Sunday, January 11, 2009

What you need in consulting

It does take a special kind of person with a certain mentality to survive in consulting. It requires a person with the ability to work in ambiguous environments, who is professional, who has an understanding of organizing one's activities in effective and efficient ways, and the courage to make increasingly tougher decisions.

I'm sure my employer holds these characteristics true, but I do realize there are some small additions, which make my colleagues very different from others in consulting. And even when you're looking at my specific department, even the people there have a set of traits slightly different from the rest.

I'm quite sure consulting life is not cut out for everyone, and even some true-blooded consultants are not cut out for life at my employer. You need to be resilient, be able to voice your opinions, be flexible. The prevailing mentality is that giving up is not an option. Entrepreneurship is highly valued, as long as you have a good sales pitch. On the other hand hierarchy is held to strongly, and anything that threatens that hierarchy is frowned upon.

The benefits are obvious: an exciting environment that will give you many stories to tell on your high school reunion. The money ain't bad either. But I wouldn't just recommend Consultancy to anyone. You need to live and breathe consultancy.

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