Saying No to a partner

Hello everyone,

I am new into the world of consulting and to this forum.

I have recently joined a consulting firm for a supply chain consultant position. However, it has been 6 weeks now that I am still sitting on the bench. My office has not won any supply chain engagements recently. Therefore, my partner is suggesting that I join a Risk/IT transformation project. To make it clear I am absolutely not against joining some projects that are not related to my core competencies. I guess this is very normal in a consulting career.

However, I am still on probation period and this Risk/IT project is a two years long engagement. It is certainly perfect for my usability and a good experience as well, but I have signed for Supply Chain and not Risk/IT! I wouldn't care if it was a short engagement but this one is for 2 years :- (

Has anyone on this forum had the courage to say NO to a partner while still being on probation period?

Thanks for your feedbacks.
DA

 
Best Response

For context, I'm writing this to take a break from an excel model at 10:15 pm on a Tuesday on pace to log over 30 hours in the first two days this week after working 20 hours over the weekend and definitely won't log less than 16 hours a day this week. And it's a shitty project (albeit a high visibility one). However, I'm doing it because my lead partner, who is a national head, asked me to and I didn't say no. And I'm an Engagement Manager, not a new consultant. I just don't like to piss off the partners.

I would say absolutely do NOT say no to this project. Even though I would surmise that you're at a pretty large firm (I mean, only Big 4 and Accenture call it "the bench" and not "the beach," right?), new consultants who say no to a project (especially after six weeks) can quickly gain a very negative reputation among senior leadership as having a poor attitude. Much like an IBD analyst, you're a grunt. Your first 1-2 years in consulting should usually be spent trying to prove you are worthy of one day becoming a leader at your firm, whether or not that's your goal. Think of where you want to be in a couple of years.... if it's still at your firm, then your partners/managers will be the ones who recommend you for a promotion. If it's b-school then they're the ones writing you a recommendation. And if you're looking to go into industry, they hold the best connections and clients may ask about you. You have two top priorities: building skills and making leaders happy. Leaders are happy when you work your ass off and do it with a smile on your face. The skills will come.... even if you don't gain the horizontal skills you want, you can gain valuable powerpoint, project management, and general business acumen on any engagement (full disclosure: I've never worked in IT/supply chain so I may not be 100% correct here).

On the flip side, take a look at the pipeline (ask a resource manager if you have to). Does it look like there's a potential project you'd like in the pipeline that could come to fruition in the next couple of weeks? If so you might take a gamble, but I'd posit that there's a chance the partner you scorned will tell the lead partner on this project to not staff you. Furthermore, if you wait too long and nothing comes along and you're STILL on the beach then you risk getting saked.

It's a tough call and everyone's different, but I say gut through it. The reward isn't worth the risk IMO. I'm also in Strategy so our engagements are never two years long so I'd be interested in what the IT/supply chain folks on this forum have to say. I'd also ask this question in reddit/r/consulting and see what the folks there have to say....

 

Be a team player and work on the engagement until something you want to do gets won, great opportunity to build your skills and network outside of supply chain consulting. Make it clear to your partner that you are willing to help while you search for an engagement that you want. Being on the beach is great every now and then, but come bonus/ promotion time your utilization will be low and people wont be willing to go to bat for you because you weren't willing to help out.

 

Take the project and be a star-performer on the Risk / IT project. You never know what you will learn and you will have more negotiating power if you are a performer. If a supply chain project comes along, reach out to the new project manager informally to see if there is a possibility to get on board. No company is foolish enough to lose a performer because it doesn't help a junior person who knows what they want in career.

 

Agreed - the golden rule is not piss off senior people when you're still a junior.

You'll carry much more weight with a request to be assigned to a supply chain project when

a) you've proven yourself (nothing carries more weight than 1 partner saying you're good and on the other hand, if you piss off a partner it could have a very bad impact on your career) and

b) when supply chain projects have arisen (keep close to ppl supply chain consultants)

At the end of the day project management is the same whether you raise capital, do a system integration or build a launch rocket. You've got deliverables, timelines to be respected, experts and stakeholders to be managed so what you'll learn will be transferable

 

The first thing to do is to check whether this would really be a two year commitment.

That said: ABSOLUTELY say "no" if you will be stuck on this for two years. This is your life! If you don't have a family to support, there's no reason to spend 2 years of your life on something that doesn't excite you. All the more so in a consulting environment where the average tenure is only 2-3 years.

Let's say - worst case scenario - they fire you for missing this project. So what? It will probably take you 2-3 months to find another job, which would leave you with the remaining 21-22 months to do something you are actually interested in with your life.

Just my two cents, but I have zero understanding of those who say you should do it to "not piss off the seniors." Maybe spend I would spend 2 months on something I don't enjoy, but certainly not 2 years.

 

Yea, definitely see if you will be on it for the full 2 years. More than likely, you will be able to get pulled off at the 6 month point. As a new consultant, you do not have any skills/domain expertise/an extended network to get on projects of your choice. Everyone is looking for their "dream" project, but in the meantime, you must be building skills and a knowledge base. You are there to grind and achieve maximum utilization, and not to mention, you probably have no clue the type of work you enjoy doing. Suck it up, smile, build skills, and after a while start to look for some other projects.

 

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