leaving Consulting

Well, I did it. I left consulting after seven years in the industry. I received an offer I could not pass up to lead the organizational development and learning function of a high growth start-up.

Leaving consulting was really hard. Even harder than I would have expected given the current economic climate and COVID-19 pandemic. I had reservations about leaving. It was a hard decision to give up what I knew for the unknown. It's been about 2 months since I left consulting and I can honestly say I haven't looked back. I feel relieved to have left the client services industry. If you find yourself stuck in the consulting space, I recommend making the jump to industry. Consulting will always be there and the lessons learned acquired in industry will make you a better consultant in the long run.

Why I choose to leave consulting:

1. Better Work/Life Balance. It is no secret that consultants work long hours. The hours are often unpredictable depending on the demands of the client. Your life is really predicated on where your client is and how far you need to travel. When you work in consulting, the client is your life Monday through Friday. It can be hard to have a life outside of the work week because the "client comes first." I had several travel projects that took a lot out of me. I jumped on a plane Monday morning and returned home late Thursday night. It took a toll on my relationship and personal health. After awhile I got sick of staying up late in a conference room with fellow consultants working on a last minute deliverable for a demanding client.

2. The Pressure. There was an overwhelming sense of pressure. I didn't quite realize it until after I had left professional services. There was an underlying feeling of having to fulfill the needs of the client no matter what. As a type-A personality, I always felt I needed to go above and beyond for the client. This feeling stayed with me all the time, even when I wasn't working. Consulting is a high pressure job. I firmly believe you should only stay in that industry for a few years. It's a great way to build skills but after awhile you can get stuck in consulting because your skillset is untransferable to non-consulting roles. The higher you go, the more sales focus your role becomes. The pressure just isn't worth it in the long run.

3. Boring Projects. I worked for a large multi-national consulting firm with over 400,000 plus employees. The organization's bread and butter is IT integration. The majority of projects included implementing a new system into a company. The first couple of projects were cool. However, after awhile I got tired of working on IT integration projects. When you work for a huge company, sometimes your interests get triumphed over the needs of the client. I decided to take my future in my own hands and pursue a job and project that I enjoyed everyday.

4. Tough place as an experienced hire. I'm a firm believer that joining some consulting firms as an experienced hire is incredibly difficult. Many of these large consulting firms hire individuals directly out of undergraduate programs. They grow up in the firm, bred to make Partner if they are good, and there are various resources in place for them. As an experienced hire, it is much more difficult to break in to the ranks. There are pre-established relationships, networks, and cliques that you have to break into. As an experienced hire I constantly felt like I had to prove myself. This got really old after awhile and I missed working with people from various backgrounds, professions, and life experiences.

5. Lack of Leadership. There were a handful of occasions that I was appalled by the behavior of senior leaders at the organization. I would often hear snarky remarks or passive aggressive tendencies towards myself or others. I remember during my first week, I overheard the senior leaders on my project talking judgmentally about a new person on the team. If they were talking openly about her, I wonder what they said about me behind closed doors. I had one or two really great leaders that I truly looked up too. However, at the end of the day I did not feel like the majority of the managers had formal leadership experience. Some managers used aggressive tactics to get what they wanted out of their team. This created an environment of downright hostility. Sometimes it felt worse than the military. I pushed back a few times and this seemed to help put managers in check.

6. Not Sure if the Best and Brightest Stay. Attrition is incredibly high at large consulting firms. People come and go after a few years. It is the norm and the model. They know that most people will not stay very long due to the long hours, travel, and demanding workload. Whenever someone left, I'd often say to myself, "there goes one of the good ones." I'd look around and see senior consultants and wonder if they are just here because it is all they know or if it is because they actually like the job. It seemed like the best and brightest always left the firm.

7. The B.S. Putting a smile on everyday. Saying yes to everything that the client asks and demands. Staying up all night to create a powerpoint deck with precision alignment and icons. Nodding your head during long meetings. These were a few of the things I got really sick of during my time in consulting. Sure, I never let anyone know how I truly felt but the job made me feel like I had to put on a front. I got tired of the B.S. Sucking up to clients and superiors was exhausting. I knew that when I started caring less about what people thought, it was time to leave. In consulting, the minute you challenge the status quo, the minute they will replace you with somebody who will abide.

8. Choosing My Own Destiny. Lastly, in consulting, you don't have a lot of options about where you want to take your future. A lot of it comes down to luck and the relationships that you build internally and externally. I could control my performance on the job but there are a lot intangibles that can prevent you from rising the ranks. My future was in the hands of others. It felt like working for a big gang. I grew tired of having my future unknown and controlled by people who "grew up in the firm."

Since leaving consulting, my quality of life has greatly improved. I make nearly the same amount of money and work about half as much. My new gig is for an all-remote organization that is on an amazing trajectory. I can get as much done in 8 hours in this new job that would have taken me 40 in consulting. There are less distractions, less hierarchy, less bureaucracy, and less B.S. I am doing a role that is a great fit for me professionally. I know that I am making a difference at the organization. I also know that the skills I am developing in the start-up world will one day help me start my own company.

If you are in consulting and are growing tired of it, consider looking for new opportunities after you've done a few years. There is so much out there for former consultants. Your skill-set is in high demand!