How to Become a Consultant in Your Field
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Young professionals often ask me about consulting as a career option: Is it for them and how can they decide? To answer this question fairly (and without the bias of having been in consulting myself), I reached out to someone who oversees the talent development of more than 100,000 employees working in consulting to get a well-rounded perspective. Wouter Van Linden is KPMG's head of people for the EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) region. He studied law and his first job was in legal consulting. My conversation with him revolved around understanding what young professionals should know if they're looking at a career in consulting.
There are four things that came out of our conversation that I'd like to share to help you make an informed decision.
Consulting is NOT for everyone.Consulting is not a 9-to-5 job. You might feel like you're "always on" as you may be expected to be on the road a lot, and it can be exhausting. If you envision stability and structure, consider a career elsewhere. "You become a consultant because you value freedom and flexibility — in terms of when you work, where you work, and what you do. So, you can craft your job to a large degree," said Wouter. To work in consulting, you will need to create your own work structures and be accountable for your impact.
Consider the questions below. If you answer yes to most of them, then perhaps consulting is for you.
- Do you enjoy working periods of long hours followed by a few days of "sitting on the bench" (taking it easier)?
- Do you want to be able to largely decide on how, where, and when you work?
- Do you like being your own project manager and being held accountable for it?
As a consultant, the impact you have is mostly indirect — through the advice you give to your clients. You may also not get to see the project reach completion as the contract mostly ends once you've made the suggestions.
It's all about soft skills.We spoke about two soft skills in particular: empathy, which comprises listening skills and knowing which questions to ask, and agility, which is the open-mindedness to challenge your own assumptions in the broadest sense.
All Big Four firms started out as auditors. The word auditor is derived from the Latinaudire, which means "to listen." To date, this is still the single most important skill in all the work consultants do. Why? Because you need to be able to efficiently collaborate with clients, team members, and management. You will be meeting a lot of people, and you will have to build relationships, sometimes from the ground up.
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The archetype of consultants being all-knowing experts is obsolete. By collaborating with your client — and applying empathy and agility — you explore tailor-made solutions together.
So, how do you know if you are good at these skills? Start by asking the people around you for feedback. Consider asking the following questions to a colleague, fellow student, or family member:
- When you talk to me, to what degree do you feel like I'm listening to you?
- Can you give me an example of a situation where you felt like I did not understand you at all?
- To what degree do you perceive me as someone who is willing to challenge held assumptions?
And what if you want to build and hone these soft skills? There is only one thing you can do really: practice, practice, practice.
Wouter also shared one specific advice on the art of asking the right questions: "Never start your question with a verb!"
Instead of asking: "Is your firm considering an overhaul because of the rise in digitization?"
You could say: "How do you see the long-term impact of digitization on the competitiveness of your firm?"
Get comfortable with failure.How do you react when you can't get through a project report or when you can't solve that probability question? Wallow in self-pity? A failure is when you don't learn anything from the mistake.
In consulting, you'll be working with a lot of data and facts, and you'll need to make many decisions. Not all will be the right ones. Becoming a great consultant means that sometimes you make an error of judgment, and that's okay. If you screw up, don't beat yourself on it and don't try to fix the mistake yourself. Seek out experienced resources, such as your mentor or your boss, to understand where you went wrong and how you can fix it.
I'll never forget the first time my boss asked me to join an introductory meeting with a captain of the industry, "Mr. Lee." During that meeting, I was solely focused on getting Mr. Lee to sign us up for a leadership development program at his firm. For the entire duration of the meeting, I tried to convince him to hire us by showcasing our previous achievements. I did about 70% of the talking.
When the meeting was over, my boss took me aside and said, "Never forget that every meeting has its own purpose. Today was all about getting acquainted and asking the right questions, so Mr. Lee could decide if we are worth his time and if he would like to meet us again and further the conversation. Your focus was on sales. The client's focus was on establishing trust."
If my boss had not taken the time to debrief, I would have never understood why we did not hear of Mr. Lee again. Meetings turned out to be very different from then on.
Ascend
A weekly newsletter to help young professionals find their place in the working world and realize their personal and career goals.
You have to be patiently ambitious.Our ultimate advice? Be patiently ambitious. Don't expect to reach the top at the age of 30. A professional career lasts about 45 years. Embrace that long-term perspective and carefully plan your own path, whilst being flexible enough to challenge your own thinking once a while. And before you know it, you have achieved your goals.
How to Become a Consultant in Your Field
Source: https://hbr.org/2020/07/is-consulting-the-right-career-for-you
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