An Overview of a Typical Consultant’s Project Work
In this article, I’ll do a deep dive into the ins and outs of typical entry-level consulting work. Before we discuss the work itself, let’s get an understanding of the structure inside a consulting firm, and who you can expect to work with on a project.
Consulting Firm Structure
In general, consulting firms have a clear hierarchical structure, but the actual titles of individuals may vary from firm to firm. When you first enter, you begin as a consultant/analyst, then after a couple of years you are promoted to a senior consultant/analyst, then manager, then director/principal, and finally after many years of service to a firm, you become a partner. Each position has its own set of responsibilities that aid the firm in successfully completing a project. For example, partners are actively reaching out to organizations to land work for the firm, while managers handle the day-to-day client interactions and build out the overarching narrative/ideas on how the organization can improve. Since I am an entry-level consultant, I will speak primarily about that position’s work going forward.
Consulting pyramid from Michel-Emmanuel De Thuy: https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-best-organizational-chart-for-a-management-consulting-firm
Now you understand the various different positions of individuals at a consulting firm, but when you are put on a consulting project, you will have a team of individuals focused on helping one specific organization. For that reason, it’s important to understand the structure of a typical project team. At the top, you will likely have 1-2 partners setting the direction and handling important client interactions, then one director/principal, one manager, and two consultants/analysts. This project team structure is utilized because it covers all the bases. Director with client skills and experience breaking down difficult problems? Check. Manager aiding the consultants with direction and handling the message to the client? Check. Consultants working on the nitty-gritty details, like crunching numbers? Check again.
Day-to-day Project Work
We have our project team defined, so we can finally discuss what work you would be engaging in as an entry-level consultant. Remember the essay structure we learned in middle school? Start with a thesis, then talk about the big three reasons your thesis is true, and finally support each of those three big reasons with evidence. As an entry-level consultant, your job is to gather the evidence. Usually, this involves working extensively in Excel or SQL to crunch the data.
Let’s say the organization your consulting firm is helping is a car wash owner, and they are concerned that some of the car wash locations are not making enough money. Then the data you receive will be along the lines of the profitability of each car wash, where it’s located, what types of car washes are sold, etc. Once you get the data and clean it (pun intended), then it’s ready for you to analyze. Knowing that your client is concerned about the profit of each car wash location, your job would be to look through the data to either confirm or deny this belief.
You’d start by breaking out the data by each car wash location to understand how well each car wash is doing. Once you know which locations are lagging behind, then you can dive into the specifics. Next, you’d potentially look into the services offered at the lagging car washes, are they different? Are the lagging car washes placed on a low traffic street? Are they not getting a lot of customers or are their costs higher than the other locations? These are all questions you’d start with, then dive into Excel and parse the data in ways that allow you to answer these questions. All in all, your role would be to look through the data and understand what’s going on.
Once you’ve done that, then you’ll have to articulate those insights in a comprehensible way on a PowerPoint slide. It’s important to note that your job is not finished there since data analysis and PowerPoint creation is a very iterative process. To be explicit, you would then send your work to the manager, they would use their experience to provide you with edits, feedback, and next steps. Then you would go back and implement the changes, and this process continues until the team feels the information is accurate, well-worded, and baked into the overall narrative of the presentation, and is finally ready to show the client.
Getting Staffed on a Project
You may be wondering now about how you are placed on a certain project. Depending on your firm, there may be a staffer who works with the partners in deciding which consultants/managers get placed on certain projects. The great thing about Simon-Kucher and other firms with a staffer is that they are eager to listen to your input and will help place you on projects that align with your interests. At other firms, you may have to network your way onto the projects that pique your interest. Most firms have a mixture of both staffing and networking, but this is a good thing to understand when deciding which firm is a good fit for you. On that note, let’s discuss the process of actually landing a job at a consultancy.
Title picture from Wallpaper Flare: https://www.wallpaperflare.com/business-consulting-consulting-services-concept-illustration-wallpaper-agmgu
