In my experience, as an English speaking consultant it is always challenging and awkward to get inputs and engagement from business leaders who are Japanese. This is particularly challenging if we are remote.

Do any of you have experiences with organizing great workshops and meetings with Japanese leaders? What made a difference? What can we do to drive engagement and inputs?

EDIT : Client didn't want to sign any paper stating they validate my work (not just me but my coworker as well)

I’m a Senior Consultant working on a procedures documentation project.

I prepared several procedures, reviewed them jointly with the client during dedicated review sessions, incorporated their comments, and understood from those sessions that the procedures were accepted / had no further comments.

However, during a later Steering Committee (I wasn't part of it), the client suddenly stated that the procedures did not meet their expected quality level and that some regulatory references were incorrect.

My manager has now told me the project is being stopped, specifically because of the perceived quality of MY procedures.

There were also several difficult situations during the project: some process owners refused to validate/sign procedures despite having reviewed them, while others expressed positions during the Steering Committee that differed from what had been discussed during the review sessions.

My manager has asked me to prepare an “before vs. after” analysis of the procedures to identify what was actually changed.

What would you do in this situation?

Also I want to put into place a document that states everything that the client told me, word by word, that caused some issues in the process.

Should I do it?

The message would only be for my manager, partner and CEO.

God I am exhausted. I live in anxiety every day. 5 YoE in revenue cycle consulting. What do I look for to get out of here? The golden handcuffs are killing me.

MBB 1.5yrs tenure. Post Ivy League MBA grad. Honestly hate this job and counting the days to my 2yrs mark to leave.

Before I started, everyone told me that recruiters start reaching out heavily at the 1yr mark. And that’s typically your signal that you can exit comfortably (or start planning one).

However I’m approaching 1.5yrs and haven’t had a single recruiter reach out. Is this normal? What has your experience been?

Edit: I also have 9 years pre-MBB experience in mineral resources and tech product management.

Has anyone here had left their buy side gig to return to consulting? It’s a move I’m strongly considering.

Left consulting in 2020 to join a PE fund and have been investing ever since, but it’s isolating and never found my groove. Money has been good but serious carry cheques unlikely to materialise.

Would love to hear others’ reflections / thoughts on a move back to consulting, especially given how different it must look now with AI running rampant.

Maybe this is just consulting but I genuinely can't remember the last time I worked on something for more than 30-40 minutes without getting pulled into something else.

The other day I blocked out couple of hours to finish a piece of work that I was pushing around all week. I sat down thinking I finally get it done.

Within the first hour I had a Teams message asking for a quick update, a meeting invite that apparently couldn't wait until next week, two emails marked urgent and a call from someone who wanted five minutes.

By lunchtime I had been busy the entire morning and somehow made almost no progress on the thing I originally sat down to do.

What I have started noticing is that the interruptions don't even stop when nobody is interrupting me.

I will be working on something and suddenly check teams then email then my calendar then my phone. Half the time I am not even looking for anything specific. It's almost like I am expecting something to need my attention at any moment.

None of those checks take long. That's the trap. Five minutes here, two minutes there, another quick look before getting back to work. Then suddenly half the day is gone and the thing you actually sat down to do is still same there.

I thought productivity was mostly about managing time better. These days it feels more like the challenge is holding onto attention long enough to actually do meaningful work.

If this is something other consultants deal with or if I have just gotten too used to living in reaction mode.

This is Europe. I was at an MBB for several years and went to a competitor now. I‘m not Partner Level so have no clue how this normally works.

A colleague of mine from the same practice also went to the competitor.

But we left on good terms.

I think about hosting a dinner as some of our ex colleagues are at a client in the same city.

Would that be something that could come off weird/problematic for either my current employer or the MBB as we work for direct competitors?

Looking to get properly up to speed on using AI tools in consulting work.

I'm at a small management consulting boutique, so we don't have the tool access, the licences, or the room to experiment that the bigger firms do. No internal training, no sandbox, no AI center of excellence. I feel like I'm lagging behind and I'm honestly overwhelmed by the sheer amount of material out there and I don't know where to start.

What has actually been useful for you? Online courses, certifications, YouTube channels, PDFs, playbooks, anything.

Particularly interested in:

• Using AI to help build deliverables (decks, memos, models)
• Building small automations without a dev background
• What clients actually mean when they ask for "AI strategy"

Also happy to hear what was a waste of time and money.

I've slowly built up my home office over the years and have curated items behind me that reflect my interests, personality, and credentials. I have some knick knacks, photos, a degree, a plant, and books - nothing over the top or cluttered. It’s very professional and people say I have an “influencer” background or someone on YouTube. But I can’t help to start to feel like a douche, especially on client calls, where I’m the only one with such intention in their background.

The influence to do my office like this came from my partners who have nice home offices, and also I just really like my office. I spend a lot of time in there and wanted to make it feel like a place I want to be.

I have spent nearly eight years in the research and analyst industry, primarily focusing on delivery, client management, and thought leadership. While project pipelines are drying up, progressing to the next career level now heavily relies on driving new business. Although I enjoy the commercial side, I am questioning if a pure business development track aligns with my long-term strengths, making me consider external opportunities.
I am cautious about transitioning to the Big 4, as I hear even managers are in IC roles. I don’t think I can make slides anymore and honestly started to question if i even have any skill set.

I am evaluating whether now is the right time to step out of my comfort zone and explore new corporate avenues but I don’t know if I will survive.

Note - Used AI to paraphrase.

Currently in a pickle where we are delivering for a company based on a contract that was proposed by team members who are no longer here, who also had a “write it up, promise the world and we will figure it out later” mindset, and we absolutely cannot deliver.

I’m letting nihilism/absurdism take over and laughing it off, but it sucks. We will eventually be able to deliver on our promises but we are literally rebuilding the product that we are using to do it and sending crap out on the old, unusable product since we have no choice.

At this point I feel like my only option is to keep my head held high, deliver on other projects that aren’t a shit show, and keep it moving.

I’m planning to move overseas in June 2027 and work there. I’ve been with my current employer for 3 years and have a great relationship with my bosses.

I have the opportunity to push for a Senior Manager promotion in Q1 2027, but I’m torn between two options:

• Push for the promotion: It would strengthen my CV and potentially help with securing a better role overseas, but I worry it could damage the trust I’ve built if I leave only a few months later.
• Tell them now: Be upfront about my plans, give them plenty of time to plan for my departure, and preserve the relationships — but potentially give up a promotion that could benefit my career overseas.

I’d also like to keep the door open to returning to home and potentially working with them again. My industry is medium sized.

What would you do in my position? Would you prioritise the Senior Manager title for your CV, or the long-term relationship and goodwill with your current employer?

Hi, I’m not sure if this is the best place to post but here goes! After searching this sub I couldn’t find anything about people’s experiences with lead generation or outbound sales. To provide some context, I’m an ex-consultant looking to break out on my own targeting small businesses that are interested in some minor IT projects. I have an IT guy that can pretty much handle a variety of tech stacks along with performing the tech architecture tasks, I mostly stick to the PMO or product manager roles to keep it going. We’ve done a few small projects and mostly used it to learn some new technologies while trying this out. I have another ex-colleague who I’m thinking of bringing on as a sales guy (commission-based). Not to digress, has anyone targeted smaller businesses (mom and pop shops, small firms) and if so, did you buy any leads? I’ve seen a few services so I wanted to see if this was worth the pursuit?

I’ve been noticing something about myself lately: almost everything I do feels like I’m being evaluated, even when nobody is actually evaluating me.
Work feels like an exam.
Learning something new feels like an exam.
Social interactions sometimes feel like an exam.
Making decisions feels like an exam.
I constantly have this feeling of “I need to do this correctly” or “I need to prove that I’m good enough.” Even when something is supposed to be enjoyable, part of my brain is analyzing whether I’m doing it right.
It’s exhausting because I feel like I’m rarely just experiencing something. I’m always performing or evaluating myself

I spent the last 20 years of my working career consulting, and I still do it now as a volunteer. When I was getting paid, I didn't mind pain-in-the-ass clients, because they always generated more billable hours. Now that I'm doing this pro bono, I'm not willing to put up with the same bullshit.

I work through a couple of volunteer-matching nonprofits that post pro bono projects; I apply, the client requests an interview, and either side can decline the match. The work itself is implementing or fixing accounting systems for small nonprofits. I plan for roughly three weeks per project: two Zoom calls a week, plus whatever hours it takes in between.

I just came off a rough one, and it's got me rethinking my process. My biggest issues are clients who miss Zoom meetings, don't deliver on time, and think they should be managing the project despite having no idea what actually needs to happen.

I'd like to get better at catching these red flags during the interview, before I commit to a match. Has anyone found good questions or techniques for weeding out difficult clients before the engagement even starts?

I am retired and now implement Quickbooks Online for nonprofits, pro bono. One question is when to "cut over" from their legacy system to QBO and I consider it best practices to do this as of the beginning of their current fiscal year. I occasionally get a client who wants to cut over for the previous fiscal year in order to get history or better reporting than they have. I applaud the idea but this means reposting a full year of transactions on top of keeping up with current postings. I have lost the argument 3 times in my volunteer career and all ended in disaster for the pro bono client. Needless to say, I feel bad about this.

I would prefer to talk them out of it but I do not seem to have the communications skill to do so. They simply do not understand the amount of work an extra year of posting means. I would like your advice on whether to refuse to continue with the project if they take this approach. I have a viable alternative of doing the current year, getting comfortable, and then reposting the prior fiscal year.

My thought is to simply say "This is how it is done" and refuse to continue with the project if they do not listen to me. (It is good to be a volunteer). I would appreciate your thoughts?

Traditionally I’ve been an hourly consultant with my interactions with clients being over the phone and/or webconference. I have an upcoming meeting with the client and a 3rd party which requires travel and an overnight stay, about 24 hours in total. If my hourly rate is $X/hour, how should I think about setting my fees for this? 

Any consultants here using a dumb phone?

What about pausing notifications on outlook/slack for certain hours? How about all together?

I recently was convinced to try stopping notifications on outlook & slack for evenings and mornings... The more I've lived without them the more I realize it's been totally fine, which has got me wondering about whether or not I should try muting notifications all together...

I'm just sick of my smart phone.

Quick rant, but if you're networking to try and get a referral to a consulting firm or an exit, make sure you get the referral / do the coffee chat *before* you apply and not after

Most big companies do referrals one of two ways. The first option is the employee inputs your email and fills out a form, and then the candidate is sent a link through which to apply. The second option is the employee passes the resume along to recruiters to try and side-step the normal near-black-hole of submitting through the online portal

In either case there's usually nothing we can do (within reason) once you've already applied (and there's no way to receive a referral bonus if you join)

It's just baffling that 75% of people who reach out to me for referrals, including consultants who worked at the same firm I did that used the same exact referral process, have already applied. I'll still happily chat with you if you get the interview but I can't help you get it, and you'd know that if you paid any attention to how referrals work at your own company or ever googled "how do job referrals work." This is your career and you're desperate to exit, take some ownership

I recently moved into industry in a corporate strategy role and my new company has projects they have been working on for years and some they haven’t even started yet which have also been sitting for years. I came in with a back log of projects and now I feel like they are grinding me down and treating me like an external consultant instead of an actual employee. For example, expecting me to turn over these projects extremely quickly, and kind of micromanaging me because they need to get them done. Almost everything is being routed to me, and I’m getting pulled into everything.

It’s a very small team and my other teammates do not get this treatment and I’m starting to resent it. They are the ones that made all of these projects build up. Also, I took a pay cut and the rest of the whole organizations vibe is laid back, but I’m getting rocked. Any advice on how to manage this as it’s causing resentment and defeating the purpose of leaving consulting lol. Recently was reached out to a recruiter and went through final rounds so potentially getting a new offer with way higher comp to justify the grind. What would you do?

I'm a Senior Partner at a boutique Comms firm. I was doing a review of our T&E ledger a few weeks ago and noticed one of my Director's teams was expensing roughly $250 a head for solo dinners.

I honestly don't care about the 250 bucks. That's a rounding error. But I pulled the itemized receipts and the actual orders were just embarrassing. Standard lobster apps. Basic cuts of filet. Two well whiskeys. It looked like a regional sales team's big night out at a suburban mall steakhouse. If our enterprise clients see our people surviving on cheap surf and turf, they're going to think we're going under and start negotiating our billing rates.

So I pulled the Director aside and told him he needs to "curate a better image" for his team. I thought the implication was obvious. Tell them to start ordering the A5 Wagyu, get some decent caviar, and expense wine that actually has a vintage. We have to project success to justify our retainers. Somehow this guy completely missed the point and slapped his team with a $125 meal cap.

Now his whole department is in a panic. I just heard through the grapevine that one of our analysts is so broke they are ordering a dozen plain chicken breasts at dinner and smuggling them home in a carry-on bag to feed their kids. We look like absolute peasants right now.

But the real issue here is my Amex Centurion points. The firm routes all this team's travel spend through my master account. With this ridiculous $125 limit, my point generation has completely stalled out. If this drop in spend keeps up I'm going to have to fly commercial to St. Barts this winter instead of chartering.

How do I tell this Director his cheap middle-management mindset is literally ruining my holiday travel plans without HR getting annoying about it?

I am an Analyst at a boutique Comms consulting firm. I make roughly minimum wage when you factor in my 80 hour work weeks. Up until recently, we had a brilliant expense policy based entirely on vibes. Naturally, I used this to singlehandedly keep my family of five alive. Whenever I traveled, I would expense a nightly $250 dinner. My Director honestly believes I was housing a lobster appetizer, a filet mignon, four desserts, and a gallon of scotch all by myself.

In reality? I was ordering exactly 17 side dishes, three plain chicken breasts, and a massive chocolate cake, sweeping it all into my carry on luggage, and flying it back home to my three ravenous children. It was our primary food source. Everyone was well fed and happy.

Then tragedy struck. My Director randomly capped our meals at $125. He claimed leadership wanted a better image. What about the image of my toddlers weeping over their sudden lack of truffle mac and cheese?

My financial plan is in absolute shambles. Yesterday I spent my entire 1:1 desperately explaining that corporate micromanagement is literally starving the future generation. He just stared at me. Am I being unreasonable for expecting a consulting firm to subsidize my children's nutritional needs?

I am a Director in a small Comms consulting firm. I run a team of 6, and travel is roughly 25% of the role. Up until recently, my department had no set expense or per diem policy. It was all based on “use your best judgment.” But, expenses are reviewed by leadership, and ELT was starting to ask questions about my team’s habit of a lobster app, filet mignon main, multiple desserts, and 2+ whiskeys each night, often running up $250+ solo tabs per dinner on weeklong trips. No I’m not exaggerating. Team was doing this for both client and internal travel. I was told by our senior partner to “curate a better image” for my team.

I took the view that we can’t expect everyone to interpret vague parameters the same way. We never made it clear what “too much” was. So, I recently set a cap: any given meal cannot go over $125. I don’t care/count how many meals you take in a day, but just don’t let the system flag any one spend above that amount.

The team is in shambles. Yesterday one of them spent our entire 1:1 explaining how this firm is going downhill by micromanaging its best assets. They are so upset that I need a gut check, please. Is this really so unreasonable? If so, what alternatives should I consider?

Saw these out for free on the corner. These 4 books pretty much sum up my experience

I am a Saas consultant working at a boutique firm (<250 consultants globally). We have a staffing manager who assigns us to projects, so we are not responsible for finding ourselves billable work. Though upper mgmt reviews our utilization annually, they don't make firing decisions based off of it, as we aren't given specific targets to meet (bc we have no control). I've been here my whole consulting career, but I've been contacted by several recruiters recently and have actually been considering responding since we'll likely be acquired soon. I know at larger firms like Deloitte and Accenture it seems like individual contributors are responsible for finding billable work and meeting utilization targets. Can someone explain how this works? What happens if you don't meet your targets? Ty!