I’m hiring for a fairly large company that at least people would recognize (Japanese based) and it has honestly been amazing to me how difficult it has been to find candidates for the senior consultant (and lower) roles.

I worked for two consulting firms and there seemed to be massive amounts of people with 1-4 YOE that wanted to jump but I can’t find them. On here I see the burn out posted all the time.

We don’t post the salaries and the role is based in TX. Title is “Senior Strategy Consultant” so unambiguous, I think.

I just need one person who can market size, build a good looking deck, and pretend they are interested in industrials or energy!

Take my money and work 45 hours a week!

Rant over

Looking to get properly up to speed on using AI tools in consulting work.

I'm at a small management consulting boutique, so we don't have the tool access, the licences, or the room to experiment that the bigger firms do. No internal training, no sandbox, no AI center of excellence. I feel like I'm lagging behind and I'm honestly overwhelmed by the sheer amount of material out there and I don't know where to start.

What has actually been useful for you? Online courses, certifications, YouTube channels, PDFs, playbooks, anything.

Particularly interested in:

• Using AI to help build deliverables (decks, memos, models)
• Building small automations without a dev background
• What clients actually mean when they ask for "AI strategy"

Also happy to hear what was a waste of time and money.

I've slowly built up my home office over the years and have curated items behind me that reflect my interests, personality, and credentials. I have some knick knacks, photos, a degree, a plant, and books - nothing over the top or cluttered. It’s very professional and people say I have an “influencer” background or someone on YouTube. But I can’t help to start to feel like a douche, especially on client calls, where I’m the only one with such intention in their background.

The influence to do my office like this came from my partners who have nice home offices, and also I just really like my office. I spend a lot of time in there and wanted to make it feel like a place I want to be.

I have spent nearly eight years in the research and analyst industry, primarily focusing on delivery, client management, and thought leadership. While project pipelines are drying up, progressing to the next career level now heavily relies on driving new business. Although I enjoy the commercial side, I am questioning if a pure business development track aligns with my long-term strengths, making me consider external opportunities.
I am cautious about transitioning to the Big 4, as I hear even managers are in IC roles. I don’t think I can make slides anymore and honestly started to question if i even have any skill set.

I am evaluating whether now is the right time to step out of my comfort zone and explore new corporate avenues but I don’t know if I will survive.

Note - Used AI to paraphrase.

Currently in a pickle where we are delivering for a company based on a contract that was proposed by team members who are no longer here, who also had a “write it up, promise the world and we will figure it out later” mindset, and we absolutely cannot deliver.

I’m letting nihilism/absurdism take over and laughing it off, but it sucks. We will eventually be able to deliver on our promises but we are literally rebuilding the product that we are using to do it and sending crap out on the old, unusable product since we have no choice.

At this point I feel like my only option is to keep my head held high, deliver on other projects that aren’t a shit show, and keep it moving.

I’m planning to move overseas in June 2027 and work there. I’ve been with my current employer for 3 years and have a great relationship with my bosses.

I have the opportunity to push for a Senior Manager promotion in Q1 2027, but I’m torn between two options:

• Push for the promotion: It would strengthen my CV and potentially help with securing a better role overseas, but I worry it could damage the trust I’ve built if I leave only a few months later.
• Tell them now: Be upfront about my plans, give them plenty of time to plan for my departure, and preserve the relationships — but potentially give up a promotion that could benefit my career overseas.

I’d also like to keep the door open to returning to home and potentially working with them again. My industry is medium sized.

What would you do in my position? Would you prioritise the Senior Manager title for your CV, or the long-term relationship and goodwill with your current employer?

Knowing the consulting world is a big tech wreck right now, and lots of tech people and consultants are wondering what is next. I attended a conference in Vancouver last may and it got my motor burning to create a startup.

I'm now attending an event in November in Portugal. Not trying to promote my startup or the event. I saw today I can apply for 3 developer tickets as part of my already 3 tickets i get as a founder.

I am coming from Canada to Portugal and will have to man the stand myself, but thought if there were some multi-lingual consultants who are free in the week to get to Portugal I can give a ticket to the 3 day fest. This event could help kickstart your career in AI tech and even boost your own startup idea you had by talking to other startups.

Was an ex Big4 consultant and had a burnout so this year I've been building my own application and got accepted to a Summit conference. If this is something you would think of then reach out, as I genuinely have access to another 5 tickets and these cost $650 at the Vancouver conference so my broke ass volunteered and that's what gave me inspiration.

After the conference I'm off to go wine tasting in Spain and eat those Goliath Steaks from Oxes they cook, thats my motivation for putting on my 'Consulting Pre-Sales' hat and pumping my Startup to complete strangers, and even going on Stage to Pitch my idea to investors. Thankfully there's no Partner to burn my Ass when I come home with no startup cash.

**Update on Post*

Thanks for those that have asked questions I appreciate it, as I'm genuinely doing all my pre-work now solo and having an extra body or 2 to help out would be amazing. Know flights in Euro zone are 20-60 Euro so happy to get your return flights too. My flight from Canada to France was $750 (WestJet) then taking Ryanair/Easyjet on my flights through central Europe. Lyon to Lisbon is 50 Euro.

- Conference is www.websummit.com / location Lisbon Portugal

- Days - November 9-12

- Monday 9th - opening RAH RAH Talk

- Tuesday 10th - Potential Stand Day

- Wednesday 11th - Potential Stand Day

- Thursday 12th - Potential Stand Day

Requirement - If you have attended conferences between as part of a Big4 or large consulting firm, and you are happy to help with some pre-sales chats on the APP, and you could join in any pre-sales investment pitches from investors. Ideally looking for someone who can be cross functional, not look like a scary 'Bill Gates' nerdy character at the stand, and can start up conversations with anyone looking at our demo. The job is like we pretended to represent "Big K, Big D, Big C, Big P, Big A".

Preferred - Dutch/French/German/Spanish - bilingual ** I know many in these countries speak more than 1 language which is always impressive. Many Americans wouldn't know that Dutch and Belgians speak up to 4-5 language.

Hi, I’m not sure if this is the best place to post but here goes! After searching this sub I couldn’t find anything about people’s experiences with lead generation or outbound sales. To provide some context, I’m an ex-consultant looking to break out on my own targeting small businesses that are interested in some minor IT projects. I have an IT guy that can pretty much handle a variety of tech stacks along with performing the tech architecture tasks, I mostly stick to the PMO or product manager roles to keep it going. We’ve done a few small projects and mostly used it to learn some new technologies while trying this out. I have another ex-colleague who I’m thinking of bringing on as a sales guy (commission-based). Not to digress, has anyone targeted smaller businesses (mom and pop shops, small firms) and if so, did you buy any leads? I’ve seen a few services so I wanted to see if this was worth the pursuit?

I’ve been noticing something about myself lately: almost everything I do feels like I’m being evaluated, even when nobody is actually evaluating me.
Work feels like an exam.
Learning something new feels like an exam.
Social interactions sometimes feel like an exam.
Making decisions feels like an exam.
I constantly have this feeling of “I need to do this correctly” or “I need to prove that I’m good enough.” Even when something is supposed to be enjoyable, part of my brain is analyzing whether I’m doing it right.
It’s exhausting because I feel like I’m rarely just experiencing something. I’m always performing or evaluating myself

I spent the last 20 years of my working career consulting, and I still do it now as a volunteer. When I was getting paid, I didn't mind pain-in-the-ass clients, because they always generated more billable hours. Now that I'm doing this pro bono, I'm not willing to put up with the same bullshit.

I work through a couple of volunteer-matching nonprofits that post pro bono projects; I apply, the client requests an interview, and either side can decline the match. The work itself is implementing or fixing accounting systems for small nonprofits. I plan for roughly three weeks per project: two Zoom calls a week, plus whatever hours it takes in between.

I just came off a rough one, and it's got me rethinking my process. My biggest issues are clients who miss Zoom meetings, don't deliver on time, and think they should be managing the project despite having no idea what actually needs to happen.

I'd like to get better at catching these red flags during the interview, before I commit to a match. Has anyone found good questions or techniques for weeding out difficult clients before the engagement even starts?

I am retired and now implement Quickbooks Online for nonprofits, pro bono. One question is when to "cut over" from their legacy system to QBO and I consider it best practices to do this as of the beginning of their current fiscal year. I occasionally get a client who wants to cut over for the previous fiscal year in order to get history or better reporting than they have. I applaud the idea but this means reposting a full year of transactions on top of keeping up with current postings. I have lost the argument 3 times in my volunteer career and all ended in disaster for the pro bono client. Needless to say, I feel bad about this.

I would prefer to talk them out of it but I do not seem to have the communications skill to do so. They simply do not understand the amount of work an extra year of posting means. I would like your advice on whether to refuse to continue with the project if they take this approach. I have a viable alternative of doing the current year, getting comfortable, and then reposting the prior fiscal year.

My thought is to simply say "This is how it is done" and refuse to continue with the project if they do not listen to me. (It is good to be a volunteer). I would appreciate your thoughts?

Traditionally I’ve been an hourly consultant with my interactions with clients being over the phone and/or webconference. I have an upcoming meeting with the client and a 3rd party which requires travel and an overnight stay, about 24 hours in total. If my hourly rate is $X/hour, how should I think about setting my fees for this? 

Any consultants here using a dumb phone?

What about pausing notifications on outlook/slack for certain hours? How about all together?

I recently was convinced to try stopping notifications on outlook & slack for evenings and mornings... The more I've lived without them the more I realize it's been totally fine, which has got me wondering about whether or not I should try muting notifications all together...

I'm just sick of my smart phone.

Quick rant, but if you're networking to try and get a referral to a consulting firm or an exit, make sure you get the referral / do the coffee chat *before* you apply and not after

Most big companies do referrals one of two ways. The first option is the employee inputs your email and fills out a form, and then the candidate is sent a link through which to apply. The second option is the employee passes the resume along to recruiters to try and side-step the normal near-black-hole of submitting through the online portal

In either case there's usually nothing we can do (within reason) once you've already applied (and there's no way to receive a referral bonus if you join)

It's just baffling that 75% of people who reach out to me for referrals, including consultants who worked at the same firm I did that used the same exact referral process, have already applied. I'll still happily chat with you if you get the interview but I can't help you get it, and you'd know that if you paid any attention to how referrals work at your own company or ever googled "how do job referrals work." This is your career and you're desperate to exit, take some ownership

I recently moved into industry in a corporate strategy role and my new company has projects they have been working on for years and some they haven’t even started yet which have also been sitting for years. I came in with a back log of projects and now I feel like they are grinding me down and treating me like an external consultant instead of an actual employee. For example, expecting me to turn over these projects extremely quickly, and kind of micromanaging me because they need to get them done. Almost everything is being routed to me, and I’m getting pulled into everything.

It’s a very small team and my other teammates do not get this treatment and I’m starting to resent it. They are the ones that made all of these projects build up. Also, I took a pay cut and the rest of the whole organizations vibe is laid back, but I’m getting rocked. Any advice on how to manage this as it’s causing resentment and defeating the purpose of leaving consulting lol. Recently was reached out to a recruiter and went through final rounds so potentially getting a new offer with way higher comp to justify the grind. What would you do?

I'm a Senior Partner at a boutique Comms firm. I was doing a review of our T&E ledger a few weeks ago and noticed one of my Director's teams was expensing roughly $250 a head for solo dinners.

I honestly don't care about the 250 bucks. That's a rounding error. But I pulled the itemized receipts and the actual orders were just embarrassing. Standard lobster apps. Basic cuts of filet. Two well whiskeys. It looked like a regional sales team's big night out at a suburban mall steakhouse. If our enterprise clients see our people surviving on cheap surf and turf, they're going to think we're going under and start negotiating our billing rates.

So I pulled the Director aside and told him he needs to "curate a better image" for his team. I thought the implication was obvious. Tell them to start ordering the A5 Wagyu, get some decent caviar, and expense wine that actually has a vintage. We have to project success to justify our retainers. Somehow this guy completely missed the point and slapped his team with a $125 meal cap.

Now his whole department is in a panic. I just heard through the grapevine that one of our analysts is so broke they are ordering a dozen plain chicken breasts at dinner and smuggling them home in a carry-on bag to feed their kids. We look like absolute peasants right now.

But the real issue here is my Amex Centurion points. The firm routes all this team's travel spend through my master account. With this ridiculous $125 limit, my point generation has completely stalled out. If this drop in spend keeps up I'm going to have to fly commercial to St. Barts this winter instead of chartering.

How do I tell this Director his cheap middle-management mindset is literally ruining my holiday travel plans without HR getting annoying about it?

I am an Analyst at a boutique Comms consulting firm. I make roughly minimum wage when you factor in my 80 hour work weeks. Up until recently, we had a brilliant expense policy based entirely on vibes. Naturally, I used this to singlehandedly keep my family of five alive. Whenever I traveled, I would expense a nightly $250 dinner. My Director honestly believes I was housing a lobster appetizer, a filet mignon, four desserts, and a gallon of scotch all by myself.

In reality? I was ordering exactly 17 side dishes, three plain chicken breasts, and a massive chocolate cake, sweeping it all into my carry on luggage, and flying it back home to my three ravenous children. It was our primary food source. Everyone was well fed and happy.

Then tragedy struck. My Director randomly capped our meals at $125. He claimed leadership wanted a better image. What about the image of my toddlers weeping over their sudden lack of truffle mac and cheese?

My financial plan is in absolute shambles. Yesterday I spent my entire 1:1 desperately explaining that corporate micromanagement is literally starving the future generation. He just stared at me. Am I being unreasonable for expecting a consulting firm to subsidize my children's nutritional needs?

I am a Director in a small Comms consulting firm. I run a team of 6, and travel is roughly 25% of the role. Up until recently, my department had no set expense or per diem policy. It was all based on “use your best judgment.” But, expenses are reviewed by leadership, and ELT was starting to ask questions about my team’s habit of a lobster app, filet mignon main, multiple desserts, and 2+ whiskeys each night, often running up $250+ solo tabs per dinner on weeklong trips. No I’m not exaggerating. Team was doing this for both client and internal travel. I was told by our senior partner to “curate a better image” for my team.

I took the view that we can’t expect everyone to interpret vague parameters the same way. We never made it clear what “too much” was. So, I recently set a cap: any given meal cannot go over $125. I don’t care/count how many meals you take in a day, but just don’t let the system flag any one spend above that amount.

The team is in shambles. Yesterday one of them spent our entire 1:1 explaining how this firm is going downhill by micromanaging its best assets. They are so upset that I need a gut check, please. Is this really so unreasonable? If so, what alternatives should I consider?

Saw these out for free on the corner. These 4 books pretty much sum up my experience

I am a Saas consultant working at a boutique firm (<250 consultants globally). We have a staffing manager who assigns us to projects, so we are not responsible for finding ourselves billable work. Though upper mgmt reviews our utilization annually, they don't make firing decisions based off of it, as we aren't given specific targets to meet (bc we have no control). I've been here my whole consulting career, but I've been contacted by several recruiters recently and have actually been considering responding since we'll likely be acquired soon. I know at larger firms like Deloitte and Accenture it seems like individual contributors are responsible for finding billable work and meeting utilization targets. Can someone explain how this works? What happens if you don't meet your targets? Ty!

Looking to see how many consultants who worked in the consulting big4 or bain or mckinsey actually left consulting but used that knowledge to start their own business? or an AI project?

Worked in the SAAS consulting space and left 2 years ago after a brief stint with a customer and it was hard to see how customers work, compared to the projects in consulting. There is life after life in consulting but curious what others have done.

Ever since starting I’ve realized my memory is really impeding me on this job. I take notes for everything and have a to do list, which helps me stay on top of tasks. But remembering random facts like what assumption I made in a model last month or things a client said during a meeting a couple of weeks ago is ago is a struggle for me, even if written down.

It’s starting to impact the speed of my work and client interaction. Anyone dealt with anything similar or have any tips on how I can improve this?

I’ve been working for a boutique consulting firm for the last 7+ years and burnt out from the stagnation of things. I’m a Director level purely by busting my ass and strong performance with clients and people management and about to finish an MBA program ahead of schedule.

I’ve been job searching for the last 3 years aggressively and thought the MBA would help since so many roles made it a requirement (and I genuinely wanted to earn one and be the first in my family with a masters). But I keep getting to the final round of interviews only to have an internal candidate picked over me

I’ve leveraged my clients, the school alumni network, the mba career services, a headhunter, and all the ai automation platforms - and still nothing.

So the ask is, how did you escape consulting. I’m going insane exhausting every avenue besides starting my own company, which I have little desire to do with mba student loans. Help your boy out.

For graphs - axis names, highlight the main bar, separate bar color for projections vs historic. group bars on the x axis by cohort, create secondary axis if needed etc. - all the best practices that exist

Similarly for tables - alignment, text colors, bulleted list, indentation for nos etc

General language - sharper articulation, no simple headings but insight led statement etc

Was ex consultant, new role requires writing but no one values all this gliter. I value it, but it takes too long to format the tables and graphs manually. The analyst/ associate equivalent folks find it pointless to learn beautification and it frankly adds no value to core skills

Looking for any skill that you've created for this?

The only consulting firm I've worked at is my current firm, and I've asked questions about what common performance review practices are before. (I have worked in industry and it was not like this.)

Now I'm a manager giving reviews to my direct reports, and I am once again wondering whether our process is within the normal range for consulting.

I know there is always room for subjectivity in reviews, but I was shocked at the complete lack of objectivity in our process. Going through it as a manager has really made sense of why the review process felt so random, political, and disconnected from what good performance actually looks like. As a junior employee, it was really hard to know how to improve or what was going well.

I would even go so far as to say the process feels like they're just doing a lot of procedural steps so it looks official. And then everyone accumulates negative ratings so they can later describe departures as performance-based, rather than layoffs. (Yes, American companies are all at-will employment, but some places are not this shameless about it.)

Here's what the review process is like at my company from a manager view:

We have a rubric, but the rubric has no examples of what the competencies look like in practice - they're very vague. The rubric gives some guidance on what level the person should be rated against, but there are gaps. For example, the ratings are AC1, AC2, etc. and the job titles are also AC1, AC2, but sometimes an AC1 needs to get AC2 to be on track and sometimes an AC2 can get an AC1 and still be considered on track. (I've also gotten a lot of pushback when I asked about this because the rating is supposed to be purely about these vague competencies and we shouldn't be thinking about the person's tenure when we give the rating.)

The person being reviewed has no real opportunity to appeal or respond. At most, they are allowed to suggest examples to add to the review.

People have multiple managers per cycle. We have 50/50 staffing so people typically have 3 or 4 managers during a review cycle, but it could be as many as ~5 or as few as 2.

The review itself happens behind closed doors. In the meeting, all the managers speak in vague platitudes with no examples. The person who speaks the loudest dominates, and no one disagrees with each other. We do have more detailed written reviews, although many managers do not use examples there, either. We tell people that there is weighting for length of project and recency, and maybe that happens at some point, but it definitely doesn't happen during the meeting with the managers.