The email below came to me from a reader who is interested in going for a job in Consulting, but is worried about whether he’d have to sacrifice time with his wife and son in order to do so. Also, he’s curious about whether he’d be a fit for a top firm given his background and personality. Check out the text below to see my response.
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DL wrote:
Marquis,
I am looking to go into management consulting. However there are two main questions/drawbacks. First, although I will make sacrifices, I am not will to jeopardize my relationship with my wife and son on the way. With travel and work, can I still keep a healthy relationship? Second, I grew up in small business and am very much entrepreneurial in my goals and approach to a career. Can I fit into a MBB? If you’ve already answered these questions just direct me to the post and I’ll be glad to read that. As with most of your readers, your response will make a great difference in my life and those I help.
Thank you,
DL
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My response:
DL,
Thanks for contacting me with your questions. I apologize for taking so long to get back to you. Things have been incredibly busy on my end lately and I’m sure you can imagine the volume of emails that come in to me. I hope I’m not getting back to you too late for my response to be useful as you consider your transition to Management Consulting.
I think I’ve answered the questions that you’ve posed in some form or another over the years, but, because I’ve written so much stuff over the past 7+ years, it’s easier for me to just answer your questions than for me to look through my archives to direct you to my old posts:
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1. “With travel and work, can I still keep a healthy relationship? “
The quick answer to this is “Yes, but it’ll take a lot of focus and attention on your part”. By now, you’ve probably heard some of the horror stories about people not being able to balance work and real life as a Consultant and, once upon a time, I was in the middle of that kind of struggle. Back in April of 2009, I wrote a really open and heartfelt entry about my own struggles with balancing the Consulting lifestyle and my real life relationships. I caught a lot of flack for putting all my business out in the street at the time, but I don’t regret it at all because people need to know the real deal when it comes to this sort of thing.
The key to achieving the balance that you’re seeking is setting your priorities between work and family. I’ve seen some people do it masterfully, but others (including myself) are/were terrible at it. It’s all about setting boundaries and being willing to stick to them unless absolutely necessary. If you’re working locally and you want to get home in time to tuck your son in or have dinner with him a couple of nights per week, you can decide on that as one of your boundaries and tell your team about it from the beginning. There will be days when those things won’t be possible, but, if you’re willing to grind like crazy after your son goes to sleep, you might be able to get that kind of flexibility.
Also, you have to recognize that, at some firms/offices, there may be a tradeoff between the boundaries that you set and the types of projects that you can get staffed on or your trajectory within the firm. For example, if you go into a Consulting firm and say that you would prefer to work on projects that wouldn’t have you traveling, it’ll be pretty tough for you to get staffed, depending on the office location you’re in. This sort of thing is just a fact of life and, as long as you’re OK with that, you should be able to make the work-life balance thing work for as long as you want to be a Consultant.
Finally, it’ll take some understanding from your wife and son that you’re making sacrifices in the near term in order to provide for them in the long term. Most people who go into Consulting only do it for 2-3 years and, after that, they transition into something corporate that has a better lifestyle. It’ll be tough for you to be away 4-5 days per week, but, after a couple of years at a MBB firm, you’ll be able to transition into a corporate gig that would pay well AND give you a better lifestyle, both of which will be pluses for your family. You’ll all just have to be patient with things in those harder times on the front end to get those benefits on the back end.
2. “Second, I grew up in small business and am very much entrepreneurial in my goals and approach to a career. Can I fit into a MBB?”
Yes, I think you can fit into an MBB with that entrepreneurial perspective and, in fact, you’d probably bring something different to the table in terms of your experiences and perspective on problem solving and serving clients. It really comes down to the culture of the firm and office that you decide to join. That said, you should go into a MBB knowing that those firms have established ways of doing things and you’ll have to be OK with conforming to those methods. I know this sounds pretty basic, but a lot of folks (including myself) go in thinking that they can kick in the door and do their own things and that’s just not the case.
I’m not saying that that is a bad thing, but it’s one of those “Fact of Life” parts of moving into the Management Consulting industry. The firms have been around for decades and, given that you’ll more than likely only be there for a couple of years, it makes total sense that you won’t exactly be totally entrepreneurial there. Just focus on picking up as many skills as you can in the role and then you can exercise your entrepreneurial muscles (whether that’s in your own venture or in a corporate setting) when you leave Consulting.
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I hope you found these responses to be helpful. Take care and good luck with your goal of moving into Management Consulting. Despite what you might hear about the lifestyle, I truly do believe that it’s the best learning lab for business in the professional world and you’d benefit greatly with that as a foundation for your business career.
Marquis
Marquis,
Some good advice above. A few thoughts from my experience:
1. Not all firms require extensive travel. Particularly if you look at smaller niche practices, many have a local focus. There are other tradeoffs to be considered with a smaller firm, but don’t rule them out.
2. Think carefully about any industry specialization you adopt — it will have a big impact on the extent of travel required. (e.g. Pharma (NJ), Automotive (MI), High Tech (CA), Financial Svcs (NY)) None of these locations have a monopoly on an industry by any means, but if you are a Pharma specialist living in Philadelphia, for example, your chances of extensive travel will be reduced.
3. Use technology wisely. Skype is a godsend to consultants on the road. When you are out of town, why can’t you still read your kid a bedtime story? Perfect? No! Better than nothing? Absolutely!
4. Learn when to say ‘no’. You will be surprised how often it will be accepted. Remember, your colleagues are, for the most part struggling, with the same work-life balance issues. If I remember I told a detailed story along these lines in my interview with Marquis some time ago.
5. Draw clear boundaries. Marquis makes this point very well. What does it mean in practice? For example, don’t be the parent on the sideline at the kids soccer game who is constantly checking e-mail and jumping on conference calls. If you are there — be there.
6. Recognize that with all the tips in the world, consulting is not for everyone. It does require sacrifices. It can be very demanding and require long hours. If you cant see yourself ever working a 60+ hour week or having to sometime put your client ahead of your family, be honest with yourself about it and don’t jump into this field.
Iain
http://www.consultingbench.com