Do you get to ENJOY the travel in management consulting?

When you are traveling and flying around doing your consulting work, do you typically have ANY time to enjoy the new city itself or is it just do the work, sleep in the hotel room and leave because they have to hurry and get to their next gig?

 

Rare, other than team events. If you're on an average project, you might do a nice dinner every other week, plus a couple outings. Staying for the weekend (using the cost of your flight to book a hotel, and/or using points) is the way to enjoy the city you're traveling to.

Life, liberty and the pursuit of Starwood Points
 

Sorry, this may be an ignorant question but what are team events? Something with the client or something pre-prepared with your project team?

 

On most projects the hotel will just be a place to shower, sleep and possibly exercise and eat breakfast. Mon-Thurs you'll either be at the client site, in a cab, or in your room.

But like Petergibbons said, if you want to explore the city there's decent opportunity on the weekend if you decide to stay in location over the weekend (rather than flying back on Thursday night)

Team event - usually means some sort of social outing that you organise with your team members, sometimes weeks in advance, sometimes spur of the moment. Could be a nice dinner somewhere, movie, bowling, sailing etc. Up to the team to decide. Sometimes, but rarely, you'll invite one or two people from client-side with you.

 

If you do want to explore the city, you can usually fly in on Sunday mornings (esp. if you have early Monday morning meetings or if your team flies in on Sunday nights anyway)

 

Thanks for the responses so far! I'm assuming my hotel fees and living expenses will be covered by the client during the weekdays, but does the client also cover weekend stays in hotels?

 

You have a couple of options: - Stay at the hotel over the weekend - Fly back to your home city - Fly to a destination where the cost of the airplane ticket is less than or equal to a ticket to your home city (or pay the difference)

So in response to your question, yes the client will cover weekend stays in hotels if you choose not to go home.

 
zaczw:

Thanks for the responses so far! I'm assuming my hotel fees and living expenses will be covered by the client during the weekdays, but does the client also cover weekend stays in hotels?

Most firms offer "alt travel" where, in lieu of a flight home, you can expense your hotel over the weekend instead if you choose to stay and your work schedule allows it.

 
devildog2067:
zaczw:

Thanks for the responses so far! I'm assuming my hotel fees and living expenses will be covered by the client during the weekdays, but does the client also cover weekend stays in hotels?

Most firms offer "alt travel" where, in lieu of a flight home, you can expense your hotel over the weekend instead if you choose to stay and your work schedule allows it.

That actually doesn't sound too bad then. I'm gunning to go into management consulting out of undergraduate. Since I basically have no real family obligations (besides visiting my parents every once in a while), I was thinking about living a "nomadic lifestyle", basically working and touring whichever city my business takes me for 2-3 years. Surely there are other young consultants who do this, right?

 
zaczw:
devildog2067:
zaczw:

Thanks for the responses so far! I'm assuming my hotel fees and living expenses will be covered by the client during the weekdays, but does the client also cover weekend stays in hotels?

Most firms offer "alt travel" where, in lieu of a flight home, you can expense your hotel over the weekend instead if you choose to stay and your work schedule allows it.

That actually doesn't sound too bad then. I'm gunning to go into management consulting out of undergraduate. Since I basically have no real family obligations (besides visiting my parents every once in a while), I was thinking about living a "nomadic lifestyle", basically working and touring whichever city my business takes me for 2-3 years. Surely there are other young consultants who do this, right?

There's no guarantee that you'll mostly be placed on projects in a "fun" city. Most F500 firms are headquartered in a suburb, or in middle of nowhere.

 
Best Response

One of my good friends from high school landed a job at MBB after college and that's exactly what he is doing right know. He doesn't have any obligations at home, hence he often stays in his project city to explore the area and do some random stuff. Since he's in a European office, he often travels to projects in the Middle East and Africa, where he does some cool shit like safaris, beach days, etc. He obviously shares all of that activities on fb..

Definitely one of the perks of management consulting compared to IB. We usually fly over for a presentation or a meeting brutally early in the morning and come back in the evening on the same day to return to the office and do some more work.. Gotta love banking.

 
zaczw:
devildog2067:
zaczw:

Thanks for the responses so far! I'm assuming my hotel fees and living expenses will be covered by the client during the weekdays, but does the client also cover weekend stays in hotels?

Most firms offer "alt travel" where, in lieu of a flight home, you can expense your hotel over the weekend instead if you choose to stay and your work schedule allows it.

That actually doesn't sound too bad then. I'm gunning to go into management consulting out of undergraduate. Since I basically have no real family obligations (besides visiting my parents every once in a while), I was thinking about living a "nomadic lifestyle", basically working and touring whichever city my business takes me for 2-3 years. Surely there are other young consultants who do this, right?

Sure, you probably can. But very few consultants that I know do this. To the vast majority of them, weekends are the only time to spend some time with friends (at the firm or outside) and their significant others. And the support network becomes really important when work gets stressful (and it often does)

 

Yup would agree with this - it sounds good in theory, but when you're working long hours Mon-Friday in front of your laptop with the same 3 team members every day, the weekends are your only chance to spend time with family and friends. Although whatever works for you

Also hahaha that MBB consultant probably only posts the tiny fraction of his work that is exotic and fun. Don't be too mislead. Even in Europe its more likely you'll be dragged between cities within the same country (e.g., Paris consultant sent to Lyon), or occasionally to another EU country. Also not sure what the policy is across MBB but in my office you generally only get staffed internationally after 1 year. But don't get me wrong, there will be times when it does work out really well

"...usually fly over for a presentation or a meeting brutally early in the morning and come back in the evening on the same day to return to the office and do some more work." - this is pretty much a spot-on description of consulting (particularly as you become more senior and are servicing more than 1 client at a time)!

 

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