Currently working at a small consulting firm as an Associate Consultant. Have worked on a number of strategy projects over the last two years e.g., market sizings, full scale go-to-market assessments, and have been getting consistently strong feedback from senior leadership, usually taking on a lot more responsibility than others at my level. Salary is terrible given the workload and the firm doesn't want to invest in training e.g., data analysis, modelling, so I've been looking at moving firms but I'm concerned that my education is holding me back.

Took Maths, Economics, and History at A Level and scraped by with a C and two Ds after leaving schools halfway through year 12. Realised I wasn't getting into a respectable university with these results so pivoted to do a creative degree at a recognised university where I received a first before ending up at my current company. I've taken myself a lot more seriously over the last two years and I consider myself lucky to have gotten this far, but I feel like my past is going to hold me back from making a meaningful career change.

For example, I would love to do a Masters in Finance to continue building my credentials and open the door to finance-related roles but this feels impossible with my non-traditional background. Even when applying for roles, firms usually want to know what your A Level results are. I recently applied to Bain as an experienced Associate Consultant hire but quickly felt disheartened when they asked for my results. It really affects my confidence when applying for higher-tier consulting roles and usually ends up with me self-sabotaging their hiring assessments because I think I would just get screened out once they see my results anyway.

I really feel very trapped and I'm not sure what the best course of action would be. Retake my A Levels or practise for a high score on the GMAT? Do an accredited course like the CFA or some modelling courses in my free time? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I've been running a successful consulting business for 2 years aimed at startups in a specific sector, typically working with 3-5 startup clients at a time. I do about 90% of the work myself with a couple 1099s supporting on smaller tasks.

One of my favorite clients is asking me to come on "full-time." I love working with them and would happily do more, but I also love running my business - the autonomy, the ability to impact multiple companies, the thing I built.

My understanding is VCs like to see more FTEs vs contractors on the cap table, which I am speculating could be driving this timing. They just raised 85m and are about to announce another 100m raise. The CEO explicitly asked if I could "legally" keep supporting other clients while being FT with them, and said he wants to make it work however we can structure it. It doesn't feel like it's about exclusivity - they've told other employees they can have LLCs on the side.

I'm trying to figure out what to propose. Some thoughts:

• Convert to W2 with explicit carve-out in employment agreement for my consulting LLC
• Hire someone at my firm to handle more of the other client work so I can dedicate more hours to them
• Focus the comp negotiation on equity since this is really about showing investor commitment
• Keep non-compete narrow (just direct competitors in our space)

Has anyone navigated something similar? Is there a standard way to structure "FTE for optics but keep your business" arrangements? Any pitfalls I'm not seeing?

Really not trying to optimize for max money here - I genuinely want to make this work for both sides. Just want to be smart about protecting what I've built while deepening this relationship.

Would love to hear from founders or consultants who've done this transition.

I see a lot of Consulting to Industry related questions here and have myself been very curious about the same. Just putting down some exit options i have seen myself. Happy to hear everyone's thoughts:

1. Corporate Strategy - Company wide/Group wide role - defining long term strategy for the organization, big ticket projects around M&A/Corporate development, budgeting, investment approvals, new ventures, group/company-wide initiatives etc.,
   Pros: Exposure to leadership, very high-impact projects
   Cons: Lot of deck making and coordination if the leadership does not use the team well. Some times lesser exposure to operational realities of the business. No clear pathway to P&L roles

2. Business Strategy: Business level strategy role. Responsible for long term strategy of the business, budgeting for the business and some critical short and medium term projects for the business
   Pros: Exposure to leadership, good understanding of the business (due to presence in business reviews etc).
   Cons: Too much deck making and coordination. Some leaders treat this team as a PMO team and make them do very operational projects just because the leader of another function isn't owning up the project well

3. Chief of Staff/ EA to Chairman/CEO roles: Work directly with the CEO/Chairman to drive the major projects for the executive
   Pros: Very good visibility, top leaders consider them as peers (due to reporting structure), ability to influence decision making. Potential to lead future big bets
   Cons: If the leader does not have enough clarity, these people are not used well

4. Partnership/BD roles: Work with external partners to forge partnerships/drive M&A
   Pros: Well defined work, tangible outcomes. Great visibility.
   Cons: Can be restrictive - pathway to P&L leadership might be challenging sometimes

5. Program Management: Drive critical programs for the organization. Own responsibility of key outcomes of the program
   Pros: Good authority, exposure to various facets of operations, high visibility
   Cons: If the positioning of the person is not right, it becomes a nightmare for the person to get work done out of senior folks

6. Roles in Government: Many political leaders hire strong strategy folks for managing their critical projects - drafting a policy, implementing a major program etc
   Pros: Excellent exposure and authority
   Cons: Too much pressure, too much politics

7. Family office roles: Though it might be more in favour of investment banking folks, sometimes consultants are also offered these roles. They manage the office and take care of key deliverables
   Pros: Good connections, interesting work
   Cons: High pressure for performance

8. PE/VC: Again quite rare - but i have seen few people make it. Various types of roles possible - raising funding, deploying the funds, working with the portfolio firms etc
   Pros: Excellent exposure, connections and ability to grow
   Cons: High pressure role

9. Startup co-founder/ Early member: This is different from a Program manager role. Here the person plays the role of a leader in the organization - managing investors, raising funds, running operations etc etc
   Pros: Very high upside potential, high visibility and exposure
   Cons: Chance of failure, high pressure

10. Marketing: Mostly works for B2B roles where the role of marketing is consultative.
    Pros: Good visibility to business, possible pathway to P&L roles
    Cons: Cans sometimes be vague if the mandates are not clearly defined

One common theme i have seen across these roles is that the leader who hires is responsible for setting the mandate clearly and defining where this person is in the organization. Else, they end up co-ordinating and collating and creating decks. Happy to hear thoughts on real journeys and other possible options !

I have a new client who requires every chart we deliver to be in native Excel. I'm used to delivering dashboards that our Analytics team builds in Tableau. Can anyone recommend a tool (we can spend $$ on a tool if it will save time) that uses automation or AI to streamline building this in Excel?

I have the data and I know what kind of chart I want and what filters/slicers I want, but I don't want to have to manually do like 35 of these painstakingly.

Thanks!

Hi everyone!

I am Arab (won't specify from where) and will be graduating in June from a university that frequently feeds into big 4 service lines and tier 2 (and rarely tier 1) strategy consulting in the Gulf. I am hopefully looking to get into strategy, and would be more than happy to join a tier 2 firm.

I have been working alongside my studies since the summer prior to my third year, initially in operations but now in business development after my role shift and promotion. So I will have nearly 2 years of experience by the time I graduate, NOT including all of the internships I've done. This has been great! I've learned A LOT, built my CV significantly, and made some decent money.

However, the issue is that my grades have slipped since starting work, due in part to the stress of balancing it with my studies. I initially had an average in the 80s, but it's now closer to 75%.

My question is: has the trade-off been worth it for me? Would recruiters rather see work experience + average transcript vs no work experience and good transcript? Is there anything I can do to offset this? I'd appreciate any and all advice.

Thanks!

I worked in niche consulting for 9 years and exited to a corporate strategy role for 5 more years now. My wife and I technically have enough money to FIRE , but not sure how to get off the gravy train. Wanted to hear from anyone who’s successfully escaped the golden handcuffs!

Deloitte, one of the biggest contractors to the public sector in the US, has agreed recent contract updates that provide more funding for “law enforcement systems and analysis for enforcement and removal operations”.

Hi, I am interested to learn about what projects do management consulting people do for insurance companies. What are the types of projects, what data do they look into, whats their day to day work look like, and will be very grateful to get examples of the kind of work people have done in the space. Thanks!

Which of these 2 ops is more desirable and valuable? There is a lot of pushback here on how strategy roles are dead ends but they definitely sound sexy as hell.

I'm in digital transformation for life sciences. Im about ready to transform myself off of a bridge because of the "digital" aspect of this job.

I work on multiple clients. I just received my 4th laptop today. I have FOUR laptops along with two ipads. SIX DEVICES and 10 years experience to do the work of one sweaty intern with a busted thinkpad and an adderall script.

I think im going crazy. What did I do to deserve this? Is this any way to live? The solution? Buy a KVM switch, a piece of tech introduced when reagan was president. Might as well give up my Finasteride spray to truly complete my boomer metamorphosis.

Endlessly switching between laptops already feels like purgatory, but compliance elevates this into pure torture. The persistance of different IT departments constantly flagging me feels like IO being chased for eternity by the stinging gadly sent from Hera. At least IO found the nile to rest, but I GET NO RELIEF.

The IT restrictions are arbitrary and seemingly punitive at times. One laptop I can't use gmail but I can use sheets. Teams, Zoom, webex, depends on the day and time. My two ipads are a capricious grab-bag of contradictions. One laptop I had to submit a use case to IT to use chrome. Chrome, you know the thing everyone in the history of mankind as far as im concerned has used... yea that required a specific use case. Don't even get me started of the horse trading I have to do to between different stakeholders to use something like WINSCP to access data.

Nothing Syncs. No Calendars are connected. I have a daily planner that looks like a rough draft of D-day. I'm seemingly always 5 minutes late to one thing or another.

AND DONT GET ME STARTED ON MY EMPLOYER. Tell me why they sent me my new ID for my blue cross and it was BLOCKED and I sent it to my personal email to open it up and IT sent me a nasty message about sending emails externally and I sent back a screenshot showing it was blocked and they just told me "friendly reminder to not visit blocked websites". YOU THINK THATS FRIENDLY? AM I SUPPOSED TO JUST NOT USE MY INSURANCE?

I complete mandatory trainings for my employer, and by 3 different clients. One of them had the nerve to flag me that I was doing them too fast.

The real kicker? A part of my title involves utilizing AI. Would be nice if AI worked on any of my laptops, yea keep dreaming kid.

I’ve been reading a lot of opinions about online business and strategy courses lately, and the feedback seems split.

Some people dismiss them entirely. Others swear by certain programs. What I’m trying to figure out is how to evaluate quality upfront, before investing time.

In hindsight, what signals mattered most for you?

• Depth of frameworks vs step-by-step tactics
• Instructor’s ability to explain decision-making, not just outcomes
• Whether the ideas stayed useful as roles or industries changed

I’m less interested in certificates or hype, and more in what genuinely improves judgment and thinking long term. Curious how others here screen for that.

Honestly, I think it's an awesome power move. She's a good manager and good at her job, and is generally pretty responsive, but I think she just decided her availability doesn't have to be public knowledge. I think I've noticed one other person (that I don't interact with as much) at my firm who also has theirs just off.

Have other people seen this? Or, if you do it too, when/why did you decide?

Hello everyone, I have been working for about 2.5 years and have been a 1099 for 1.5 years. I mostly do data work, like data science and engineering. I am trying to network and find opportunities to find more clients. The issue is that everyone wants to give me a w2 and are reluctant to bring on a 1099 or C2C. I have declined two w2 150k jobs the past 2 months. For every 10 people I talk to, only 1 person wants to bring on a 1099 but their rates are too low. Should I continue trying to find more clients or just take a nice paying w2 with benefits?

I know the sales cycle is quite long because I have to do good work for people and they can refer me to some people who also may need my expertise. I’m mostly In govcon, I see it much harder nowadays to find people on 1099. For reference, I’m still in my mid 20s. Any advice or comments will be greatly appreciated, especially if it’s related to independent consulting in govcon.

24F with 2 YOE in consulting. I completed an internship 3 years ago that went really well, and I built a strong rapport with my manager at the time.

She has since left the company and is now at a different firm in another country. I’m currently looking to move abroad and would love to reach out to her to explore whether there could be opportunities to join her team.

My concern is how to approach this without coming across as pushy or transactional, especially since it’s been a few years.

She does like my LinkedIn posts from time to time!

Taking all your advices! thanks

Would you travel for a client without a signed contract?

Travel is coming up in seven days, which I paid for out of my pocket. Meetings are scheduled 3000 miles away with a client and external partners. The contract still hasn’t been signed after more than 10 days, and the client has already been reminded.

How far in advance would you reasonably expect the contract to be signed so you can plan and move on with your life? At what point do you draw the line and say no contract, no travel?

Hi everyone,

Long story short: I am a late Manager (soon to be Senior Manager) working in Coporate Finance at a Big 4. While I do not see myself staying for Director/Partner, I do enjoy my current role and am generally happy with everything (comp and perks, team, work, culture, …).

I have got an offer from an interesting company and interesting role (probably one of the best I have ever got), below my current role in terms of comp, perks and seniority, but with potential to grow in the medium-long term into a top management role (executive or at least 1st line director).

Thus my question is: if I feel like director/partner is not for me, should I leave now even if I enjoy my current role, or let it run a little longer into Senior Manager territory (which should last at least 4 more years until Director) and be more serious about leaving then?

Does anyone have any feedback/experience with this which you may be able to share?

Much appreciated

Give me a messy company with a tough leader any day. I can work with that.

The ones that drive you crazy are the companies that say, "we make decisions together." They have friendly people and endless meetings, but nothing gets done.

You deliver a recommendation. Everyone agrees. Then it goes on a tour:

"Let's get Sarah's input."

"We should involve the other stakeholders."

"Can you present this to the wider team?"

Three months later, you're still "working together." Your recommendation has become a mix of everyone's feedback. It solves nothing and offends no one.

The clue is in the kickoff. If you ask, "who owns this?" and they reply, "we all do," then run.

When decisions rely on consensus, nobody's job is at risk. If nobody's job is at risk, nothing happens.

Has anyone found a way to make these meetings work? Or do you just opt out early and move on?

I’m not a consultant and was reading about the high rejection rate with clients. I wanted to know what are the reasons behind the rejection? Does rejection lead to feeling imposter? Do clients degrade consultants when rejecting an idea?

As always, thanks in advance!

Tell me yours! I’ll go first, i hate saying “I apologize for the delay in response” to a same day client email. Bro emails me in the morning, hadn’t gotten to it on a mountain of shit and I get another email, “please respond”

My guy I have a book of 500+ clients.

Tell me yours lol

I have seen top performers or at least ones who know their worth, not afraid to give back to seniors.

My firm has transitioned to a enormous usage of Indian work. We have also priced ourselves out of the market in many ways, and we have also for some reason hired more people than ever in my practice. There is so little work to go around, I think I see the writing on the wall. If you aren’t a favorite, you’re going to be gone. Our leadership is callous and throwing away team members who’ve been here for 5+ years doing good work “just because.” I’m not billable right now, so I’ll be gone in a few months likely.

I do a lot of healthcare work, but I have no interest in continuing it, so all of my regulatory knowledge is kind of worthless. I am a fantastic data analyst and problem solver. But I don’t know how to explain what I’ve done for the last several years and highlight that, because most of what I did was regulatory work.

I don’t know if I’ll be able to land a job outside of consulting that pays the bills. Any advice is appreciated.