Do you get sick of traveling?
I'm getting ready to start in July and I'm just curious as to how long my "I love travel" mindset is going to last. Obviously this is going to vary from person to person, but I'd like to hear some opinions for those that have them.
Been in for a few months and it still hasn't faded...it should last at least until I get all the various gold/plantinum accounts xD
One of my TA's is an MBA student that works for McKinsey. I asked him about the travel and he said after about 6 months the quality of the hotel stops mattering. Now he gets to the hotel, passes out, wakes up early, goes to meeting, and takes the next flight out.
Hotel quality still matters. There is a significant quality difference between a Westin towel and Courtyard towel.
Working at an MBB now - the novelty cerainly wears thin - the timing really depends on what you have going on in your life. Early on, you're busting your tail to make your brand and to invest in your future. At some point having a life during weekday evenings starts to matter (SO, kids, personal interests, etc.). If, how and when this happens is all a function of your priorities/values. For me, I drew the line after the EM/CTM/PL promotion.
As seekingalpha already said, I imagine that it varies based on your personal situation. My personal experience as a single unattached dude in my mid-twenties was that it took about 6 months before I was starting to get tired of being on the road.
It's not so much the travel that wears on me as what I'm missing. I've been traveling every week for ~2 years, and I actually enjoy being on the road now that I'm flying first, getting upgraded at hotels, etc.
But I wish I was around once in a while on a Tues / Weds night to watch a game with my friends or go out with my fiance. I've gotten tired of people calling me and then remembering, "Oh yeah, you're gone until Thurs - give me a call when you get back."
"Loving to travel" stops mattering when you actually have to do work that matters while you travel. You aren't traveling for vacation. Just FYI.
Missing out on things during the week does suck, but the time I was on a local project also caused interesting issues. Having people (mostly my girlfriend) not understand the extent of upredictability in my hours was tough. I almost preferred being away where I didnt have to deal with it. For me, it's the getting up at 3:45 on Monday mornings and dealing with airport B.S. and living out of a suitcase that i dont care for. That's the bummer for me.
So true, being local is even tougher! Having to explain no, I won't be home by 6, or I can't just work from home all day (like most Fridays) is tough.
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I think one thing that people who haven't done the whole consulting travel thing don't realize is just how much you'll generally be working while you travel. Your not just kicking back on the flights. You'll have your laptop out making slides or working on a model 95% of the time your airborne. When you check into the hotel you generally have like 20 minutes to drop off your stuff before either heading to the client site or to a conference room to work with your team. The only downtime you'll really have between Monday at 5am and Thursday at 8:00pm is the time when your sleeping. Even when your getting upgraded all the time you barely notice because you always have your head down crunching on something.
That can be the case for some people, but I think that's close to the "fuck this shit" end of the lifestyle scale. I rarely work in-flight - typically read or sleep. And I'm usually done every night by ~9 pm at the latest.
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Completely agree with both points, really depends on what point in your career you are. Early on (
MBB, yes we're hiring.
This has been the case for my last ~3 projects, or 12 months - and only one was an ops frontline transformation-type gig. Mostly a function of working with partners with a rep for good lifestyle and getting my shit done during the day.
One thing to add - I'm definitely not tired of the benefits of traveling. If you like to travel for leisure, max out your points and they'll pay off big time. I took about $10k worth of free travel last year, and for our honeymoon in July we're not paying a dime out of pocket for hotels, flights, rental cars, etc.
I usually fly in on Sunday night flights rather than trying to wake up at 4AM on Monday morning. Also gives me a full, 100% focused day on Monday, as opposed to a tired, half-focused Monday. Then again, I never get to have my Sunday evenings...
Oh man, I think flying out Sunday is brutal - would much rather do an hour of work Sunday night then sleep on my flight Monday. Also, my fiance would kill me if I started leaving Sundays. That would flip things from 4 nights home / 3 on the road to 4 on the road.
Anyone here working outside the US? I was at a training with some colleagues from LatAm, and they were telling me the norm there is to work Friday morning at the client, then get home late Friday afternoon / evening. No one leaves the client on Thursday, and they often fly out Sunday - so end up with Friday / Saturday night at home. I guess the travel is more complex for them (multiple connections, etc), but made me feel like I have it good.
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