What is “consulting” in the business world

[Anonymous]

I’m a reasonably well educated and successful adult, but I work in healthcare and I know next to nothing about the business and corporate world. What do these huge consulting firms actually do? And what, say, is a recent college grad actually doing on a day to day basis when they get these consulting jobs at age 22 ( when presumably they don’t know much yet).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m a reasonably well educated and successful adult, but I work in healthcare and I know next to nothing about the business and corporate world. What do these huge consulting firms actually do? And what, say, is a recent college grad actually doing on a day to day basis when they get these consulting jobs at age 22 ( when presumably they don’t know much yet).

Making and editing power point decks.

[Anonymous]

New grads do some excel (or sometimes mores sophisticated data tool) analysis, a lot of powerpoint, and any grunt work that needs to be done. The new grads fancy themselves much smarter than the clients and able to learn about any industry in a handful of days and produce useful insights. I think that issilly. The firms do provide some in house training, too, but it is nothing special. It is mostly about how to sound smart and polished. They also have senior partners to help guide and mentor junior staff.

Companies hire these firms for a variety of reasons. The biggest advantage for a company is that they get an outsider perspective and a team of competent people to focus on a specific problem or issue that you really just can't solve from the "inside". The corporate sponsor, who is some sort of high ranking person in the company, gets some reputable firm to deliver messages or plans. Some (usually more lower tier) firms are more used for staff augmentation, like a high price temp agency with high quality employees. Top grads from top schools may never accept a job at Company X, but Company X can hire firm Y, and then use those employees in positions that they struggle to fill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:New grads do some excel (or sometimes mores sophisticated data tool) analysis, a lot of powerpoint, and any grunt work that needs to be done. The new grads fancy themselves much smarter than the clients and able to learn about any industry in a handful of days and produce useful insights. I think that issilly. The firms do provide some in house training, too, but it is nothing special. It is mostly about how to sound smart and polished. They also have senior partners to help guide and mentor junior staff.

Companies hire these firms for a variety of reasons. The biggest advantage for a company is that they get an outsider perspective and a team of competent people to focus on a specific problem or issue that you really just can't solve from the "inside". The corporate sponsor, who is some sort of high ranking person in the company, gets some reputable firm to deliver messages or plans. Some (usually more lower tier) firms are more used for staff augmentation, like a high price temp agency with high quality employees. Top grads from top schools may never accept a job at Company X, but Company X can hire firm Y, and then use those employees in positions that they struggle to fill.

Thank you for the detailed answer! So what kind of problems are they typically being brought in to solve? I assume these aren’t simple accounting/number crunching sorts of things. Obviously there’s huge money in the work

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a reasonably well educated and successful adult, but I work in healthcare and I know next to nothing about the business and corporate world. What do these huge consulting firms actually do? And what, say, is a recent college grad actually doing on a day to day basis when they get these consulting jobs at age 22 ( when presumably they don’t know much yet).

Making and editing exceptional power point decks.

Added a little more to that for you. Sounds better this way. I'll bill you end of the month.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:New grads do some excel (or sometimes mores sophisticated data tool) analysis, a lot of powerpoint, and any grunt work that needs to be done. The new grads fancy themselves much smarter than the clients and able to learn about any industry in a handful of days and produce useful insights. I think that issilly. The firms do provide some in house training, too, but it is nothing special. It is mostly about how to sound smart and polished. They also have senior partners to help guide and mentor junior staff.

Companies hire these firms for a variety of reasons. The biggest advantage for a company is that they get an outsider perspective and a team of competent people to focus on a specific problem or issue that you really just can't solve from the "inside". The corporate sponsor, who is some sort of high ranking person in the company, gets some reputable firm to deliver messages or plans. Some (usually more lower tier) firms are more used for staff augmentation, like a high price temp agency with high quality employees. Top grads from top schools may never accept a job at Company X, but Company X can hire firm Y, and then use those employees in positions that they struggle to fill.

Thank you for the detailed answer! So what kind of problems are they typically being brought in to solve? I assume these aren’t simple accounting/number crunching sorts of things. Obviously there’s huge money in the work

NP, but typically they’re brought in for thorny problems that need a fall guy. Let’s say the CEO wants to cut costs and knows that layoffs will be unpopular. Well, drop some money on a big consulting firm (say, McKinsey) and blame everything on them! “Well, the McKinsey data showed that this is the beat way forward ... don’t blame me! They’re all smart and unbiased Harvard grads!”

On the staff aug side, PP nailed it. Bring in tons of young people who’ll do anything you ask out of an overachievement rooted in insecurity. They’ll stay late, respond to emails at all hours, and are very eager to please. You won’t find temps like that with a regular temp agency AND they’ll put up with more of your crap than needed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Thank you for the detailed answer! So what kind of problems are they typically being brought in to solve? I assume these aren’t simple accounting/number crunching sorts of things. Obviously there’s huge money in the work

It really varies. You can google McKinsey (or BCG or Bain) case studies for the types of problems they tell new hires they will be solving. It is often more mundane, but not always. Most businesses have issues, sometimes major ones. A lot of times the leadership (and often workers too) are well aware of the issues, but it takes an outside force to help turn something around. Hmm, that was so unspecific it probably isn't helpful.

another place they help is with competitor industry analysis. They won't tell you proprietary info, but if they work with multiple companies in an industry, they can have some good insights.

"IT Transformation" was a buzzword a few years back, probably still relevant to health care. Large companies often lag in IT and need help in implementing basic new tools.

[Anonymous]

It’s bullshitting for money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:New grads do some excel (or sometimes mores sophisticated data tool) analysis, a lot of powerpoint, and any grunt work that needs to be done. The new grads fancy themselves much smarter than the clients and able to learn about any industry in a handful of days and produce useful insights. I think that issilly. The firms do provide some in house training, too, but it is nothing special. It is mostly about how to sound smart and polished. They also have senior partners to help guide and mentor junior staff.

Companies hire these firms for a variety of reasons. The biggest advantage for a company is that they get an outsider perspective and a team of competent people to focus on a specific problem or issue that you really just can't solve from the "inside". The corporate sponsor, who is some sort of high ranking person in the company, gets some reputable firm to deliver messages or plans. Some (usually more lower tier) firms are more used for staff augmentation, like a high price temp agency with high quality employees. Top grads from top schools may never accept a job at Company X, but Company X can hire firm Y, and then use those employees in positions that they struggle to fill.

Thank you for the detailed answer! So what kind of problems are they typically being brought in to solve? I assume these aren’t simple accounting/number crunching sorts of things. Obviously there’s huge money in the work

NP, but typically they’re brought in for thorny problems that need a fall guy. Let’s say the CEO wants to cut costs and knows that layoffs will be unpopular. Well, drop some money on a big consulting firm (say, McKinsey) and blame everything on them! “Well, the McKinsey data showed that this is the beat way forward ... don’t blame me! They’re all smart and unbiased Harvard grads!”

On the staff aug side, PP nailed it. Bring in tons of young people who’ll do anything you ask out of an overachievement rooted in insecurity. They’ll stay late, respond to emails at all hours, and are very eager to please. You won’t find temps like that with a regular temp agency AND they’ll put up with more of your crap than needed.

Yes, and this isn't even limited to staff aug engagements. All the way up to basically any role below partner they'll pull 80+ hour weeks for months. They'll dial in on vacation. They'll skip major holidays with their families. (Pre-Covid) They'll travel 50 weeks out of the year to do whatever you want. The client doesn't usually communicate directly (if EVER!) with those entry level people, but they are busting *ss basically 24/7 to please you and internal leadership. You DEFINITELY would not find that hiring a few people from a temp agency.

I agree with some of the other points made. Industry insight is a big one. They won't name names, but they (not the 22 year olds, their managers) can be helpful in benchmarking where you stand against competitors and if you are in line with industry standards + improvements you can make.

Some of it is bullshit, some of it is not. Most larger firms hire a mix of entry level "babies" they "raise" and then experienced hires they need to both guide large projects and sell work. Personally (on the other side now) I wouldn't bring on anyone who didn't have experience outside of consulting only, but many clients are very happy without that.

[Anonymous]

They are spreadsheet monkeys typically crunching numbers in excel so mid-level managers and VPs can manipulate data in order for senior level principals to create expert reports and testify that huge corporations that knowingly polluted water sources, inflated consumer pharmaceutical costs by 900% for end users, or ripped off a small entrepreneur’s patents win lawsuits brought against them. It is largely soulless, mind boggling tedious and boring work. You’ll work for geeky PhD economists who exact revenge from their school day bullying on anyone of a lower rank, and scumbag clients who don’t care how many people have died due to their vehicles’ defective airbags so long as you can determine through leaked patient records that there were other underlying conditions (asthma, eczema) that lead to their death other than fiery car crashes). You’ll get paid decently (salary, no OT though 25 to 30% of your hours will be strict OT) but you’ll work nights. You’ll work weekends. You’ll work during the hour between your mom’s funeral and the wake. You’ll work on your wedding day and during 30% of your honeymoon. Ask me how I know.

[Anonymous]

Lots of good answers in this thread, except the post directly above, which while it has a kernel of truth behind it, is pushing it.

I spent 5 years in consulting, and have now been client-side for 12, and often hire consultants. I started as your typical 22 y/o out of a H/P/Y, and really enjoyed my time. You generally work with and for smart people, do interesting work, and make valuable contacts. Downsides are the hours (although not nearly as bad as IB) and the travel.

Examples of projects I worked on:

- A competitive benchmark of small business banks.
- A bundling analysis for several financial services clients.
- An opportunity assessment for a new B2B product in financial services.
- Cost cutting opportunities in a company’s customer service department.
- Creating a new strategic direction (ie vision, mission, purpose) for a travel company.
- An evaluation of an existing digital JV between two massive companies that wasn’t going well.
- An evaluation of whether a company should divest of a profitable business line that wasn’t growing no matter what they did with it.

[Anonymous]

This article is old but paints a pretty accurate picture of the people who work for places like McKinsey out of college

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1999/10/18/the-kids-in-the-conference-room

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This article is old but paints a pretty accurate picture of the people who work for places like McKinsey out of college

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1999/10/18/the-kids-in-the-conference-room

Interesting article. It suspects that management consulting will go out of vogue, but over 20 years later, I don't know that it has. If anything, it has proliferated and there are many lower tier firms in the game. (maybe there always was)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:New grads do some excel (or sometimes mores sophisticated data tool) analysis, a lot of powerpoint, and any grunt work that needs to be done. The new grads fancy themselves much smarter than the clients and able to learn about any industry in a handful of days and produce useful insights. I think that issilly. The firms do provide some in house training, too, but it is nothing special. It is mostly about how to sound smart and polished. They also have senior partners to help guide and mentor junior staff.

Companies hire these firms for a variety of reasons. The biggest advantage for a company is that they get an outsider perspective and a team of competent people to focus on a specific problem or issue that you really just can't solve from the "inside". The corporate sponsor, who is some sort of high ranking person in the company, gets some reputable firm to deliver messages or plans. Some (usually more lower tier) firms are more used for staff augmentation, like a high price temp agency with high quality employees. Top grads from top schools may never accept a job at Company X, but Company X can hire firm Y, and then use those employees in positions that they struggle to fill.

Thank you for the detailed answer! So what kind of problems are they typically being brought in to solve? I assume these aren’t simple accounting/number crunching sorts of things. Obviously there’s huge money in the work

NP, but typically they’re brought in for thorny problems that need a fall guy. Let’s say the CEO wants to cut costs and knows that layoffs will be unpopular. Well, drop some money on a big consulting firm (say, McKinsey) and blame everything on them! “Well, the McKinsey data showed that this is the beat way forward ... don’t blame me! They’re all smart and unbiased Harvard grads!”

On the staff aug side, PP nailed it. Bring in tons of young people who’ll do anything you ask out of an overachievement rooted in insecurity. They’ll stay late, respond to emails at all hours, and are very eager to please. You won’t find temps like that with a regular temp agency AND they’ll put up with more of your crap than needed.

Yes, and this isn't even limited to staff aug engagements. All the way up to basically any role below partner they'll pull 80+ hour weeks for months. They'll dial in on vacation. They'll skip major holidays with their families. (Pre-Covid) They'll travel 50 weeks out of the year to do whatever you want. The client doesn't usually communicate directly (if EVER!) with those entry level people, but they are busting *ss basically 24/7 to please you and internal leadership. You DEFINITELY would not find that hiring a few people from a temp agency.

I agree with some of the other points made. Industry insight is a big one. They won't name names, but they (not the 22 year olds, their managers) can be helpful in benchmarking where you stand against competitors and if you are in line with industry standards + improvements you can make.

Some of it is bullshit, some of it is not. Most larger firms hire a mix of entry level "babies" they "raise" and then experienced hires they need to both guide large projects and sell work. Personally (on the other side now) I wouldn't bring on anyone who didn't have experience outside of consulting only, but many clients are very happy without that.

Yep yep yep. Internal consulting managers will make up false deadlines and "urgency" from the client, who usually doesn't give a damn. The junior hires will then ask "how high do we jump?" and measure the distance 8 times before jumping. It's ridiculous. Truthfully, I've seen too many young people be emotionally and mentally abused in these jobs but they're too young to know better or that what's happening isn't normal.

[Anonymous]

I was in a third tier consulting firm, some of the projects I did was monitor wire alert suspected of money laundering activities by searching customer name on internal database.

I also did a project to reconcile legal document says we should open 10 accounts for this client but we only opened 6 in our system...

Very mundane work. But my social circle were not corporaty and that was my ticket into working for a big company with decent pay check down the road. I grow up poor and can’t even buy notebooks for school, had to unenroll from dance class because family couldnt get second car to transport me. Now my kids trip to Disney every other year 😎 and have extra curriculums.