What are the least attractive projects/least beneficial for juniors to work on in Rx consulting?
Rx consulting has wide ranging projects and interested in a firm that specializes in bankruptcy and liquidation work. What should I be cautious of? Coming from b4, what are the best projects to get on from learning and development standpoint?
None, really. The least beneficial projects/ work are typically the ones that add / create the least value, and when you're billing per hour there's not a whole lot of those around, especially before the client starts getting in a bad mood. Now, there's a whole lot of "tedious" work, at the junior level, like cleaning up tens of thousands of vendor data, looking at AP / AR on a individual entity level, but the entire Chapter 11 process starts around those kinds of things, so they're far from useless. The first line of a 13wcf literally comes from AR data.
Looking at a broader point of view, at the entire project level, each project teaches you something completely different, whether that be a different industry, a different plan of reorganization structure, be it whatever. So nothing not beneficial there.
The only caveat I can think of is doing time reports for the entire team. That is the only thing that I honestly think teaches you almost nothing aside from a bucketload of patience, and adds almost no value for the client. That's at the junior level, I've never seen anyone in any level aside from the bottom 1-2 take on that work. Different RX consulting firms take different approaches, the two most common ones are 1) the RX consulting team themselves chooses one or two people within it to do that stuff or 2) the firm has a separate admin group focused on that. (2) is infinitely more preferable in my opinion...I think a little less of firms that do (1).
I’ve just seen a lot of forums on here saying the bankruptcy work isn’t as interesting and certain firms don’t work on the actual turnaround work, won’t have diverse exits. Clearly new to the space here so just trying to learn.
"Interesting" is a broad term. It's impossible for you to have the same interests as someone else. An investment banker who loves spreading comps and formatting decks won't like turnaround consulting. The best way to see whether you really like it is to actually do it. In your position, that means actually being a restructuring consultant. The risk you run is that you won't like it, but the same applies to any other career.
Yes, some firms don't work on the actual turnaround stuff. That would be Big 4 RX and MBB + other strategy / mgmt consulting firm RX, to keep it simple. There are plenty of posts on here describing what firms actually do turnaround. Also creditor side shops; while they are very much RX consulting, they're much less hands on than debtor side shops. Most will do both, unless it's a very small / specialized shop. As far as exits, it's a function of what type of people the career attracts. RX consulting tends to attract people who want to make a life out of the career. That said, if you want to exit, there are plenty of doors that are open / will open for you, you just need to make an effort and not expect the opportunities to just come to you.
I'd recommend doing debtor-side work if at all possible. I think, while potentially being the most stressful, it really gives you the broadest skillset. Building the turnaround business plan not only teaches you deep 3-statement modeling, but also how to sync the entire picture (i.e. ops, strategy, cost rationalization, etc.) into succinct story that's defensible and data-driven under pretty intense time-pressures. You learn quickly what stones are or are not worth turning, how investors/stakeholders think, scenario/risk analysis, business commentary, among other things.
Since your turnaround plan will be the basis for tens of millions of capital, you will get pressure-tested by various people from all angles. This is incredibly frustrating and stressful in the moment, but it's a good skill-set to have. This isn't like a "healthy" business where things are stable and people are fine with relatively simple drivers (like percentage of sales) for your 3-statement or missing your forecasts.
This environment isn't for everyone, and I have my doubts about whether it is for me too long-term, but I don't think there's too many better places to learn a lot quickly if you want to be a CFO or high-ranking finance executive internally someday. I personally am avoiding bankruptcy work, if I can, because I doubt I'll be a lifer in this industry and have less interest in learning the intricacies of bankruptcy laws/procedures, for example. I'd rather learn broad skills that are applicable to many industries (i.e. 3-statement modeling and data analysis) vs something super niche that'll be harder to sell externally someday.
Facere sed nam architecto in. Voluptatem iste reprehenderit et et adipisci quaerat.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...