| Topic Name: |
how much will my life suck? |
| Message Name: |
its not really that bad |
| Date Posted: |
03/01/2001 |
| In Reply To: |
hi guys,
i'm a junior in college and am generally interested in business/finance/consulting. however, there seems to be something inherently wrong with spending every waking hour of one's life (for two years) in a cubicle, airplane, or hotel room.
at this point i figured consulting or ibanking would be a good learning experience blah blah blah, and would help me quite a bit further on up the road. however, after browsing vault.com it seems like my life really will just suck.
so, two questions:
1. is there an as good a way but perhaps less demanding way to approximate the consulting/ibanking learning experience? e.g., would a two year stint in P & G's finance department open up the same doors as, say, a two year stint in a bulge-bracket firm or top consulting firm?
2. is there a light at the end of the tunnel? i can work 100 hours a week for 2 years if i know that i'm doing this for 2 years and 2 years only. i mean, after serving as an analyst, do the hours get better? when you jump from say MSDW after two years to another firm in a different industry, do you still make a good chunk of change and work considerably less hours.
anyway, any insight you can provide would be greatly helpful. i am interested in this stuff, so it's not like i would be doing stuff i hate, in which case i wouldn't even consider the careers, but I do consider myself a man of leisure.
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| Message: |
Well - its not really that bad in consulting. Sometimes you spend a period of time/project doing those 100 hour weeks, etc. other times its much more relaxed.
Its hard at first since you have no idea what you are doing. In the end, consulting is results based. Its the output, not the effort. No one really cares about your effort - so in the beginning its painful because it takes more effort when you are completely clueless - no idea about the client, no background in the industry, no experience in the functional area, no experience in that issue, and no idea how consulting actually works.
things improve as time passes. If a project scope is supposed to take 2 months and 3 people but ends up allowing only 6 weeks and 2 people = ouch. but if its really 2 months and 3 people on the project, you will have a nice dinner every night with your team at a great restaurant.
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