What’s been your work/life balance in consulting?

1. Consulting work/life balance?

This is a question I get asked a good bit, so I sent out a survey and 90+ readers responded. Thank you.  I asked several questions about the quality of the work, people, travel.  See the original survey here.  Will include a good number of direct quotations in blue font.

This is going to be a long post because there are many types of consulting with specific travel, work requirements. A long-term, ERP implementation is WAY different from a short turn-around operational due diligence. If you serve financial services clients in New York, you may rarely get on an airplane? For the rest of us, the formula looks something like this: travel, work, work, work, travel, rest, travel, work, work, work, travel, holiday.

Monday – Thursday = work

Consulting is not a 35 hour a week job. This is especially true from Monday through Thursday. It’s a client-facing role, and many times, things don’t happen unless the consultants are there pushing the ball up the hill.

• Pretty much Monday through Friday 10 hours a day max, no work on weekend.
• Mon-Thurs there is no balance, unless you’re incredibly lucky and get a less intense project in your hometown…#neverhappens. When you’re away you just have to write-off 4 days a week. 
• Most of my teams have been good about limiting weekend work, even if Monday through Friday is a grind.
• Usually work between 55-65 hours per week (10-15 hour days when on site with client, full day Friday, some weekend hours)
• I once billed 6 years of work in a 4 year period. What work life balance?
• Meeting client expectations comes first. Life events are frequently sacrificed to address client needs and expectations. Work hours have been as high as 7×13 or as low as 5×10 depending on circumstances.
• Has been very difficult to maintain a balance. Not going to office on Fridays was one lone way of getting some home time on weekdays.

Work is not really “balanced”

One of the best parts of consulting is the project-based nature of the work. Personally, I like how it has a start, middle, and end. Yes, great and BAD projects end. Hallelujah. However, this also means that clients give you a time frame to get things done, and often times, the project statement of work has 12 weeks of work in only 1/2 the time.

• I don’t call it balance. I call it integration. Exercise helps a lot. Gym park etc. Running as much as I can. 
• Fair. It depends on the project. I think this varies widely by market and service line. I’m a Federal markets BIG 4. State department work was fine, Navy has been hectic.
• There is no work life balance if you have a family. Its a client facing role and as you mentioned face time is critical. However I think some of the time is redundant 
• Consultants are measured against their utilization, and billed hours can be a lot of work to attain. In tight customer environments, where the customer is quick to question every hour billed and apt to push back, consultants find themselves working three hours to bill two.
• Traveling similarly affects work-life balance, as its hard to go to the dentist when you’re in a plane.
• Mind tricks – Detachment – Being committed to the journey rather than attached to the destination or end result. Daily meditation, exercise, water and healthy eating Be social and don’t watch TV / news.  Regular planning, scheduling and coordination. Look up and smile

After proving yourself, you get more control

This is like something directly out of a Cal Newport book.  It’s important to accumulate rare and valuable skills. Do great work, and prove your worth. As Seth Godin might say, “become a linchpin.”  Be the one that they “hold the bus” for. Once you’re good, you get more negotiating leverage and control of your projects and hours.  In the discussion of the leverage model, let’s remember the ideas of finders (partners, sr. managers finding the business), minders (minding the client, project scope, and team) and grinders (grinding out the analyses, interviews, work).

• I had to demonstrate competencies at different level of complexity first (small projects, mid sized projects, large projects with short turnaround) before I get to specialize in what I enjoy doing. Once I have established a good track record, I get to pick what I want to work on and my managers had very little reason to challenge me. That’s when work/life balance begins. I was good at a certain type of engagement, I developed efficiency, work became more manageable.
• Awful for the first 5 years. Got better in the last 3 as I became more senior and made a name in the company. You get a lot more WLB if you remain on the same company, done your time and they can trust you

Work / Life Balance = 4.3 (out of 7.0)

From the graph below, you can see that 86 consultants responded that consulting work / life balance was “meh, it’s okay”. A little bit better than average.  You’ll see later in the survey (bottom of the blog post) why they put up with the sometimes crazy hours, and enormous travel.  In the table, you can see that people who’ve been in consulting 7+ years give it higher marks. There could be multiple reasons for this:

• The people who did not like the work / life trade-off left the business.  They are not in the sample of 86.
• Those that stayed in the business got more efficient (think: learning curve)
• Those that stayed are financially stable, job secure enough to pick/choose the projects they want
• Finally, perhaps they are satisficing their choice, career, and lifestyle. No shame in that (that’s me too).

2. What’s been your TRAVEL experience in consulting?

Take a read through the quotes below.  First, you’ll notice that it’s less of a horror story than you might expect; in fact, a good 1/3 of the comments are positive. Second, you sense that these road warriors have a zen-attitude about travel as a cost of business. Why fight it? Why not see positive sides of it.  Yes, there are delayed flights, travel woes, and of course follies.  That said, consultants in this survey put it at 4.5/7.0.

Usually, travel is a beast

• Global, Asia mostly. Some airports are tough.
• Penny pinching, economy and cheap hotels
• Hectic
• Tiring. Always economy class and time tight.
• Wouldn’t use ‘travel’ as a selling point to an applicant, because I spent 2 months in <CITY> and didn’t see anything outside of client site and hotel. It’s rarely glamorous, and the hours spent travelling can make some people more tired than the actual work. However, you can use your Thurs flight to go anywhere, and Fridays in the office can be anywhere in the world which is useful for little weekend breaks (or just working from home to recharge if needed)
• Plane, train, automobile, public transport, private jets and helicopters. Normally have to spend a lot of time doing admin to make sure my cross boarder tax costs can be calculated correctly.
• Not fun – timezone changes in particular are killer
• Executive suites are great on someone else’s dime, but shit towns have shit hotels.
• As a single guy, loved travel, even to less sexy places like <CITY>. Not so much as a married man with an 8 year old. Don’t travel as much but when I did, long engagements where you cant get back home every weekend were particularly painful.
• 40% travel which is great! This allows you to get in front of clients and dive into the work in person which can be very valuable. . . on the flip side there have been other times that I have spent 21 hours away from home in a 24 hour period to attend a 1 hour meeting halfway across the country and couldn’t even bill 8 hours because of the travel (short layovers, takeoff/ landing, uber/lyft).
• When I started I had a small child so focused on no travel and finding work locally. 12 years in <CITY>  I have had more than enough business. Now I have referral clients around the country but do a lot of work via Zoom, so travel is still a refreshing novelty vs a soul suck like it was my 13 years in the corporate world
• I run a national cross-practice solution (human capital M&A DD and integration) so I ride towards the sound of the guns from Jersey City to LA
• I wouldn’t use ‘travel’ as a selling point to an applicant, because I spent 2 months in <CITY> and didn’t see anything outside of client site and hotel. It’s rarely glamorous, and the hours spent travelling can make some people more tired than the actual work. However, you can use your Thurs flight to go anywhere, and Fridays in the office can be anywhere in the world which is useful for little weekend breaks (or just working from home to recharge if needed)
• Plane, train, automobile, public transport, private jets and helicopters. Normally have to spend a lot of time doing admin to make sure my cross boarder tax costs can be calculated correctly.
• Not fun – timezone changes in particular are killer

And yet, sometimes travel is not too bad

• Enjoying, really full of quality. Usually, I traveled 2-3 every week. in fact I enjoy projects out of Italy (actual country of living)
• Transatlantic travel mostly and some domestic travel for workshops (within the US).
• Enriching
• ZOOM and share drives have been a GAME CHANGER…as a working mom with a 9-year old…however, you still need some travel to bond with the client.
• It has been pretty intense at times but I am able to scale back a bit when it gets too much. So overall a good experience (also – I enjoy traveling for work!)
• More and more I find that to do the job correctly, you have to be where the work is being generated–to understand the truth.
• Limited, Europe is easy

Gotta be stoic about traveling

• Consulting is a choice you make – to devote more time to work than home. If someone doesn’t want to make that choice, I wouldn’t blame them one bit and travel is an enormous piece of that puzzle.
• As a consultant you need to take the good with the bad in terms of location and look as every trip as a journey to learning something new and meet new people.
• I try to get exercise each and every day, and I try to have me-time each day so I can just relax.
• A bad travel experience today becomes a great story to tell in a year.
• Going into the industry you need to understand the type of consulting you will be doing because there are also varying degrees of travel required. Some are Sunday through Friday every week and others are very little. It is also important to know the client behavior and expectations in terms of the consultant travel. Today many clients find remote work very acceptable.
• Have found that its heavier at front then eases off as client trust builds, medium clients (>$300MM) are more lenient that our smaller clients (<$300 MM).
• Travel between 3 cities every month. Its about being prepared and planning. Find ways your daily routine can be done anywhere. Enjoy the journey, smile.
• I am travelling maybe once a month for a few days – but mainly within the country (GER); it is stressful if you are doing a one day trip with 13h, but especially 2-3 day trips are quite nice (even though exhausting).
• Varies depending on the client/project. Long term client with established relationship = 2 nights of travel per week; sometimes 1 night of travel. New client/project that we need to build trust and a working relationship with = travel 3 nights per week for first few months.

3. Is it worth the cost?  Yes. . .

The first two questions (work/life balance and travel) had a lot of tough love.  Cold-brew realism. The last 3 questions (work, learning, people) is a lot more encouraging.  You see from the scores that the work is good. People are fun, and lots of learning. This is personally how I felt too.

• Yes – unlikely you can get these experiences in non-consulting roles. 
• yes, WORK / LIFE and TRAVEL costs worth the consulting learning/work/network/fun
• The travel and WLB violations can be worth it, but needs to be limited in time (eg intense project – lower intensity one – then intense etc). Otherwise burnout is pretty much guaranteed.
• So, my counsel to young folks is work hard to go in with eyes wide open and have some opinion on what sort of WHOLE work/life experience you want and don’t want.
• It’s worth it. Do it as long as you can!
• Consulting is in my option about resume building and building skill set.
• I think if you enjoy being a consultant, and want the stability of working for a large firm it’s worth it for some people. The caveat is that the level of effort required to make it to partner/principal is the similar to starting your own business.
• Yes – I think it’s worth it, especially early on in your career. The experience to see a variety of functions, companies, and industries is invaluable. When I went to business school, I realized that my consulting experience had put me far ahead of my peers in terms of professional development. Just know what you’re getting into.
• While in the military I learned quickly, each opportunity brings lessons to master. Consulting is the same. I’m very fortunate that I am in a gig that I love and that I want to work in. It has brought struggles but it also has brought a lot of fun and opportunities to my families life. It’s not easy, but it’s not difficult. Its down to choices and understanding each choice has a consequence.
• As a consultant, in my industry…facts are everything, respect and integrity go along way in how those facts are used. Consulting is 90% mastering the knowledge from all perspectives, and 10% of understanding when to act.
• Yes I think you can get quality learning in non-consulting roles – and maybe more fun too. The roles I’ve had in the last year have been varied, but ultimately unfulfilling. After 4 years in Consulting, I might be taking a change back into a non-consulting role.
• By becoming a consultant, I was able to get my family out of debt and get us ahead, albeit at some personal costs. In terms of work progression, consulting is the great equalizer. I know lots of folks who hit the wall/ceiling/floor in their desk jobs and turned to consulting. There are a lot of opportunities for advancement that aren’t present in a traditional brick-and-mortar environment.
• Myself, I don’t trust consultants who went directly into professional services, give me an ex production scheduler or an ex materials manager any day.
• Early on in ones career, consulting is the way to go. With a family or after 10+ years of experience, consulting is a drag….learning tapers and you become branded as an expert in one domain (read not fun).
• Working for yourself is a nonstop hustle. If you want the flexibility, you have to be successful at the hustle. Working for someone else gives you consistency and freedom to turn off work when you leave if you choose to do so.
• I think consulting companies could adjust their career models to accommodate talented, now experienced folks who don’t want to spend their whole lives traveling – it’s doable, just not as easy as sending people around the globe without thought.
• Consulting has to fit your time of life, if you have young kids & wife at home it’s not going to work because you will travel regularly. Independent consulting also has similar fit requirements when looking at cash flow, your kids & family often mean you need regular cash flow, so better to be client side, even though the long hours & the boss might suck.
• ‘It takes courage to endure the sharp pains of self discovery, rather than to choose to take the dull path of unconsciousness that would last the rest of our lives.” Marianne Williamson
• ‘The quality of your life is in direct correlation to the level of uncertainty you can tolerate’. -Tony Robbins
• Honestly, I think it’s good for a few years of serious learning, mostly in a time of your life when you have minimum of obligations. I don’t think it’s worth it in the long run, and personally I’m leaving BIG4 for the industry next month, but it has been hard finding an organisation with equally good and fun people in it.
• My US colleagues seem to commit themselves to worse work/life balance for no gain. I think US clients expect to see some hurt in return for the fees.
• However, one challenge is that since consultants are all competing with each other for promotions / recognition, it can sometimes add additional stress. I will say this much, I have learned in 1 year, what I sometimes learn in 3-4 years in an non-consulting role.
• Worth the costs, but requires frequent reevaluation. The novelty of travel wears off quickly, and depending on the variety and quality of your clients and projects, learning can taper off at some point as well. After each 6 months or at the end of every project, I like to take stock of where I’m at and run a (rough) cost/benefit on the tradeoffs of where I’ve most recently found myself on the work / life balance spectrum.
• I have been trying to figure this one out. I think I would need to try something outside of consulting to know if this is the case, but I think it is possible to get the same benefits without the chaos of consulting.
• Having started in industry before transitioning to consulting, there is no experience like consulting, especially when it comes to the amount of learning. Industry was about 3x slower, more bureaucracy, less growth = less fun, etc. I continue to strongly encourage anyone early on in their career to do consulting, as it’s nearly impossible (minus startups) to gain experience like this.

4. You learn at 2x speed

Yes, consulting is the MBA you get after your MBA.  If you are working on new projects, and learning, you are making yourself more valuable. It’s a great place for the intellectually curious.  Trust me, you will leave consulting wiser.  You will be able to break down ambiguous problems, prioritize recommendation, and persuade executives to take action is an incredible skill set.

• If you enjoy intellectual challenges and life long learning, consulting is a great career. 
• I don’t think you can get he same variety and exposure in other roles, but people have to have a life plan and set an an “out” timeframe if they wanted to have a family etc.,
• I’ve worked in industry and consulting, and can honestly say you learn twice as much twice as fast in consulting. The level of performance is so much higher it can’t be compared. The question is more around whether you’re willing to knowingly give up that experience in order to take back control of some of your leisure time/family commitments/etc.
• Every year of experience within my consulting role feels like 3 years of experience I have gained when compared to the cohort of friends I graduated university with. Salary differences are also reflected in the same way.
• Learning-wise hard to beat consulting, many different & deep experiences. Now moved on to PE, which requires more networking & more regular travel, but its much better if you can plan it in advance.
• For the early part of a career I would not recommend doing anything but consulting. There is so much to learn that you don’t get in a classroom. I have now transitioned to a corporate role (non-consulting) and think the rate of learning has diminished greatly.
• In over 20 years as a consultant, I’ve never seen another role with the same opportunities for learning, networking or leading edge experience as consulting offers. If you’re smart and easily bored by routine, consulting is addictive like crack.

5. People are great, smart, fun

Management consulting firms are picky. They have lots of potential candidates, and choose only 1 in 20 (or less). So the people you are working have the right education, mindset, intellectual horsepower, ambitions, and talents. Namely, these are the people you want in your network.  Consulting is a diaspora – only a small percentage of people actually stay in consulting.  After 10+ years, you’ll have a network of ex-colleagues in every industry.

• I think consulting requires a certain personality – I don’t like routine and I enjoy working hard and reaping the rewards. Plus, I like being around people who are smarter than me – raises the bar for myself.
• Travel 80-90% by choice. It can be long but you get to see the world, build a networks, collect points and have an opinion about things far from home. 
• If you can – do consulting for 2-3 years in your career (probably the earlier the better). It exposes you to so many things and learn how to quickly shift gears from different types of work and different topics/clients. Working with colleagues who become great contacts for networking throughout you career.

Agree with all this.

There are numerous reasons that management consulting is an awesome job/career. Pays well, work on tough problems with smart people. You borrow influence, get things done, and learn, learn, learn.  However, it’s not always rainbows and ponies. The work can be tough, gruelingly long hours, and lots of travel.  Work-life “balance” is super subjective, and it’s really depends on your firm, your position, your reputation, and your choices.

In my experience, while at Deloitte I traveled M-TH for the duration of projects, with an occasional internal project or on the beach for a few weeks.  While at Philips, I had more control of my schedule and also was at a more senior level. In both cases, it was a great career accelerator.

For those on the road, and those who filled out the survey,  Many thanks and safe travels.