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Nancy Mace has “chemical imbalances,” her resentful former consultant says : politics
Main Post: Nancy Mace has “chemical imbalances,” her resentful former consultant says : politics
What do consultants actually do?
Main Post:
Every consultant that I've asked says "I can't tell you what I do, but everyday is different".
A lot of these "consultants" are young graduates. They don't have lots of experience in whatever industry they are consulting for.
As far as I know they're not technical, they don't have an expertise in marketing, they don't run the business, so what do they actually do?
Top Comment:
Young consultants don’t really give advice. They do work for their boss and bosses boss who actually do the consulting.
What do consultants do all day?
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People often ask what consultants do all day. Feel free to share in any format makes sense for you.
I would suggest including:
- Type of consulting
- Role
- Wake up time
- Sleep time
Ideas for format:
- Blinded screenshot of calendar
- Excel table copied into Reddit format (tableit.net works well)
- Hours spent by activity
Top Comment:
Still waiting for one. Charge to your PRD cost center for now.
I am a management consultant. AMA
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You can ask me anything about management consulting as a profession. Will try to answer as much as I can.
I will answer questions throughout the day. Thanks.
Edit: Thanks for all your question guys. The AMA is now closed. I am quite active on reddit nowadays, so, feel free to PM me any other questions you have. I will answer them if I get time.
Top Comment:
What exactly does a Management consultant do?
What’s the lifestyle of a consultant really like?
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I’ve read the horror stories. I’ve read about the long hours, the time away from family, all of that. Thing is, I want to know how true it all is. My goal is to get my MBA and go into PM at big tech, but I’ve always considered going the route of MBB consulting and then pivoting into it. I have a background in tech as is, so I’m not too worried about lacking in that area. I’m already married though, and the idea of being away from family all the time doesn’t sound to thrilling for me. Do consultants still have time for hobbies? Biking & exercise? Friends & family? Are the stories overblown or are they the normal? I’d love to hear from people who are in it or who have much more knowledge than me.
Edit: I just want to thank everyone here for the extremely detail responses and insightful conversations. Everything here has more or less just reaffirmed my decisions, and I know now that my goals and reasoning are sound. Thank you!
Top Comment:
If you want to be a tech PM, do that. Adding a step of MBB with a future pivot makes no sense.
Consulting entails long hours. You can check the annual survey in this sub, but 55-70 hr/wk is common for MBB. I was an average to occasionally above-average (but never rockstar) performer and typically did low 60s. Once I reached manager, I found I had a lot of control over when 90% of those hours occurred. 9-5pm was pretty standard but the extra ~20 I could choose. My preference was burning straight through the evening when on the road and taking a long evening break at home before jumping back online 9pm-1am.
I seldom worked weekends and managed my travel down very well - only 7% of weeks were 'traditional' M-Th schedule. About half the time I was local (but made concessions on content or team to facilitate that) and when I traveled, Monday late (10pm flight) through Thursday early afternoon to get home for kids' bedtime was much more common. Even then, only missing 2 bedtimes/week took a toll and I left.
In general, I had plenty of time for hobbies, friends, and family. I did sacrifice much sleep and some fitness to balance everything else. I'm very happy now and very happy for the years I spent at MBB.
What do you mean by consultant ?
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I saw someone's LinkedIn profile and there was written consultant at Wipro, what kind of job is this ?
Top Comment:
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ELI5: What do consultants do and how do they make so much money?
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Ive seen a fair amount of people say they've changed careers to become a consultant and they make more money than they did before. I just want to know what they do.
Top Comment:
"Consultants" are just freelance experts that a company or organization hires to provide advice or ideas about a particular topic. For example an expert on a specific drug used in a murder could be hired by the police as a consultant, or a productivity expert might be hired by a company to come in and provide suggestions about ways to increase productivity.
Consulting can usually provide a fair bit of income because it requires you to be good/an expert in something and as an outside contractor companies tend to hire you to fix problems outside of their normal abilities (making you valuable to them). However this comes at the flip side in demand; since consultants' job is basically to fix a specific problem (and then to leave) consultants are often looking for new places with that particular problem, so their income can be a bit inconsistent compared to a standard salary job.
Is a consultant life worth it?
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I'm interviewing for a consultant gig and would be on travel for about 50% of my life if I took the job, but the total comp is almost triple what I'm earning now, which would certainly give FI a kick in the pants for me.
I'm wondering about thoughts from the members here that've taken this route. Do you think it was worth it?
My main concerns are work life balance, which I think would be almost non-existent for the next couple years. That'd be cool if I was single, but currently am DINK.
Top Comment:
I assume when you say "consultant gig" you mean at one of the large well-paying consulting firms where they send you out for Monday-Thursday and you return home Friday. Not sure how old you are or what other factors you consider important, but I have a ton of friends who went this route (I'm in another field myself). I basically knew a few people who were in consulting and before I knew it that had grown to knowing like 80 people doing it, so I'll give my two cents. Few thoughts:
- Not only do they pay really well, but you will essentially be spending no money those days you're traveling as your firm will cover all that. This can really improve your ability to save more per month. Plus you'll likely have tons of travel points and such so no paying for vacations/hotels etc. to the extent you care about that.
- While the hours and travel can be hard, all the people I know who went to large firms (Bain, BCG, McKinsey, E&Y, Deloitte, Accenture, etc.) have really solid job prospects now. They all went on to do really cool stuff.
- It was about a 50/50 split for my group of friends between those who were able to maintain relationships given all that travel and those who weren't able to do it.
All in all, if you're worried about work life balance, I'd only go into consulting if you are thinking you'll do it for 1-2 years and use the experience to move into something else. The hours don't get any better as you get more senior, you're just expected to be more productive. Hope that helps in some small way and good luck!
ELI5: what does a consultant do?
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If that question is too broad, you can just help with what a tech consultant does?
Top Comment:
A consultant is an individual or group that has highly specialized knowledge on a specific activity that you want to perform.
For a tech consultant, you might bring them in because you want to restructure your network but you aren't 100% sure what the latest technology and what the best ways to do that would be. They are, so you bring them in and they advise you what they would recommend you do