Top 5 things you should do when you are a consultant off the clock and on the bench
By James. October 29th, 2010. Posted in Off assignment 3 Comments »
In the working life of any consultant there will be times between projects when you will be “off the clock”, “on the bench” or in plain English: when you will not be working on payed client work. Given that the number one objective of any consultant is to be fully utilised (working on payed project work) this, for some, can be a scary prospect. Especially if there’s no sign of any new project work coming your way any time soon.
In an effort to help you make the most of your bench time, we’ve pulled together our top five list of things you should do as soon as you are off the clock and staring over the cliff edge that is your declining ultilisation percentage for the year
Continue reading»Are you T enough to be a consultant?
By James. October 1st, 2010. Posted in Your career 2 Comments »
Working as a Management Consultant can be challenging and unpredictable.
Clients expect you to have all the answers, to all of their questions. You are the expensive consultant sent to solve their problems, and they want solutions now.
Coping with the challenges that this kind of working environment present takes a particular type of person. It doesn’t matter what your area of expertise is; IT management, Program Management, Business Transformation, etc, to successfully consult you need to be one of these types of people.
Continue reading»The Jamie Oliver approach to change management and how you can use it as a consultant
By James. September 10th, 2010. Posted in On assignment 1 Comment »
A few years ago Mr Jamie Oliver, the chirpy Chef from Essex, had a TV series in which he tried to change school dinners in the UK (jamieoliver.com/school-dinners). He wanted to feed the children of Britain better, healthier more nutritious food that would give them a better start in life and, so it proved in many cases, help them concentrate and learn at school.
As change programs go this was huge. Not unlike a lot of the change programs management consultants are asked to design, manage and run daily. If anything it was probably an even bigger task than most consultants will ever take on.
Continue reading»How working in a restaurant made me a better consultant
By James. September 3rd, 2010. Posted in On assignment No Comments »
What have running a restaurant and running consulting projects got in common? In both cases the goal is the same; to deliver a great customer experience.
In the restaurant business is doesn’t matter what sort of food you serve, or what type of restaurant you run you need to deliver a great customer experience if you want your customers to keep on coming back. The same is true of consulting; it doesn’t matter what the subject of your consulting project is, or what you need to deliver, ultimately you need to do it while making working with you a great customer experience for your clients. If they’re happy they will hire you again and they’ll make sure they let the World know how good they thought you were.
Continue reading»Graduates – Thinking of becoming a consultant? Think again
By James. August 27th, 2010. Posted in Your career No Comments »
Becoming a consultant is an attractive and lucrative prospect for many graduates. The good salary, golden handshake, good promotion prospects and project based work all sound great. Recruitment fairs up and down the country are full of recent graduates selling the benefits of being a graduate consultant at many of the top consultancies in the World.
And for many, joining a management consultancy as a graduate is a great move. You get to work with incredibly intelligent people who work hard and take pride in what they do. You get to learn from some of the best people in their fields. You get to work on projects and for clients that no other job could offer you. On top of that you get paid well, you get to travel and you get the chance to gain experience and build a CV that is hard for anyone else to match.
But, and this is a big but, it is not suitable for everyone.
Continue reading»
