Job Seeker Megathread ||| New Consultant Megathread ||| Posting Guidelines

Hi folks, I am a 22 fresher from india, my domain is mainly accounts and finance, inam pursuing CMA currently, past few days I have been reading and watching related to consultancy as well, so today I was just chilling and decided to look up for some consultancy jobs, i actual found quite a few hiring freshers with any graduation degree

Now my initial plan was to give cma exams, then get a job in finance and prepare for MBA, and pursue MBA in finance

Now i am thinking that I should make a career switch, i have seen some jobs opening for consultancy in insurance, travel and account management as well, i am thinking that i should give it a try after my exams and then prepare for MBA and pursue MBA in strategy and consulting

can anyone give me a roadmap, if possible or any suggestions?

thanks.

I am a senior consultant (fairly junior) and am gravitating towards account management over delivery work. I enjoy the relationship management, creative problem solving, and team building/leadership aspects of account management. I currently work in technology management consulting. What are the best firms for me to consider for a career in account management?

The most important factors to me are training and development (I want support to grow and become the best AM I can be), growth potential (comp, scope), and company culture. I am in the U.S.

With less than 5 years of experience in consulting out of undergrad, are there any other significant factors that I should be considering?

Hello! I've been working at my first full time job after graduation for 2.5 years now at an engineering consultancy. I joined as a grad and did a graduate program the first 2 years. I'm not an overworker, or so I didn't start off as one and stuck to 9-5 hrs as much as I could. I can't help but notice half the grads that I work with seems to work beyond 5pm regularly, have Teams/Emails notification on in their personal phones and answer calls (non urgent ones ofc) even when they're making a coffee in the office kitchen and pretty much over-do than what's 'expected' or 'agreed upon' in the contract. I noticed that they got promoted earlier than me too, which purely might be because of skill but maybe a bit to do with their overworking habit too? I mean, at the end of the day who wouldn't llove an employee who performs more for the same salary isn't it. Can anyone share their experiences on this to help me understand this unspoken expectations and language in consulting. If this is normal to survive and move up the ladder, maybe I should be moving out of consulting....?

Thanks!

Hi everyone,

We're working on a plastic recycling project in India and are currently looking for a consultant with expertise in the Indian recycling landscape. The project involves understanding the scope of recycling, relevant industry stakeholders, regulatory requirements, and market dynamics in sectors like automotive, electronics, consumer goods, and others where recycled content is gaining traction. Here’s a brief overview of what we need:

Key Focus Areas:

1. Market Scope: Insight into the demand for recycled plastic in key industries within India, including market size estimations, growth trends, and any potential shifts in demand.
2. Stakeholder Mapping: Identification of major players and decision-makers, such as government bodies, regulatory authorities, top manufacturers, and brands already using or planning to use recycled content in their products.
3. Regulatory Landscape: Knowledge of Indian regulations on plastic recycling, quality control measures, and certification standards specific to the use of recycled plastic.
4. Emerging Sectors: Exploration of additional industries that may have future demand for recycled plastic, driven by environmental policies or shifting consumer preferences.

Ideal Consultant Profile:

• Extensive experience in the recycling or waste management industry, specifically in India.
• Familiarity with regulatory frameworks (such as those from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, FSSAI, BIS) and experience in stakeholder engagement.
• Ability to provide insights into testing standards, quality control measures, and preferred testing partnerships.
• Connections with industry stakeholders and experience in helping organizations navigate India’s recycling sector.

What We Offer: This is a consulting opportunity with flexible engagement terms, where you’ll work closely with our team to research and strategize the project’s roadmap. Compensation is competitive, and we’re open to both short-term and potentially ongoing engagements based on the value you bring.

If you or someone you know might be a great fit for this role, please drop a comment or message. Any recommendations for experts, consulting firms, or organizations specializing in India’s recycling and sustainability sectors would be much appreciated.

Thank you!

I am working for a non-profit healthcare provider. The company manages outpatient clinics throughout the midwest focusing on the needs of the elderly. The company is centralizing all Medical Records onto 1 platform. My role is to archive the data on the sunset Medical Records platform.

I was contacted by a separate healthcare provider to assist them on archiving their data. I have developed a streamlined process to archive and sunset Medical Records. I have an initial meeting next week. How should I position my services, and discuss my abilities, without disclosing the "secret sauce"? Any feedback appreciated.

First ever post. I’m currently a manager at a, boutique tech consulting firm. I’m relatively early in my career (5.5 total YOE, 3.5 in consulting), but I’ve been a high performer (3 promotions in 3.5 years). I now find myself in an engagement lead-type role, with minimal partner oversight.

My firm has a policy against hiring new college grads for junior roles, but we’ve frequently hired junior resources with no technology knowledge and, very frequently, no experience in consulting.

Most of the projects I work on are 4-6 week tech strategy engagements, with me + 1-2 of these junior resources. Due to the pace of these engagements, it’s very hard to find time to both explain basic technology concepts as well as coach on consulting fundamentals (creating a slide, project admin, etc.), all while meeting project timelines and delivering quality work. I’ve found myself uninspired by the work as I feel I have to shoulder entire engagements myself.

How would you handle situations like this? Do you have any tips for coaching juniors resources?

Is this frequent at other firms, or am I better off looking for a better situation where I have both top cover (sr. resources that I can learn from/be coached by) and better equipped junior resources?

Hello, I am at the beginning of my career in an engineering firm, I saw that some team leads are relatively young (some have around 7-8 YOE) while other engineers have +20 YOE and are senior engineers or project managers but not team leads, how does this work? how are the team leads chosen? any advice to increase my chances and start with the right steps?

Hey Redditors, I could really use your advice:

I have 3 years of experience in market research and consulting, but I’m not seeing many great opportunities in this field lately. I’m considering making a career shift and would love your input—should I move into a business analytics role or transition into finance?

Any advice or insights would be greatly appreciated!

I came across TryTelescope ai for market research on TAM. Seems to be good. Any other tools you suggest for faster analysis for work plan deliverable.

I don't want to go into the details of what happened (obviously, because of client privilege, even though I'm not working for them any more). There were mistakes on both of our parts.

I posted this about three months ago how my grief and the grind, isolation, and lack of meaningful work were wrecking my career. Now I feel my career has hit the rocks. I don't feel there's any point in going on, either in work or life. I've worked in the same field for 25 years, the last six as a consultant, and I have no interest in continuing. But I feel like I'm too old to start again. I know this has also been a really bad year for finding work, and it's not going to get any better any time soon.

I was hoping to start work on a programming project over the next few months, and I was very excited about doing it. Now I don't feel there is any point.

If any of this happened to you--how did you move on from this? Right now I just don't see a way forward.

Hi fellow consultants,

I’m currently working at MBB in the Middle East and decided to leave in a few months. I have a 4 weeks notice period - would you typically continue working as usual until your last day or would you be put on garden leave directly after handing in your resignation notice?

I don’t know anyone who has quit, only people who got fired. For the fired guys, they had to hand in their laptop directly on the day and got paid for the full months following. I am hoping it would be similar for trminsting on your own - would mean a full months pay without work haha

What is the most common scenario?

Thanks

TLDR: Manager at tier 2, 80k, considering move into energy for a strategy role.

Recently been promoted to manager a few things are making me reconsider consulting.

It supposedly quick to go up the ranks in consulting but I am finding 18 months to 2 years not that quick, and the more my company grows the more ‘time at grade’ seems to be a thing against actual ability.

The amount of effort it took to actually get the promotion was insane - can’t take your foot off the gas for minimum 6 months but more like a year before you want the promotion. Plus all the self publicising to get it as well - has left me in a post promo lul.

The pay increase after tax isn’t really that substantial and is only going to get less impactful the higher up it goes - but the hours will only go up.

I also thought that being a top performer, as my performance rounds consistently reflect, would mean I get the lick of projects - but I seem to be put in projects where they need well known hard workers not things that will actually help me develop.

Anyway I’ve been approached by a client and offered a role and I am considering it - am going to have a conversation about it. It’s a strategy role, I know the person previously in it and they were underperforming, they are also restructuring and am aware the line manager is close to retirement so I see there to be a quick progression opportunity.

What are people’s thoughts on consulting vs industry? Is it worth staying in consulting longer to get more senior roles in industry faster ? Or can you go up the ladder equally as fast in industry as a high performer ?

Would also appreciate advice on how to handle conversations with a previous / potentially current client.

Thanks !

I now work for a consultancy and is placed under a long-term project.

It gets worse day by day; more issues crop up, even now we all are under close watch by the client because of instability; even have a separate Jira feature to fix user annoyances due to bugs.

My name and reputation within the team is currently above good (people praise me, I get good reviews every quarter etc.) because I am proactive in serving the users, fixing bugs, etc.

But I have to work nights and weekends to be able to achieve this, it was fun at first and I gained so much knowledge, but it is not anymore and now I am starting to feel it; I lose friends, I eat junk food and sleep less, and to be honest I don't think I can sustain this lifestyle anymore. And it seems this sacrifice doesn't do much; there are still more issues cropping up and users are still basically disappointed in my team. I'm really tired sleeping at 2am debugging things while also implementing new features, solving issues etc.; and many of the issues that crop up nowadays I don't feel are improving my skills (e.g. they are very domain specific like fix this dashboard and not software development related).

My team is also breaking down; our competency is not aligned with the needs of the project anymore but we are still hired somehow. But our incompetence really shows (with the higher no. of bugs, users getting more pissed). We internally inside the team also start to have more fights and conflicts. The others also do not share the same "ownership" of our delivery as I do. People put in minimal work and don't really care much if things break down. I have explained this to my manager periodically, but no action is done.

There were talks of a budget cut at the end of year. I had volunteered to be the person to be cut. However, I found out today it was cancelled and so they gave me option to stay or leave. It made it harder now to make a decision.

I have tried interviewing for other jobs/positions, but I keep failing in system design and algorithms rounds. It's clear I need to study (my job experience is not enough to get me another job), and that takes time and effort.

So I think I have two options:

• Stay in this project, but massively reduce the amount of hours I spend, go offline even if prd is down and everyone's pissed, and use it to study and be prepared interviews. But, this means my performance in the project will degrade, and I will have to leave with a tainted name later when it happens. I also will have to still suffer with this depression and stress.

• Leave now, be mentally healed, be benched (i.e. without an assignment) and can be more focused in preparing myself for a new project/job, and I am leaving in good terms with my current client and my name within my consultancy remains good. But, currently it's basically winter opportunity-wise; it's hard for my consultancy to find new projects and doesn't seem gonna improve anytime soon, especially with the current global trends.

Money is not a problem; I have enough savings to survive 1 yr without a job.

What would you do?

Hi I’m new to consulting and working it independently and on the side of my full time job. I was wondering if anyone here could help with advice on finding new leads and new clients. Anything/everything helps, thanks!

Just starting out in a new market where I've run out of contacts. I've done this before in a different market and whilst I think it's easy to get lots of work from referrals from good projects, I'm curious to find out if anyone's successfully ramped up from 0.

I'll start: cold calling did NOT work when I didn't have any content even though my credentials are excellent; furthermore it was rather soul destroying.

What is working ok so far: publishing niche research content and doing very targeting pitches through Linkedin.

Hopefully we can scale this way, but curious to hear if anyone's tried any other channels. Going to conferences without knowing anyone, taking out ads in niche media, etc.

Hi Folks! Back again, after taking your advice.

Has anyone made a successful shift from consulting to product management?

For context, based out of India, in Tier 1 management consulting, pre-MBA, with one promotion under the belt.

I've done PM for an year via internships in early age startups prior to joining said consulting firm.

Wanted to know what would be a relevant strategy to get into a PM or product strategy role, especially in the current market scenario.

(please give discounts on the engagement pricing, thanks)

Hello my fellow optimizers! As an Indian who moved to Riyadh last year, I've come to the realisation that the pay parity difference between India and Riyadh is absurd! (>6x salary in Riyadh). Is this only an MBB thing or is it the same as other consulting firms too? Someone mentioned that the likes of Kearney, OW pay even more?!

While I'm from India, have heard the similar horror stories from some European colleagues (Portugal, Italy etc.) Funnily, they at least have a trade-off for WLB - in India, even the WLB is worse than Riyadh!

This is absolutely mind-boggling 😵‍💫

I have the opportunity to take a sponsorship for an MBA program at an M7 university in the next year, but I'm planning to apply for another consulting company during the program.

If I fail in being recruited, I plan to return to my company and, in this case, and not taking the sponsorship would be a big loss, so I'm trying to create the best scenario for me considering the future possibilities.

I understand that there will be clauses to pay the investment back and other bureaucratic topics, but my major concerns would be from an ethical point of view and understanding if it would leave me in bad terms with my current company (Big 4)

What are your thoughts on this situation and what would you do?

Hey everyone,

I’m currently a Senior Frontend Developer with 10 years of experience, along with a background in team leadership and project management. Lately, I’ve been thinking about transitioning my career to become an independent IT Consultant, by setting up a corporation to work with multiple clients.

The main appeal for me is the flexibility and potential profitability of consulting, especially since I could take on multiple clients rather than being tied to one or two FE jobs. I’m interested in any insights from others who have made this shift successfully.

A few specific questions:

1. What steps did you take to make the transition?

2. How do you typically find clients, and what types of projects or services do you provide?

3. What new skills or knowledge areas were essential for you?

4. Any tips on presenting my frontend development background in a way that’s appealing to consulting clients?

If you’ve been through a similar change, I’d love to hear your story and any advice you have! Thanks in advance for any insights!

I am a consultant at service based company, and know that i can handle business requirements very well, can help them grow in a good way, and help them resolving any bottlenecks they are into.

Now i want to start it as my own, not in large scale for now, but just wanted to reach out to local businesses in my area targetting their sales and help them knowing how to increase their profit with the help of my consulting skills , including some technical side, like with data analytics and all.

Please help me, if someone is already doing such consulting, how to start, where to start, what could be the path for it .?

Thanks !!

Like the question says, I would love to hear what exactly you specialize in. Especially if you are an independent, or with a smaller firm.

Never worked in a company that uses PIP, but it seems to be a thing.

For those of you who have put people on PIPs: Why did you do it (i.e. what was missing), what are the targets and are there cases where PIP are not the end?

I’m curious to understand how this works and whether it’s something we should do in our company.

I'm looking for influencers who can help inspire and teach me about running a solo consulting business. I'm starting from scratch and while I have a really strong professional network from my 20+ years of experience in my industry. I want to learn what it's going to take to scale and optimize the business, both the growing of new customers, as well as the management of the tactics of my business (how do I get paid, how do I negotiate my rates with a client, how do I file taxes, etc)?

If you have recommendations for people to follow or learn from, I'd appreciate it!

I was recently messaged by the CEO of a mid sized ($4MM) company about full time positions within their company, and even though I am currently happily employed full time I thought this was a good opportunity to provide my services instead through part time consulting. I am an expert in my niche and have always dreamt about the possibility of consulting. This is the first time I have ever offered my skills as a service and would like feedback on my reply pitch.

X = Redacted

Hey X,

While I am currently very happy in my role with X I have to share that given my passion for book printing and sourcing I am very excited at the prospect of aiding the growth of your platform.  I would love the opportunity to talk with you about offering my experience in a consultant/contractor role to either fill the gaps while you are looking to build out your current US team or be a long term resource to help drive value for your company.

I have a track record in providing value and savings through strategic sourcing and project reengineering of books and other printed media, expanding service offerings (signage, apparel, promotional) and simplification of processes to provide vendor partners with accurate spec and consistent files to save time and add efficiency to production processes.

At X I managed $12MM annually in book sourcing spend while providing savings of 30-70% to publishers such as X, X, X, X and X.  I am familiar with all of the top book printers throughout US and many in Canada and my experiences at X and X have afforded me the experience of working with complex POD platforms.

Very appreciative of your interest in my experience, please let me know if you would like to discuss this proposition further.

Thanks

I'm an independent consultant considering taking on a Chinese client in my industry. I've heard that contracts with Chinese companies don't hold water, but they're happy to pay an advance and monthly. What should I know about working with a Chinese based company?

I have been in consulting-esqe roles for almost three years. I have never minded the work that you do in consulting, but I don't like the culture. The most frustrating part is the staffing models where juniors are expected to find work. Right now I can't get work but that's in part because we're not selling anything and maybe overhired. But it's so frustrating that my boss makes me feel like this is my fault. I don't understand what else I am supposed to do. The whole organization is disorganized compared to my first company that was much larger.

I have had my coworkers say nothing but good things about me and many have told me I'm very smart (honestly I don't even know what has warranted this). I have tried my best on everything but on every project it never seems like our project lead knows what the client wants. On my last project I basically spent all my time doing what the client wanted then re-doing it because the senior manager wanted something else. Then the client redos my work to be back to what they wanted in the first place. On other projects I have basically been by myself and thrown to the wolves with no back up. Honestly I have felt bad for the clients paying for consulting services and I see the disappointment on their faces when my company sends me, a junior, and no one else. Seems like people in my firm don't even like our clients and view them as inferior. No guidance or training from this company either.

I don't know where to go from here. For self-criticism, maybe I can be too quiet sometimes or maybe slow if the project isn't too urgent but otherwise I don't know if I'm doing something wrong. As I said, I like doing strategy work. I studied mechanical engineering and have no desire to go back to that, but I don't want to deal with consulting culture anymore.

Hey everyone, I've already helped restaurant owners solve one of their biggest pain points: having to be in the restaurant all the time. The goal was to help them work less while making more, ideally in just 90 days. Now, I’m looking for feedback on how viable this could be as a consulting business at higher price points.

A little about me: I have a background in operations, sales, management, and sales training. I’m detail-oriented, analytical, and systematic—basically, I’m good at solving complex problems. I’ve managed and scaled restaurants, been in charge of hiring, training, and staff management, and have hands-on experience creating systems for smoother operations.

My approach is simple: I create a complete training and onboarding system for restaurant staff, including a 90-day training schedule and creating SOPs and manuals for every step in the restaurant. This ensures smooth operations so the owner doesn’t have to be constantly involved. From training materials to schedules, I help them streamline their business so they can focus on the bigger picture.

I’ve already tested this with three restaurants for free, and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive—they called it a game-changer. I also had a family friend pay me $9K, and it made a huge difference in his business.

To make this sustainable, I think I’d need to charge around 15K (5K per month for 3 months) and work with multiple restaurants at once. My main concern is that restaurant owners can be price-sensitive, and it might be tough to get $15K from them, even though it would significantly improve their business and life.

For those with consulting experience, what do you think about this idea? Is this a viable service for restaurant owners? Any suggestions on pricing or positioning to make it more attractive to this market?

Thanks so much for your insights!