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As a former vice president (partner) of management consulting firms, ranging from small to large (Booz Allen Hamilton), as well as my own firm, I have a direct perspective to answer this question. There probably have been surveys about this topic, but I don’t recall any; therefore, my points are anecdotal.I have organized my response in the following topics:Functions a partner performs.What things are most enjoyable.What things are least enjoyable.1. Functions of a partner of a management consulting firmPartners of consulting firms typically perform the following functions- in no particular order:Sell business.Build and successfully lead one or more practice areas.Lead and provide oversight of proposals and presentations toward business development.Provide corporate oversight to clients for successful performance of client projects.Maintain top level client relationships for the firm.Review reports, presentations and other deliverables produced by the project team.Where appropriate, serve as project director for selected engagements.Provide guidance, development and mentoring for selected consulting staff.Provide senior level functional and domain expertise on client engagements, as appropriate.Perform financial planning and analysis related to consulting firm performance.Participate in overall management of the firm’s business.Participate in recruiting and evaluation of consulting staff.Travel to client sites. (Travel may fluctuate widely.)It’s been over 8 years since I retired, but I think I’ve listed the major things a partner does. One of the major activities and responsibilities of consulting firm partners is to sell. Partners may have more or less involvement in the actual delivery of consulting services to clients.2. What things are most enjoyable for a partnerIn my case, I especially enjoyed the:Camaraderie with other partners.Excitement and satisfaction from winning major new engagements.Pride and satisfaction from excellent feedback from clients, especially on the performance of the consulting staff.Pride and satisfaction from producing valuable products and results for selected clients.Prestige of the position, firm and profession.Compensation, when successful.3. What things are least enjoyable for a partnerIn my case, these included the:Corporate politics and bureaucracy.Competition between partners, including the compartmentalization of practice areas.Stress from constant pressure to sell and inherent risk of the business.Travel, depending on the firm and practice areas.Substantial time requirements, including competition with family and other personal demands.While there are some differences in the functions, things enjoyed and things not enjoyed by consulting firm partners, there is a fair degree of similarity considering the position as a whole. It’s a good job. I was fortunate in developing a passion for the profession. Some of the items in the least enjoyable list were drivers in my decision to start my own consulting firm.

The numbers do not correlate and that is a huge red flag for anyone wanting to invest in stocks at this time.The S&P 500 is NOT up to a new high. It is not 25% higher than it was in February. The Chart below shows the actual S&P 500 index trend at this time.When you study this chart, it is obvious that we are in a bear market bounce. The Index is far below its all-time high and the cycle indicates more downside.The reason why negative news is not causing a stock market decline, which would be a normal and reasonable reaction to such high unemployment is that the average investor listens to the news on TV, phone, or internet and the bounce up of 25% sounds huge. However, when compared to the sell down on this chart from the speculative high on February it is obvious, graphically, that something is very wrong.The retail groups are buying stocks because the news and gurus are urging them to buy on the dip. The new investors have no stock market experience and trust what they hear and read. However, most of the news is misleading at this time.Many investors think the economy is going to suddenly get better when it is realistically going to take a year or longer to begin to recover. In addition, the new economy will not be the same as the economy of this past bull market.Furloughs sound as if every worker will just return to their jobs soon. This is not the case. Many companies are struggling to determine what and how to manage their workforce to protect each person’s health but also make it possible for the corporation to survive this pandemic which is the worst health crisis for the US since the Spanish Flu of 1918. This is the 100 year pandemic that the healthcare world organizations have been warning about for many years.The Stock Market usually trends ahead of the economy. This is because of the distribution of information which is not as many retail investors assume. The Buy Side Institutions receive information about a corporation well ahead of most of the market participant groups because they pay for this information or they obtain it themselves way ahead of earnings seasons and events.This pandemic hit suddenly, just as the corporations were part way through what was supposed to be a good earnings season. Suddenly within a week or two, corporations were shutting down their operations and minimizing employee activity to save lives. This caused a sudden and severe decline in revenues and earnings. Since the entire world is affected by the pandemic, even global conglomerates were impacted financially by the entire global economy shutting down.Even one week can have catastrophic consequences for an economy as large and complex as the US economy which has most of the Fortune 500 companies in the world.At the same time, CEOs and CFOs had to scramble to complete their earnings reports for the 1st quarter 2020 and provide their largest investors—the Giant Buy Side Institutions aka Mutual Fund and Pension Fund companies, The ETF Derivative Developers. and Sell Side Giant Institutions aka financial services firms, with data that could prepare these giant highly influential investment groups with warnings and factual data. It was a major undertaking for the corporations which were hindered by a lack of staff on hand to cope with the enormous paperwork to complete the earnings report, have it independently audited as required by the SEC, and to present guidance that was factual for the 2nd quarter.Meanwhile the Federal Reserve Bank recognizes that the markets are collapsing and in severe stress mode. The FRB enacts its power to expand its Balance Sheet and then provides credit to the stressed Money Central Banks buying Treasury Bills and then Corporate High Yield (toxic junk bonds) which provides cash for the Big Banks to start Making the Market as stocks fall faster than any previous Bear Market since 1929. As the Banks Make the Market aka provide the buy side to the massive sell demand, the downtrend slows and the stock market stabilizes.Study the Daily Chart for the S&P 500 and you can see the buying by banks that slows down the selling and stabilizes the stock market. At this point, the stock market selling is controlled and contained. The component stocks have lost anywhere from 30% - 80% individually. However the index has lost approximately 35% as the index is a formula that is averaged. At the lowest low of this downtrend a fundamental support level has been reached. The Bank buying then creates a bounce as sellers decline in numbers and banks buying moves price up from its fundamental support level. This is a faster than normal run down. The index lost 35% approximately from February 24 to March 23. The speed of this collapse reflects the speed at which the US economy stopped due to the shut down. The depth or percentage of loss coincides with expected declines in revenues and earnings for the stocks in this index.The Bear Bounce is a common pattern and easily recognized by most technical analysts. However, the average investor and new investors typically do not use technical analysis but listen to news.The bounce started with banks acting as the primary buyers aka Making the Market as is required by the rules of the stock market. The bounce made many retail investors and smaller funds managers assume that this downtrend was over. The index moved up approximately 25% which sounds huge to the average and new investors. These groups rushed to buy on the dip. Many investors assumed that when the May arrives the economy will just resume where it left off in March.Sadly that is not what is going to happen. CEOs are advising the Buy Side Institutions that their 2nd quarter reports will be worse than this 1st quarter. This means the fundamental values are now below the previous lows of this initial bear phase run down.Buy Side Institutions have begun hidden rotation as the retail groups and the smaller funds groups buy eagerly on what they think is a great buy because they believe the stock market is in a bull market. Since many of the retail investors do not study stock charts, they have no visual as to what is actually happening. The volume bars on the chart above are declining. This means the smaller funds and the retail investors are slowly running out of funds to invest.Also the most recent price action since earnings season started is choppy, very small and has many common gaps. This is indicative of retail investors buying while Dark Pools are selling with great care so as not to cause another sell down before they have sold all the inventory they need to sell.What is happening then is the retail investors have become the buyers for the larger lot sellers.Stock prices that are far above the fundamental levels for 2nd quarter 2020 are over valued. When someone buys a stock at a price that is far above its true fundamental value they are buying speculatively or gambling.The wise investors of the market still have their money sidelined. They know that when this earnings season ends, more selling will commence.This is the first time in modern history that the economic decline has been so sudden and swift that the stock market decline is behind rather than ahead.The Buy Side Institutions are currently evaluating all the new fundamental data and will adjust their inventories to reflect the new lower fundamental values for each company. This takes time and is like to start in early summer.Pandemics last one and a half years to two years. So do bear markets.

Definitely NIT Trichy is not over rated. Rating and recognitions have come from different agencies during various occasions .1.position in national rating by MHRD; 122.first to be visited and cleared by international Washington Accord observers.3.Academic transformation activities involving curriculum, delivery and evaluation were quick and relevant . High level MHRD team has appreciated the efforts. Successful models of flexible approach of VIT, virtual delivery of BITS , latest curriculum of IIT Madras and Faculty Development of NUS have been combined together resulting in the leading position . NIT Trichy received Visionary Leadership national award from FICCI.4. Industry relevant research laboratories worth around Rs 80 crores have been set up with the support of MHRD . NIT Trichy is leading among other NITs in terms of research publications/faculty.5. World Bank funding TEQIP was effectively utilised in training the faculty in various global locations, organising faculty development programmes and training the staff. NIT Trichy has been leading in the past two phases .6. There is a significant increase in industry funding. Neyveli Lignite Corporation alone has funded projects worth around Rs 7 crores. NIT Trichy received CII-AICTE award for highest level of industry-institute interface.7. NIT, Trichy has a lead over some of the old IITs in student placement activities. Training and Placement activities are handled by a large number of students under the guidance of two efficient faculty. The Institute received the best employabilty institute award from FICCI.8. Society oriented activities of the students have grown multifold during the past five years. The Institute bagged the best Society concern award from FICCI.9. The governance of the Institute was made highly professional with multiple groups of Deans and associate Deans with well laid down tasks. Multiple committees approach avoided biased and speculative decisions. NIT Trichy bagged the best managed institute award by Madras Management Association for two consecutive years.10. Students Council participated effectively in the Institute administration. Technical clubs were multiplied covering latest and relevant topics. The technical event Pragyan was converted to Organisation with year long activities. Cultural activities like music, dance ,photography, film production etc produced leaders in the country.The organisation of FESTEMBER became more professional. With creation of number of sports grounds at various locations in the vast 800 acres campus , NIT ,Trichy hosted two major sports events with more than 1000 participants from all over the country. These activities resulted in increase in admissions of NIT students in leading management institutes. Formation of the Section 8 company CEDI in the campus for promotion of innovative ideas and the extensive activities of Entrepreneurship cell have brought NIT Trichy to top level in terms of rate of increase of activities over the years.11. Campus life has been improved with very good infrastructure for students and faculty.12. More than 18000 out of around 25000 of alumni have been located and the participation of alumni has increased. They have set up IoT lab and Innovation centers for students in the campus. They are supporting number of students with scholarships.13. The Board of Governors with Professor Rajaram Nithyananda and Ms Kumud as Chairpersons and with Distinguished industrialists, academicians and alumni contributed professionally to the development of the Institute14. Honourable President of India Shri Pranab Mukerjee and Dr Kalam interacted with our students.Leading scientists and bureaucrats visited the campus. Media participated in a big way in improving the brand image.15. Very strong support was provided by majority of faculty and staff.All these factors definitely justify the high rating of NIT ,Trichy. There are issues. Faculty strength is only 50 percent of sanctioned one. While the Institute is able to attract talent from different locations in the globe, recruitment is held due to court cases. When these hurdles are cleared, NIT , Trichy will be rated much above the present one.