during school. Good luck.
Thanks all for your input, I really want to work for OW (10 month working years & externships abroad) but realize them being a supposed "Tier 2" does not mean it will be easy. I have a clear story and can explain that Equity Research was not my cup of tea, but am really looking to networking & persistence to get my foot in the door.
Recently read: "many top graduates will accept being merely affluent as a consultant, rather than ridiculously rich as an I-banker, because of the mental stimulation involved in strategy consulting"..........So true.
A life of career in the consulting firm? (Originally Posted: 04/28/2013)
Hi dudes, I wonder how did you find out what consultants do when you're a student. It seems a bit hard for me to ask to people around me since there are few consultants, and also few sites really do have appropriate infos.
Thanks a lot. :)
I just came back from a connections/recruiting event with Deloitte at a College in the same town where I live. It was great to find out about consulting lifestyle. I met 10 people from the Minneapolis office and they were very friendly and open to all types of questions.
I learned about the concept of consulting by reading through the MBB websites, and then learned a little bit more by attending their campus presentations. They were all rather superficial though, because they didn't really delve into the specific details about what an graduate level consultant would be doing on a day to day basis, what the lifestyle is like, etc. BCG had an cocktail evening in their office for people wanting to learn more, which was great for asking very specific questions that websites/presentations had never addressed. I then learned a lot more about it through the recruitment process (question time during interviews, BCG gave us an hour to chat casually with a few consultants between interviews, Bain's pre-intervew cocktail evening) and then through an offeree/sell weekend.
I don't know if the recruitment events are similar across the globe, but they were definitely the best source of information for me (As I was in a similar position, in that I did not personally know any consultants previously).
@Beny23 @danago Thanks for your comments :) !!
If you are talking about MBB consulting, then there are a couple of good books. I would recommend The McKinsey Mind or The McKinsey Way. They give you a good general overview of what's the daily job is like. If you want something more specific such as how to get into consulting and what the recruiting process is like then try websites such caseinterview.com.
If you want to meet someone in consulting, then I would try contacting people from the closest offices and invite them out for a coffee or something. It worked for me.
I really appreciate your comment. Thanks a lot dude :)
You can ask me on PM hahahah.
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