Consulting

For those of you who are about to start jobs in consulting or are considering working in a consulting industry, I hope this essay gives you some insight. Please feel free to leave comments in the comment section of this post (or in the Notes comments, if you are reading this via Facebook Notes).

What does it take?

“What does it mean to have a job in consulting?” I’ve been asked this question by friends and strangers alike. Many images pop into one’s mind when thinking of consultants. Some may remember Bob and Bob, the “consultants” from the 1999 movie Office Space. Others may think of the “TD” consultants that grace us with their antics on the popular (and hilarious) blog Getting Drunk in First Class. Yet others may picture geeky young men in polo shirts discussing the latest in WiMax technology. But what exactly does it take to be a consultant?

My job over the past few months has been dynamic. I’ve learned many things along the way, but there have been a few primary takeaways that I’ve learned are common across all varieties of consulting. Being flexible and adaptive, taking initiative, and knowing when and how to make sacrifices are three core competencies every consultant should have.

Be flexible.

The ability to hold steady in the face of change is a necessity for any type of consultant. There are a variety of consultants out there: Creative, Management, Risk Assessment, and of course the quintessential IT and Software consultants, along with a plethora of others. While I happen to know people in most of these fields, I work at an IT/Software consultancy, so naturally I’m most familiar with that category. Without getting too specific, I’ll say that I work for a small company in an industry that is populated by behemoth corporations and small startups alike. I work primarily with clients who are in the retail industry. They sell things, and we help design and implement software systems that help them manage their selling of things. This includes systems such as back-office software and inventory management systems to websites and point-of-sale systems (a fancy word for “cash register”). However, my initial exposure to what I do today was originally presented to me in a completely different environment. I went through a training course, and my experience in training was drastically different than my experience on my first project.

The training course for my job was a 5-week course designed to teach newcomers certain nuances of the system we’d be working with, as well as give a broad overview of what consulting life was like. I met a lot of people during this course, and established new friendships. During our off-hours, we explored the amazing city of Denver, Colorado and had a generally good time. Although we were expected to pass an exam at the end of the course (which we all did with flying colors), for the most part, the course wasn’t too intensive. After training was finished, we all received our first project assignments, and I found out that I was getting thrown in the fire.

I was put on what’s called a “Go-Live” project. “Go-Live” (or “Cutover” in some circles) is a Consultantese term for flipping the switch: the system you and your company has been working on/with is about to replace a system that your client has been using, usually for many years. While all projects eventually go live, to be placed on a “Go-Live” project simply means that the project you have been put on is going “live” within a very short period of time (usually a couple of months; most of our projects take a year or more to complete). This almost always translates to long hours, high stress levels, and of course, lots of challenges.

Naturally, this was a huge change from my experience during training. I was expected to catch up on all the business processes of my client and understand the both basic and advanced principles of a system I had no exposure to prior the few weeks of training. Being able to learn things quickly is a huge asset. No matter what type of consultancy you work for: the quicker you learn and adapt, the faster you’ll be able to prove yourself useful to your company and your clients.

Just like most IT/Software consultants, I started out with basic programming tasks. Since our project was on a tight deadline, my project managers and teammates were swamped with tasks of their own, so I had learned to become pretty autonomous early on. It was disorienting at first but within a couple of months I became familiar with my client’s business and went from coding basic system modifications to designing entire subsystems. While this was a satisfying transition, however, I came to realize that I’d have to somehow add a new mix of things to my plate in order to truly be satisfied with what I do.

Step up to the plate.

To get the most out of a consulting career, you’ll need to demonstrate the will to take initiative. Naturally, those of you who are interviewing or planning to interview with consulting companies should probably not mention that you intend to be a bitchin’ rebel of some sort and attempt to make changes at an organization you’re not quite familiar with yet, but if you do plan on any sort of career advancement, seizing opportunities is important. Regardless of the type of organization you are in, you need to be able to identify situations that you think need improvement, and you need to be able to both voice your opinion about them and act upon them. If you find yourself at an organization where saying “this sucks, here’s why, and here’s a better way” is not allowed or is considered taboo, then you need to do yourself a favor and quit. Of course, don’t take this to the extreme; spend some time observing things before you formulate an opinion.

I’ll give you an example from my experiences. Because the company I work at is small, we don’t have a dedicated “Change management” team (usually a team that takes care of training clients on new systems) like some larger consultancies do. One of the more common methodologies we like to use is to train people who are in management roles, as opposed to training end-users (an “end-user” is someone who actually uses the system, such as warehouse worker, as opposed to the people who buy the system, such as IT people or CFOs). The practicality of this approach is sound on paper: you train so-called “power users” and they will be responsible for training the units they manage. However, after spending time watching power user training, I started to feel that it was only appropriate to go directly to the end-users and say “Hey, you guys are getting a new system…you’re going to be expected to do your job a little differently from now on, so you should learn this new stuff, and I can show you how.” Taking this step was something I chose to do on my own; it wasn’t one of my original expected responsibilities. I suppose it turned out I had a knack for it, and now teaching both power users and end-users in small groups has become a regular part (and satisfying part) of my day. Not bad for someone who used to sit around and crap out code 12 hours a day, eh?

More responsibilities naturally means more work, but as long as it’s work I’m interested in, I rarely have a problem with that. You’ll quickly find that tasks that seem difficult to others will become simple for you, based on the fact that you’ve done them several times before. Just like any job, however, you’ll occasionally need to do things that you really don’t want to do.

Be willing to make sacrifices.

Sometimes you’ll be expected to make some sacrifices in your career, particularly when it comes to doing things for your client. Because of their fast-paced, dynamic nature, consulting careers are full of on-the-fly decisions that may have negative impact on other more stable decisions. Like any job, you’ll have to do things you don’t want to do. You’ll may have to prioritize other aspects of your life a little differently. Learning when and where to make sacrifices is an asset to your consulting tool belt.

I remember one particular week of my first project where, after a long week, I was totally ready to fly home on Thursday (the typical day to fly home). A few hours before I was about to leave for my flight, one of my managers came in and explained how a bug in the system caused a $10,000 purchase order to be mysteriously deleted. We needed to build the 600-line order, based only on an Excel spreadsheet that we had, and this required coding a small “job” to automate this process. I was chosen for the task. My hopes of flying back to Chicago and having a relaxing time working from home the next day were shattered. I also needed to perform the tricky task of getting one more night at our always-booked hotel (it’s the only hotel in the area worth staying at). Looking back at the situation, I realized that my manager had chosen me because he knew I was the right man for the job, and that the small sacrifices I had to make only paid off in earning his trust. This trust may have helped in his decision to hand-pick me for my current project, which also happens to be another Go-Live (being on two Go-Lives within one year is not too common in our company).

Making sacrifices for your client will be a regular part of your consulting career. However, be cautious about making sacrifices for your company itself. If you find that your firm requires you to do things you don’t really want to do on a regular basis, you may need to reevaluate some of your career decisions. A consulting firm that values itself over its clients is never a good sign.

Bring it all together.

Consulting careers are dynamic careers. Things can change fast, and being able to adapt to changing circumstances is key. If you’re one of those people who prefer to do one thing consistently, consulting may not be right for you. Also, while it might be fine to have your tasks handed to you when you’re first starting out, it’s important to take charge and find your own tasks as well. Doing this will only increase your interest in your work, and I find that doing work that interests me makes the days go by a lot faster. And finally, don’t let the images scare you. Sacrifices you make in your lifestyle may end up having many other perks, so it’s important to learn to make these types of decisions. I know consultants that travel a lot (myself included), and I know consultants that don’t travel at all. I know some who work ridiculous hours and some who never miss their 5 o’clock happy hour. I even know a consultant or two who have gone from mundane, repetitive tasks to managing entire aspects of Cutovers/Go-Lives. The jobs are different, the job descriptions are different, the companies and corporate cultures are different, and the people are different, but in the end consulting careers are about showing initiative, demonstrating flexibility, and knowing when to simply suck it up and get the job done.

Thanks to Matt Moen and Ryan Spraetz for reading drafts of this.