Job Responsibilities
I do not have ONE job. I have many. This sounds alternately
trite to the recruiters who want to neatly place me in one and
only one box, glib to many FTEs, and confusing to those who've
not trod the individual consulting path.
So let me start by describing my three most recent assignments
to give you an indication of the variety and flexibility that
attracts me to what I'm doing (more on the challenges below).
1. Senior Process Consultant engaged in the review of business
process improvement opportunities for a major Australian
corporate. Completing detailed observational studies of work
functions and departments as well as assisting to compile broad
overview process flows within the organisation at its various
operating sites at four major locations along Australia's east
coast.
2. Senior Technical Advisor engaged to provide technical inputs
for the development and delivery of training programs with a
mining industry client in Indonesia. This involved commuting to
the mine site from Sydney for several months, not to mention
some wonderful weekends in places like Bali.
3. Consultant engaged to provide market intelligence review and
business development recommendations to a mid-sized private
plastic and packaging manufacturer in Sydney.
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Job Requirements
While there is no one set of hiring requirements for an
independant consultant, I will describe my academic background
including the MBA below.
First, however there would be two or three elements that in my
experience would be the most important for embarking on the life
of an indepenant consultant.
1. Substantial work experience tied with an individually broad
or global and "can do" view.
2. Strong networking capability and try never to "burn your
bridges" as you go along, even if you've been unceremoniously
made redundant or think a particular employer was a really nasty
piece of work.
3. an MBA, in conjunction with substantial professional
experience, is very helpful. It is NOT something to brag about
or even feature that prominently in one's resume. But it does
provide a certain positive sort mechanism in some employer
environments. It also provides a handy toolbox of analytical
functions and language that can quickly bring people "onto the
same page". Having said that, there are plenty of intuitively
clever people who do not really need an MBA to complete the same
functions - it just helps.
To complete the academic picture, I have an undergraduate degree
in Science and had completed various other elements of courses
prior to the MBA eg. financial analyis courses and securities
law while I worked for an investment bank. A comment on this. My
investment banking employer wanted me to do some relevant
classes at the Securities Institute of Australia but was
unconcerned whether I completed the formal qualification, a
Graduate Diploma in Financial Analysis. In hindsite, it would
have been better to complete the program at the time as it would
have been a tangible qualification on my resume in the future.
The MBA. I chose the MGSM MBA in Sydney for three main reasons;
firstly was to do with the amount of professional experience in
the student body (an average of at least 8yrs), secondly because
it was one of the most highly regarded MBA programs in
Australia, and thirdly it was possible to complete a full time
MBA in 12 months thereby limiting the amount of time away from
work.
I was not disappointed in the diversity, experience, and
seniority of my fellow classmates. The people that I met during
the program remain the single most valuable element of the MBA
experience.
Academically, the classes covered a breath and variety that
stretched me and showed me into new worlds; from philosophy to
operations research, from competitive intelligence to
microeconomics. I did not suffer any challenges in getting into
the "popular" courses - but then I wasnt aiming to have a
finance dominated MBA. I was most interested in strategy,
marketing, and competitive intelligence.
Grading likewise did not bother me the way I could hear others
complain about it. At least in the first instance, the school's
enrollment and class outline material made it quite clear how
the program would be assessed. To my mind, if this was going to
be a problem, one should probably consider going to another
school with a different grading program. Likewise, many people
complained about the high proportion of group or syndicate work.
Not only was this similarly well published but I think its a
reasonable representation of professional working life today. I
personally found much to enjoy in syndicate projects including
getting to know people one wouldnt necessarily expect eg. the
Chinese woman from China's Foreign Ministry who had left her
young son in China in order to study for one year in Australia
or the the American woman who'd installed software in new hotels
in Khazakstan or the sucessful restaurateur who wanted to do his
PhD in business and philosophy.
I mostly found the Professors at MGSM to be well connected to
the business community as well as respected academics. Many
advise in their areas of expertise whether it be to government
or industry. Their ability to bring in senior executives from
industry to the classes, either to speak or more interestingly,
to assess our efforts, was incredibly stimulating, not to
mention provided a fantastic networking opportunity.
I expected to try and do the FT MBA in 12 months ie. four by ten
week terms, each term separated by a one week break. The start
of the school year was first Monday in January. In theory, one
could take 4 courses per term and complete 16 courses for the
MBA by the end of November the same year. This equates to about
65hrs/week.
Since I also have 2 preschool aged children, I very quickly
realised I couldnt manage that work load. I went back to 3
courses/term and extended my program from 12 to 15 months. I
found that this worked well for me, and that I even got a pretty
good amount of time to really enjoy my classes in a way that
other 4 course/term students found they could not.
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Uppers
Variety, learning, stimulation.
Also, because it is highly projectised AND I often have a few days to a few
weeks between projects, this time is spent at home with my primary (elementary)
school aged children.
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Downers
Uncertainty (the gap between projects can be lenghty), juggling
different assignments and trying to fit them all into one
schedule. Travel can easily go from "just nice" or "just right
amount" to "too much". This can be tiring not to mention, hard
to manage especially finding child care solutions at short
notice.
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Lifestyle
Lifestyle is a mixture of the uppers and downers; the stop-start part can mean a
week or two at home, picking the kids up from school (which they love), doing the
grocery shopping during the week. Work can appear with very little notice. Travel
can easily be too much. Only occassionally have I had to work 18-20hr days on a
project - I hate that and seek NOT to do it as I often think such hours are more
about egotism or laziness on the part of the project manager.
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Compensation
Mostly I'm paid a daily rate in either USD or AUD. On some
projects there is a sucess and/or hardship bonus applicable.
Daily rate range varies from USD400/day to USD650/day.
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Advice to Jobseekers
Maintain, exercise and expand your personal networks. None of my
projects have come via the advertised vacancy market. This
latter point may be at least partly due to the time in the job
cycle - during the last major downturn.
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