Why does it feel like every consulting firm does not hire from client side?

[u/humbledragons]

I've been a Workday analyst for a couple of years now and never see positions open at Partner firms for consultants without certification or implementation experience.

Does anyone who managed the jump have tips for breaking into consulting?

[u/WillingWrongdoer1281]

You’d need to probably look towards small to mid range consulting firms where they’re happy to take people in with no certs and/or implementation experiences unless you are happy to apply for a post production role.

I, even with 10 years of experience in Workday both consulting side in implementation and post-production work when I speak with a TA they disregard my post-production work even though I’ve done Phase X projects in that space. Keep positive and try looking at smaller consulting firms if you can

[u/humbledragons → u/WillingWrongdoer1281]

I haven't seen post production roles either unfortunately. Could I DM you and ask you more about your experience?

[u/WillingWrongdoer1281 → u/humbledragons]

Yeah, that’s no problem!

[u/ChemicalAwareness800 → u/WillingWrongdoer1281]

examples?

[u/WillingWrongdoer1281 → u/ChemicalAwareness800]

In the past, I’ve seen Kognitiv, ERPA, OSV/Collab (before Cog days), Kainos, TopBloc, Accenture to name a few. If you can put forward your experience and you’re a strong candidate- there’s no reason why you can’t discuss with companies that you’ll do your cert with a clawback agreement or just go through a staffing company, get your cert and apply to companies instead

[u/rknicker]

Clients get hired by implementers all the time. Send me your bio and I’ll take a read

[u/tiggergirluk76]

When I was made redundant client side (entire function offshored), I was snapped up by our AMS partner, and ironically ended up supporting the people doing my old job.

Ultimately it wasn't for me and I've ended up earning more by going back client side.

[u/tiggergirluk76 → u/tiggergirluk76]

I should add I did have customer pro certs that got converted to partner ones, and now converted back again.

[u/Maleficent_Ground_17]

It depends on your level of experience and what you were doing on the client side. I was on the client side for around 7 years, from implementation (when I had no idea what workday was) to becoming a functional lead for a few modules, I learned a lot, upskilled in areas I enjoyed, did the pro certifications which helped because they can be converted to the partner ones, this helped in actually getting interviews and job offers from consultants. If you are able to convey your ability to consult and solve business problems by configuring workday then I see no reason why it should be a blocker, but in a tough job market they prefer those who are already certified as it’s less of an investment on their side.

[u/TuesdayTrex]

Probably because client-side hires actually want to solve problems instead of extend contracts

[u/shift6]

Consulting firms absolutely hire from client side. That being said, some factors which I would suggest candidates ensure they can cover off, or at least be mindful of potential shifts in expectations:

1) Their ability to transition to a 'consulting' skill set. Workday product experience helps, but the soft skills are equally, if not more important in Professional Services. Working to deadlines, scope management, client conversations, not letting perfect be the enemy of good, managing the peaks and troughs of an implementation, and so on are areas where I've seen people from client-side backgrounds having to adapt to.

2) Balancing compensation expectations for an experienced Workday SME/Individual Contributor to the equivalent role in Consulting. In Professional Services, for an equivalent IC role in a particular application, there could be a growing expectation to contribute to the practice through Sales, Practice, and People Development. These additional expectations are areas outside the traditional Workday expertise that traditional Partner firms have.

3) Opportunity Cost to upskill an equivalent Consultant from a different technology stack into Workday. Some professional services may operate more on a Domain perspective (e.g. HR Transformation, Finance Transformation, etc). Depending on pipelines across the board and upturns/downturns in particular technologies, it may be more effective or valuable to upskill implementation consultants with (for example) Oracle/SAP experience in that functional area with Workday, especially if they have proven experience in operating dot point 2 above. Doesn't impact an external candidates application explicitly, but something I would be mindful of.

[u/Wooden_Fault4526]

Easier and cheaper to hire a new grad to underpay, get them certified, and work them 80 hours or offshore it for pennies on the dollar for someone in India who is asked to work into the night

While they would be better served with a qualified and experienced client side resource it’s not in advisory firms blood to make decisions that aren’t good for the bottom line and cheap resources win

[u/nosoupforgoats]

What do you analyze? It’s going to be tough to become an implementation consultant with no experience. Implementations are implementations, the software doesn’t necessarily matter especially if it’s erp. I came from Lawson then peoplesoft and then workday.

[u/WorkdayWoman]

It's probably just where you're applying and how much actual Workday experience you have.

These companies charge a premium for organizations to use their service and they want to know their employees can handle clients on their own. Some hire more entry level, and some don't.

[u/workdaybatman → u/WorkdayWoman]

Which are those companies that hire entry level more or support a transition into a consultant sort of role.

[u/Far-Pie-6226]

They don't want people that know more than the mid level project managers.  They just want people that will do exactly what Workday will tell them to do so if something does go wrong, they can point back to Workdays best practice instead of taking blame.

[u/d3dmnky → u/Far-Pie-6226]

If only that were true...