Do you know which of your clients, projects and teams are profitable and which arent?

How do you determine that? (spreadsheets, accounting reports, PM tools, gut feel, something else, or not at all)?

How often do you find out too late that there is a problem?

Is the root cause that sales partners and account managers are over promising and under estimating? Or is it that delivery teams arent controlling scope agreements well enough?

If so what do you do about it?

What’s the biggest pain: data quality, delayed reporting, tool mismatch, team behavior, scope control or something else?

If you don’t have this problem, what makes your setup work well?

Appreciate any examples, even messy ones.

Hi, I am currently an EM in one of the strategy arms of big4 (Think EY Parthenon, Monitor Deloitte, Strategy&) with most of my projects (strategy projects like GTM, Asset Monetization etc.) falling in a particular sector. Since last couple of years, we didn't do many projects overall as a team (i did 3 in these past 2 years - all 2-3 month engagements). My current firm has decided to merge my team with another team - from the past couple of months I have been dealing with ops projects in other sectors.

I am currently in the process of interviewing with a product firm from my earlier sector for their consulting arm (think Ericsson consulting, AWS Professional Services etc.) I am in the last round right now.

Did anyone do this switch? The team size is smaller than my current team. And I will be moving to a higher role than my current. Salary will also be higher. But the role will require me to do everything under consulting - bring in leads, convert and deliver projects. I currently work only on converting leads and delivering.

Reasons for looking out - Didnt want to dilute my profile by working on other sector projects, wanted better wlb - I am facing high blood pressure problems in my current role.

Any advice/thoughts/insights can help

Update from this post.

After reading the comments, I realized that it would be an uphill battle to fight my way out of concerns and even be able to succeed at McK because bottom bucket performers get forced out anyway. It was a waste of time trying to get staffed, so I put my full effort into recruiting with a hopeful backup plan of PD staffing me.

I got a large amount (8-12) of first round interviews across 3-4 weeks, mainly across startups in strategy/ops/analytical roles.

I eventually landed a pretty sweet job at a startup, and my base/total compensation got a ~25-30% raise.

To be honest, it was a great time to leave. Pretty much everyone was just feeding everything to an LLM, and all partners (who don't know how to really use LLMs effectively in the first place) became incredibly AI-pilled in a not good way. At this point, the main value I see in staying in consulting is building up relationship and people skills (which are definitely important), but I do have worries about the future of consulting.

I'm still super grateful for my short time at McK, but I am happy that I found something I was a better fit for.

Hi everyone, I just joined a new firm (tech consulting)and the partner wants me to do a discovery call with an internal project team. This is to get a value story out of the current work being done and to pitch the client for more work.

I’ve done a few interviews but nothing is coming of value is coming out. The client has one north star KPI and currently my firm is doing very good in that regard. Apart from that, I couldn’t see anything. There are other vendors the client is engaging with and we’re getting only a small part of the pie.

The partner wants me to be creative and get an outside in perspective and propose some ideas.

What should I do in this in this scenario? Has anyone been in this situation?

Hey everyone, I run a deal architecture and M&A advisory business. I'm currently going through a highly stressful personal dry spell and dealing with heavy burnout. My energy is at absolute zero right now, and I don't have the mental bandwidth for aggressive cold outreach.

Been going through rough personal upheavals since April, from deaths of bestfriend, lawsuit threats (land lord price manipulation vs. me), harassment, robbery, having to adopt my only cat out as she won't be able to withstand cross country movement/business repositioning, and more. I had some business ventures that were supposed to have the Capex funded by an investor during June, who suddenly went ghost on me after extracting 2 pitches from me, one of which is a national venture... I've been doubling down on self care the best I can, as well as getting help from therapist to power these through.

When you've been in a slump and felt completely depleted, what low-lift, low-stress lead generation strategies worked to get you back on your feet?

In the last few months, MBB firms have consolidated their major leg ahead in terms of sophistication and precision of their agents.

Asking insiders, how much has it changed your delivery pace? Did your weekly workload shrink? How much shorter are due diligences or stretegic reviews?

Hi all, I've been doing since I graduated undergrad. I'm just about to exit - I have two offers and I was hoping to get some advice or insight. My options:

• One is an offer to do strategy for acquired companies at a smaller but well known PE firm. I'd be doing mostly strategy but also some ops work to help restructure and improve newly acquired companies.
• The other is ops and strategy role at a ~small- mid-size, late-stage AI startup. I'd initially have a lot of process work I've been told I would then pivot into more of a 'do-everything' role including both strategy and ops.

They are both great offers and I don't know what to pick. Some factors:

• PE firm: I'm very confident I'd do well, and the work is very transferable into other corporate roles, can give eventual exposure to portfolio leadership and M&A work. It's also got a well-defined career path and is a well known name.

• The AI startup: I am really interested in tech and would like to work in the field (I have a reasonably technical background). I also think the product is really interesting. I can tell the team is really smart and high-performing, real world-class people. But I'm not as certain I'd do well on the job - I'm less familiar with the type of work, and I'm concerned it would be a ton of process work and that I would it not engaging while also looking worse on my resume and being less transferable.

Comp is slightly higher at the AI startup, but both are competitive. Similar WLB at both, both in my home city (West Coast)

I honestly don't know what to think. I really love the idea of working at a tech startup, it's been my big career goal. I'd hate to pass up a great offer to do that, but I also need to make sure It's the right fit and career move.

Posting here for advice - any thoughts or insights are appreciated!

So, tldr - I will be leaving MBB soon on transition. Had some great teams my first ~18 months, but ran into the rough case, rough LT, and for multiple reasons have decided I do not want to ‘push’ through a PIP and would rather take the transition.

I have ~2 weeks left on my current case and motivation is critical. I’m on a critical part of the case, and I don’t want to completely fuck the team despite my feelings towards LT. I also don’t particularly feel like crushing myself for two weeks.

Any advice on who to have what convo with to thread the needle on doing what I need to do but not going above and beyond for the next couple of weeks?

Happy to provide any additional needed details.

Hi! Sorry if this is a silly question, but I wanted to ask you guys: What book, movie, or TV series do you think best represents the life of a consultant? I’m asking because I’m really interested in the challenges they face and the lives they lead, but I don’t think that’s the career path I’ll take. Just to get to know better MBB or consulting and give me a realistic view.

* Ideally, biographies or something reliable, even if it's websites or something like that, since I know that portrayals can be exaggerated—Suits isn’t what life is really like for lawyers in New York, and Grey’s Anatomy isn’t what it’s like for doctors.

Been working for MBB ~1 year. It is not a good fit for me and started job searching about 2 months ago. My performance started strong for the first 4 months, 1 bad 3 week project.

I found out last week that my performance review where they decide to counsel me out is just 5 weeks away not 10 weeks. My manager told me when the review was. However, he quit and my new manager told me it is actually 5 weeks....

The review is coming up faster because that 1 bad project put me in the gray zone. Since that bad project I have been on 2 which went well/on track. I'm unsure how the review will pan out just based on my feedback. I read my bad project feedback and objectively it wasn't that bad on paper(only said there is "room for improvement") but we all know how that goes...

Do I let my current project wrap up and just elect to take transition myself? Do I take the risk and wait? I was already planning on quitting/taking transition in the next 3 weeks I was just unsure if they would let me. I don't want to stay even If I am on track. The mental war-games are really getting to me.

I'm so stressed I really don't know what to do.... I know writing this it sounds clear but too obvious? What would you do in my position? How at my firm can I speak honestly about this?

Hi, all -

We're perhaps a little slower than most firms, but recently rolled out Claude. I'm wondering if you've managed to effectively use Claude to build slides across your firm?

We're testing with Claude Skills to get slides that match our brand etc. but the token costs seem quite high. For those at small to mid-sized firms, do you bother with Skills or do you use another method?

I'd appreciate any direction/insights.

Currently having problems with a colleague I’m supposed to be working alongside. TL;DR at the bottom of this post.

On a shared internal initiative we’ve been working on for the last couple of weeks, she started the work without involving me, didn’t ask for my input, and presented the work she’d done to senior managers before I had contributed (we’d been told we were working on this on a Friday afternoon and she had worked on this by herself over the weekend to have the presentation ready for Monday).

More recently, I independently developed an AI/automation costing and capability analysis without knowing she was already involved in an internal initiative working on something similar.

I’d presented this to our head of department who was impressed by the analysis and added me to the group so that we could leverage my work to shape the work stream, but since then she’s repeatedly stressed that they were already working on it where she started by talking to me from across the office floor and in front of colleagues saying ‘we shouldn’t be doubling efforts, we’re already working on this’ even though their work was nowhere near as well developed from looking what they’d done so far.

Aside from responding to my messages in a condescending and patronising way, she also rarely acknowledges or builds on my work and generally seems to prefer working separately. I’ve messaged her privately saying I’d like to discuss this alongside how we can work more collaboratively together and have booked a short meeting for Monday, but she’s read the messages and not replied.

How should I handle the conversation? If she ignores the meeting or refuses to engage, should I raise this with somebody more senior? It gotten to the point where our colleagues have started noticing her behaviour and hasn’t contributed to a positive working environment, particularly for me.

TL;DR colleague is dismissive, condescending, and won’t work collaboratively with me for reasons that are unknown to me. She hasn’t engaged with my efforts to resolve this directly, either. What do I do?

\ being summoned **

Uh, you want to migrate to Azure because it's cheaper than on-prem? Okauy, sure, as you wish, master

\ being summoned again **

Now you want to migrate out of American cloud? As you wish, master

\ being summoned again **

Uh, you got tired of having your own department taking care of your Hetzner subscription and now you want to someone else to deliver it? Okay, as you please, master

Looks like the firm has taken control of the subreddit and is suppressing salary discussions, recruiting, tongue in cheek cynicism, and has a zero tolerance policy for any criticism of mod activity.

I know the previous mod was pretty lax, but this feels like a hostile takeover by firm bootlickers.

The "rules" only show up if you view using the standard www version and don't show in RES or under old.reddit.

fascists in any form suck and fascist mods are the worst.

The compensation and recruiting discussion suppression is particularly interesting given the subs description:

Independent community for current, former, and prospective Deloitte professionals. Discuss careers, recruiting, compensation, certifications, firm news, workplace experiences, and professional development. Please follow subreddit rules and keep discussions respectful and constructive.

Its been fun but it looks like its been co-opted to be a mouthpiece for firm politics now.

ERP consultant here, has anyone recently gotten a new Job?

I have almost 2 years of experience in ERP consulting and 1.5 years in industry. I’m looking to switch shops for higher pay and just better management, but man it looks bleak.

I’ve gotten 2-3 interviews through recruiters, but nothing more than that.

Am I not experienced/ senior enough. Or is the job market in the US a lot more bleak then Im realizing?

I'm fairly new to consulting. I currently have regular clients on retainer who provide a steady flow of work, but I still have availability to take on more.

I'm interested in what others are doing to find new clients and any advice they have regarding what I'm currently doing.

Things I'm currently doing:

1. Going to paid networking events with local chambers.
2. Going to a weekly BNI meeting.
3. I've got some speaking opportunities that are coming up. I'm speaking for free, but it's about the subjects I'm an expert in.
4. Attending a national event where one of my industry verticals is represented.
5. Applying to contract work that aligns with my skillset.
6. Optimizing my website SEO.

My budget is a bit tight, but I do have some money to put toward marketing. B2B is such a weird thing to try to advertise online.

Any advice is much appreciated.

Correct me if I am wrong . SQL is a great additional benefit for a consultant . I don't know why consultants don't popularize it or use it but SQL helps in analysing long data sets fast which can be very helpful in consulting . Of course Excel is the oxygen for consultants but I think SQL will also help majorly . What are your opinions ?

curious where independent consultants have had the most success building referral relationships. I’m particularly interested in consulting networks, VC firms, venture studios, accelerators, or people with strong founder networks who regularly connect operators with companies that need GTM or RevOps help.
I’m building a boutique practice focused on founder-led B2B SaaS and fintech companies, and I’d much rather develop long-term referral partnerships than rely solely on cold outbound.
For those who have done this successfully, where did you meet your referral partners? Are there specific communities, organizations, events, or networks that are actually worth joining, or is it mostly built through personal relationships?

I hear Umbrex is not that good. Even a single intro from a VC can be enough to get things going, looking into Europe specifically, so my US network is not an option.
I’d appreciate any advice or experiences.

Or are all three used together since there is some bifurcation depending on the task like copilot is used to work with MS OFFICE, claude with summarising documents, chatgpt for general use etc?

26F with two YOE in consulting. Have just done a five module Management Consulting course provided by Emory University on Coursera.

Is it worth uploading this to my LinkedIn profile? The course was valuable from a learning perspective but my understanding is that Emory isn’t an Ivy League or M7 university so I’m unsure whether it would do much for my profile from an employer’s perspective (I’m from the United Kingdom so I apologise if this incorrect or reads as ignorant or naive).

Writing this after I deleted my loyalty account with them. Kid me would’ve thought I’d be more mature as a grown ass woman, but here we are.

Have you seen MS announcement? I’ve looked at their landing website. It looks like a total AI slop

Would the be able to compete on any level except technical?

Hey guys!

I'm a Masters student. And I just started my internship and I'm working alongside a Senior Consultant this past month. As of now my responsibilities have been to support her in making executive level slides. I'm good at consolidating contents, but her structuring is different level. How can I get better? The story telling in her slides feels so impossible to Master. Do you guys recommend any online courses in which I could refine my thinking? Please help 🙏

emlyon business school (in France) just published a field/literature study on the effects of AI on the profession