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I was in management consulting almost my entire career- 40 years. I got into consulting at age 26- nearly 5 years since my undergraduate degree. I had been a system analysis engineer at two large industrial companies, so you could say this was a career change. I will address your questions as follows: (1) desired traits for a management consultant; (2) why I became and remained a consultant; and (3) dealing with some of the negative aspects of consulting.1. Desired Traits for a Management ConsultantBased on my experience, a consulting candidate should have most of the following traits.Strong analytical skills.High energy level, including above average initiative.Good communication skills (writing, presentation and interpersonal).Strongly assertive and reasonably competitive.Well organized.Good flexibility and willingness to change.Reasonably creative (development of recommendations).It can help for a person to be good-very good with numbers and data. For some consultants in the soft areas such as leadership development, team building, and conflict management, numbers and data are not as important. All consultants should be analytical, though.2. Why I Became a Management ConsultantIn assessing your fit for consulting, it may be useful to consider why people chose to enter consulting. Below are the reasons why I went into consulting; I believe these are fairly representative of the reasons of others.I selected consulting because it: (1) supported many of my interests and strengths, including analysis, writing, organization, presentation, numbers and business; (2) involved helping organizations and people; (3) had opportunities to work for various size firms; and (4) was reasonably prestigious and offered a good income.I chose consulting vs. working in industry because: (1) consulting was a much better match for my interests, capabilities and personality; (2) I could not see fitting into a large company over the long term, partially because of a fairly independent nature; and (3) I did not like engineering, which is where my education (BSEE) directed me. Being with a large industrial company (GE), I felt constrained as compared with what appeared to be the more freewheeling environment of consulting.3. Why I Remained as a Management ConsultantOver my consulting career, I found that my initial assumptions about consulting held true. The most important factors in my decision to stay in consulting were: (1) I liked it a lot; (2) I was very good at it; and (3) I was able to control some of the negative factors of consulting.Many consultants find that the travel, long hours, internal competition, and nature of the work are not to their liking and leave consulting after a few years. In my case, I had a passion for consulting, and was fairly successful. I became a vice president (partner) of Booz Allen Hamilton when I was 33, was a partner of other consulting firms, and in my mid 40s started my own firm, which I ran for over 20 years before retirement.When I was at my peak at Booz Allen, I couldn’t wait to get to the office. I liked the camaraderie with the other officers (partners) and staff; the interesting projects; the highs from winning large contracts; the satisfaction from advancement in the firm; and doing important work for clients. I also liked the prestige of working at one of the oldest, largest, and most distinguished management consulting firms. I felt similar positives (though not the same) about working for other consulting firms, especially my own firm.Consulting is by and large a meritocracy. There generally are no limits to how far a consultant can move in a consulting firm. Advancement depends primarily on the performance of the consultant.4. Dealing with Some Negative Factors of ConsultingWorking for other consulting firms, I didn’t especially like the corporate politics, competition between officers (partners) and compartmentalization of practices. Fortunately I was able to change some things that often are negatives in the practice of consulting. These were travel, company politics and risk.While I had heavy travel in my first 2 years in consulting, after joining Booz Allen I worked in the Federal Government practice, where most of my clients were headquartered in the Washington, DC area. The travel was for specific fact finding- averaging about 4-5 days/month, and was much more tolerable.The politics and bureaucracy at some of the firms I worked for was a major reason for starting my own consulting firm. While I never had the very heavy hours of some MBB consultants, I did put in 60 hours per week when I worked for other consulting firms. This is appreciable, but not unlike the workload in comparable professions. I was able to reduce this to 50 hours or less when I formed my own consulting firm.There is a fair amount of risk in consulting. One is dependent on the continuing acquisition of new contracts and extensions to sustain your income for your services. I mitigated this risk somewhat by effective business planning and careful investments, but you never eliminate the risk in entirety.5. Other Factors Contributing to Success in ConsultingMy practice included management reviews, process improvement, program evaluation, management systems development, and facilitation services, mainly for Federal Government agencies in the health and environmental fields. I developed a specialty in performance-based contracting.Coincident with starting my own consulting firm, I went part time and completed my MBA in Finance. Although I had been fairly successful, I sometimes felt lacking w/o an advanced degree. In starting my own consulting firm, I felt that acquiring this additional credential would enhance my credibility with my clients, especially Federal health agencies like the National Institutes of Health, most of whose employees had advanced degrees, including doctorates. I felt the MBA helped to re-energize my consulting career.

I was in management consulting almost my entire career- 40 years. I got into consulting at 26- nearly 5 years since my B.S. degree. I had been a system analysis engineer at two large industrial companies, so you could say this was a career change. I will address your questions under the following topics: (1) desired skills for a management consultant; (2) why I became and remained a consultant; and (3) dealing with some of the negative aspects of consulting.1. Desired Skills for a Management ConsultantBased on my experience, a successful candidate should have most of the following skills:Strong analytical skills.High energy level, including above average initiative.Good communication skills (writing, presentation and interpersonal, including empathy).Strongly assertive and reasonably competitive.Well organized.Good flexibility and willingness to change.Reasonably creative (development of recommendations).It can help for a person to be good with numbers and data. However, for some consultants in soft areas such as leadership development, team building, and resistance to change, numbers and data are not as important. All consultants should be analytical, though.2. Why I Became a Management ConsultantIn assessing your fit for consulting, it may be useful to consider why people choose to enter consulting. Below are the reasons why I went into consulting. I believe these are fairly representative of the reasons of others.I selected consulting because it: (1) supported many of my interests and strengths, including analysis, writing, organization, presentation, numbers and business; (2) involved advising and helping organizations and people; (3) had opportunities to work for various size firms; and (4) was reasonably prestigious and offered a good income.I chose consulting vs. industry because: (1) consulting was a much better match for my interests, capabilities and personality; (2) I could not see fitting into a large company over the long term, partially because of a fairly independent nature; and (3) I did not like engineering, which is where my education (BSEE) directed me. Being with a large industrial company (GE), I felt constrained compared with the more freewheeling environment of consulting.3. Why I Remained as a Management ConsultantOver my consulting career, I found that my initial assumptions about consulting held true. The most important factors in my decision to stay in consulting were: (1) I developed a passion for it; (2) I was very good at it; and (3) I was able to control some of the negative factors.Many consultants find that the travel, long hours, internal competition, and nature of the work are not to their liking and leave consulting after a few years. In my case, I had a passion for consulting, and was fairly successful. I became a vice president (partner) of Booz Allen Hamilton when I was 33, worked as a partner of other consulting firms, and in my mid 40s started my own firm, which I ran for over 20 years before retirement.When I was at my peak at Booz Allen, I couldn’t wait to get to the office. I liked the camaraderie with the other partners and staff; the interesting projects; the highs from winning large contracts; the satisfaction from advancement in the firm; and doing important work for clients. I also liked the prestige of working at one of the oldest, largest, and most distinguished management consulting firms. I felt similar positives (though not always the same) about working for other consulting firms, including my own firm.Consulting is a meritocracy. There generally are no limits to how far a consultant can move in a consulting firm. Advancement depends primarily on the performance of the consultant.4. Dealing with Some Negative Factors of ConsultingWorking for other consulting firms, I didn’t especially like the corporate politics, competition between partners and compartmentalization of practices. Fortunately I was able to change some of the things that often are negatives in the practice of consulting. These were travel, company politics and risk.While I had heavy travel in my first 2 years in consulting, after joining Booz Allen I worked in the Federal Gov’t practice, where most of my clients were headquartered in the Washington, DC area. The travel was for specific fact finding- averaging about 4-5 days/month, and was much more tolerable.The politics and bureaucracy at some of the firms I worked for was a major reason for starting my own consulting firm. While I never had the very heavy hours of some MBB consultants, I did put in 60 hours per week when I worked for other consulting firms. This is appreciable, but not unlike the workload in comparable professions. I was able to reduce this to 50 hours or less when I formed my own consulting firm.There is a fair amount of risk in consulting. One is dependent on the continuing acquisition of new contracts and extensions to sustain the income for your services. I mitigated this risk somewhat by effective business planning and careful investments, but you never eliminate the risk in entirety.5. Other Factors Contributing to Success in ConsultingMy consulting practice included management reviews, process improvement, program evaluation, management systems development, and facilitation services, mainly for Federal Gov’t agencies in the health and environmental fields. I developed a specialty in performance-based contracting.Coincident with starting my own consulting firm, I went part time and completed my MBA in Finance. Although I had been fairly successful, I sometimes felt lacking w/o an advanced degree. In starting my own firm, I felt acquiring this additional credential would enhance my credibility with my clients, especially Federal health agencies like the National Institutes of Health, most of whose professional employees had advanced degrees, including doctorates. I felt the MBA helped to re-energize my consulting career.

I was in management consulting for 40 years. I had a successful career and liked the majority (maybe the great majority) of the work and other aspects of the job. I had a real passion for the profession. I can’t really identify things I wish I had known before I started. I worked for both small and large management consulting firms and ran my own firm as well. There were few aspects of the consulting profession that were surprising.1. Why I Became a Management ConsultantI selected consulting because it: (1) supported many of my interests and strengths, including analysis, writing, organization, presentation, numbers and business; (2) involved helping organizations and people; (3) had opportunities to work for various size firms; and (4) was reasonably prestigious and offered a good income.I chose consulting vs. working in industry because: (1) consulting was a much better match for my interests, capabilities and personality; (2) I could not see fitting into a large company over the long term, partially because of a fairly independent nature; and (3) I did not like engineering, which is where my education (BSEE) directed me. Being with a large industrial company (GE), I felt constrained as compared with what appeared to be the more freewheeling environment of consulting.2. Why I Remained as a Management ConsultantOver my consulting career, I found that my initial assumptions about consulting held true. The most important factors in my decision to stay in consulting were: (1) I liked it a lot; (2) I was pretty good at it; and (3) I was able to control some of the negative factors of consulting.Many consultants find that the travel, long hours, internal competition, and nature of the work are not to their liking and leave consulting after a few years. In my case, I had a passion for consulting, and was fairly successful. I became a vice president (partner) of Booz Allen Hamilton when I was 33, worked as a partner of other consulting firms, and in my mid 40s started my own firm, which I ran for over 20 years before retirement.When I was at my peak at Booz Allen, I couldn’t wait to get to the office. I liked the camaraderie with the other officers (partners) and staff; the interesting projects; the highs from winning large contracts; the satisfaction from advancement in the firm; and doing important work for clients. I also liked the prestige of working at one of the oldest, largest, and most distinguished management consulting firms. I felt similar positives (though not always the same) operating my own consulting firm.Consulting is by and large a meritocracy. There generally are no limits to how far a consultant can move in a consulting firm. Advancement depends primarily on the performance of the consultant.3. Dealing with Some Negative Factors of ConsultingWorking for other consulting firms, I didn’t especially like the corporate politics, competition between officers (partners) and compartmentalization of practices. Fortunately I was able to change some things that often are negatives in the practice of consulting. These were travel, company politics and risk.While I had heavy travel in my first 2 years in consulting, after joining Booz Allen I worked in the Federal Government practice, where most of my clients were headquartered in the Washington, DC area. The travel was for specific fact finding- averaging about 4-5 days/month, and was much more tolerable.While I never had the very heavy hours of some MBB consultants, I did put in 60 hours per week when I worked for other consulting firms. This is appreciable, but not unlike the workload in comparable professions. I was able to reduce this to 50 hours or less when I formed my own consulting firm.The politics and bureaucracy at some of the firms I worked for was a major reason for starting my own consulting firm. By achieving greater control with my own firm, I was able to reduce (thought not eliminate) the negatives of politics and bureaucracy,There is a fair amount of risk in consulting. One is dependent on the continuing acquisition of new contracts and extensions to sustain your income for your services. I mitigated this risk somewhat by effective business planning and careful investments, but you never eliminate the risk in entirety.4. Other Factors Related to Success in ConsultingMy practice included management reviews, process improvement, program evaluation, management systems development, and facilitation, mainly for Federal Gov’t health and environmental agencies. I developed a specialty in performance-based contracting. Through my own consulting firm, I was able to have greater control in the selection of clients and practice areas.Coincident with starting my own firm, I went part time and completed my MBA in Finance. Although I had been fairly successful, I sometimes felt lacking w/o an advanced degree. I felt acquiring the MBA would enhance my credibility with my new clients, especially Federal health agencies like the National Institutes of Health, most of whose employees had advanced degrees, including doctorates. I felt the MBA helped re-energize my consulting career.