Get-away day
My friends and I joke that Thursdays are get-away days. You have been at the client for 4 days, slept in a hotel room for 3 nights. Too much restaurant food, and it’s time to go home and get your life in order on Friday.
On Thursday many management consultants are traveling. Those who are not traveling by plane are either working in New York – financial services consultants seem to travel less – or are on the beach waiting to get staffed. As glamorous as business travel might seem to the young or naive, it’s not.
Last row, window.
A few weeks ago, I finished up at the client site early and caught a flight home from LaGuardia. Good news. I was “standby” and got the last seat on the plane. Good news, right? Little did I know that “last seat” was literally the last seat on the plane. Last row, window. My back to the bathroom. Not romantic.
Not for everyone
I guess that travel is one of the main reasons that people quit consulting. After all, it is tough to be good to your family when you are gone most of the time. Some life-long consultants make it work – and it requires real understanding and cooperation with your spouse. Been married 14 years, and it is a tag-team sport. Thanks SK.
Wow that doesn’t sound glamorous at all really :O..
Are you still enjoying being in the game? The travel doesn’t sound fun
Believe that consulting, like law, or accounting, or other professional service is more of a career than a job. Does not have to be that way for everyone, but solving complex problems, working with smart people, getting paid decent, having executives say “thank you”, learning on the job – is all very addictive.