World Cup horror story

Watching the World Cup these last weeks has brought back vivid memories of one of the grimmest days of my consulting career. I wonder if any readers have similar tales of the woes they've faced as a result of working in the high-paced world of consulting? What events have you missed out on or traumas have you faced? Do post your comments / stories below...

Mine relates to the England - Argentina match in the 1998 knock-out phase of the World Cup. Working on a strategy assignment for an airline, I was fortunate enough to be bumped up to first class on the night of the match. An avid football fan, I was however mortified to be on an overnight flight at the time of England's game - but still relatively junior in the firm there wasn't much I could do about it...

Anyway, the stewardesses came round and asked if the 1st class passengers had any particular requests for the flight. My colleague and I asked if the pilot could radio the ground and keep us abreast of the score situation in the England vs Argentina match. Much to our surprise our request was duly passed on to the cockpit and sure enough a short while after the match began we learnt that England had gone 1-0 down to an early goal.

Some time later, with dinner served, the pilot piped up that England had fought back and the scoreline was now 1-1. We regained our appetite, the beef wellington tasted somehow better and we felt a new wave of belief in the team.

Then around what must have been full-time he came on again - Michael Owen had scored a wonder-goal and England were 2-1 to the good. Buoyed by the news and the fact that only minutes of the game remained, we got ourselves some champagne and toasted England's passage to the next round - while all those around us settled down for a night's sleep.

*****

My eyes squinted open to the sound of the pilot on the PA system again. Pulling my blanket off I heard him say "for those of you who were following the England match, the news isn't so good. It was back to 2-2 by half time and then Beckham got a red card. It went to penalties and England will be on a plane home later today..."

What a depressing way to start a week of consulting! It's one thing to have your beloved team lose at the World Cup - but to celebrate a historic victory only then to discover that you lost was truly horrible.

The pilot had, it seems, been receiving updates only sporadically and had had to stop the announcements once passengers started going to sleep. So much for the feel-good factor of flying first class!! And so much for the desirable jet-set lifestyle...

Got any such tales of your own from your time as a consultant? Do feel free to post them below.

Tony

7 tips for candidates

Management Consultants typically change jobs every 3-4 years, seeking greater fulfilment, financial reward, recognition, appreciation.

What is absolutely critical when you're moving is to ensure you:
i) move for the right reasons
ii) find a firm that can genuinely deliver on the changes you want to see happening in your career / life
iii) do what's necessary to maximise your chances of success in this move

With this in mind I've been "penning" a tips report for consulting candidates, possibly as a prelude to writing a book on the subject. If you'd like a free copy of the PDF tips report, just email me on tonyr@top-consultant.com referencing the blog as the place you heard about the report...

Tony

McKinsey -- Opus Dei?

Saw an interesting article on Bloomberg this week in which McKinsey and Roland Berger Strategy Consultants are said to be "secretive societies" much like Opus Dei. Very topical - and as an ex-RB consultant myself, something that immediately caught the eye.

The article actually centres on the publication of a new "consulting exposé" book, which critiques the secretive worlds of firms such as McKinsey & Roland Berger. And whilst I've slammed the work of David Craig for being too one-sided, this new release appears at first glance to be more balanced...

"Consultancies have a strong ability to create priorities. What they can do is force companies and executives to set goals. And they can ask strategically important questions because they come from outside and have certain experience. They can also use knowledge from previous consulting contracts to help clients."

So we're not all bad then - not all out to plunder our clients with no tangible return for our fees. There's also a valid commentary on clients' increasing professionalism in managing the consulting projects they initiate - and taking some responsibility themselves for seeing that the project does not get waylaid.

My German's pretty shaky though, so I'll have to leave the detailed appraisal to others. If any readers want to add comments on this new work, feel free to do so here...

Tony

Hiring friends of friends...

Just came across an interesting article for recruiters desperately struggling to reach their sky-high recruitment targets. You'll recall that back when we published our 2006 Recruitment Channel Report we highlighted the fact that candidates' preferred method for finding a new job was through a personal referral channel. That's to say a consultant's career path can be greatly influenced by the opinions of friends and alumni - and that they are particularly likely to apply to a firm where an existing contact has been able to get them a "foot in the door". Firms with really cutting edge referral schemes are able to gain a big advantage as a result.

"Using the buddy system" caught my attention because it expands both on why such schemes hit the mark when it comes to attracting candidates... and also quantifies the potential impact of such schemes. One example is given in which a firm is recruiting 30% of its new hires through friends of friends.

Since Top-Consultant will only ever be one component of a firm's recruitment strategy, I find these types of insights fascinating - and I hope you do too. Click the link above for the full article.

Rgds, Tony

Quarterly update

Once every quarter I like to record a short update aimed at candidates looking for a job in consulting. We're in contact with tons of management consultancy recruiters, so this is a good way for us to impart to you what the state of the market is really like - and what you need to do to secure a new job given current market conditions.

I've just recorded the latest soundbite. Just turn up your volume and hit the play button below to tune in:



Regards, Tony