Consultant Staffing/Travel - Chicago

Hey guys,

I have a quick question regarding consultant travel that is specific to Chicago. (Other big cities for comparisons will help too)

How often in general are consultants in Chicago locally staffed? I'm very interested in joining the industry in the future, but don't want to travel every single week. Do you think 50% or more of the projects will be (or could be if you can give preference) locally staffed in the greater Chicago area?

Thanks guys, and happy Friday!

8 Comments
 
Best Response

Agreed with pnb. At a major firm, expect to be travelling every week. Only cases where I can imagine that you won't is at smaller firms that have mostly local clients, or at a firm like ZS Associates, which actually does limit their employees travel.

It's a travel-based business. I joined a start-up firm after Deloitte that had only local clients, and did not expect to expand outside the region for a few years. Within two years, I have spent more than half my time on the road, because when a F100 company calls us from Boston, we're not going to turn down the work (nor am I going to get upset about the leading a new project/client relationship).

Don't expect to be able to "give a preference". If you can't manage travelling, I would not advise doing it, unless you find very special firms that don't expect travel (or do government consulting).

 

You can give a preference to work local, might be 1 or 2 cases until you get it. But if you perform well and the partners with local clients like you and wants to work with you. You can stay local a lot more often than others, even in high travel cities.

 
hobonumber

You can give a preference to work local, might be 1 or 2 cases until you get it. But if you perform well and the partners with local clients like you and wants to work with you. You can stay local a lot more often than others, even in high travel cities.

I thought this was the case. I know someone at Deloitte who said they had gotten to work local some of the time alread (Only 6 months in). I would imagine there are a lot of local projects in Chicago given the sheer number of companies with a big presence or HQ in the area.

 

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