Life After Consulting

Timing!

A few weeks ago I wrote “Arriving for the Break,” wherein I poke fun at my way of being in the world, which might be called ,”contrarian temporal synchronicity,” arriving when the band goes on break, buying high and selling low as investment strategy, and adopting new technology after everyone else has moved on to the next new thing.

In keeping with this tradition, in January I published Traveling the Consulting Road: Career Wisdom for New Consultants, Candidates, and Their Mentors. Surprise! This year it looks like consulting firms are not hiring in the same numbers they did for the last two years; in fact, they are letting go substantial numbers of the bumper crop new hires of the previous two years.  Timing!

Consulting is always a boom and bust business. Consultants help leaders change their business in response to new competitors, new technology, new demographic or psychographic trends of customers, global and regional geopolitics and the economies of industries and nations. These influences move up and down in unpredictable ways.

During the past two years the United States has been recovering from the Covid 19 pandemic, which slowed business in general. Technology boomed for a while because of remote work, but then began to retrench. Electric vehicles boomed, after supply chains recovered, but then the charging station deficit hindered further expansion. Banks were hurt by interest rates, as was real estate and construction. Oil and gas declined in the pandemic because people weren’t driving, but then they were, and then not-so-much.

The consulting industry does well in periods of change characterized by consistent growth (new strategies, innovation)  or in periods of consistent decline (cost cutting, reorganization, continuous improvement). The industry does less well in periods of systemic instability.

So I got caught.

I wrote a book sharing what I learned as a consulting lifer: how to get hired, how to get promoted and be successful when the job changes as you rise. These are boom-time concerns, but I included some bust-time advice as well.

For anyone who doesn’t know the consulting industry, one of a firm’s primary challenges balancing the size and skill base of its workforce to the needs of its market. Firm partners have often lived through several boom and bust cycles. Especially painful memories were the times when they found clients but had no appropriate staff and had to turn work down or delivered poorly. These senior people often talk about “hiring ahead of the curve this time.”

These same partners seem less concerned about having too many staff. This pain just isn’t as personal (for them); they just cut staff.

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