I worked in Management Consulting at 2 top Big-4 Consulting firms and worked more late nights than I can count!

Don’t get me wrong! Pivoting to a career in Consulting after my MBA was the best decision I made. But while Consulting is a very rewarding career in terms of how much you learn, grow and network, it is also a VERY demanding one.

Let me highlight WHY consultants in top Consulting firms have to work long hours and late nights in the first place:

1.) It’s the Culture

As soon as you join a top Consulting firm, the carrot of “making Partner” is dangled in front of you (metaphorically of course!). Everything that you do is then guided by the key question - “Will this help me get more sales/ more clients/ a better network? ” In short, will this get me closer to Partner level and eventually, at Partner level.

People who join Consulting are typically ambitious, competitive, driven, mostly Type A, and hence the culture is pretty much “race to the top”. In this environment, optics really matter and if you’re the single person leaving work at 5 pm, it is automatically perceived that you don’t put in the work.

2.) Partners oversell / over-commit

This happens WAY too often and is mostly unavoidable. At some point in your career ( and it’s happened WAY more than I liked in mine!) you’ll end up working with a Partner / Managing Director who will promise the moon to your client, i.e. sell the work and ask you to deliver 8 weeks worth of work in 4.

The best way to get out of this dilemma? Try and get involved with potential projects right from the proposal/sales phase when your firm is still pitching work to the client. This way, when you win the project, you will be involved in drafting the Statement of Work that defines the exact deliverables and scope of the project to be delivered.

3.) Scope creep

Even when you can avoid the over-sell dilemma, there is a nasty thing called scope creep that can ruin the best laid out Statement of Work (a.k.a. the SOW). This is a situation when your client starts asking for more and more work that was not defined as part of the strategy/analysis/ operating model work that your team agreed to deliver in the SOW.

I have worked with clients who thought it perfectly reasonable to call and discuss work at 11:30 pm, kept daily meetings, and asked for a completely new analysis every day, rubbished great quality analysis, etc. etc. The only way to avoid this is to set your boundaries with the client and put on paper/email the progress your team makes versus the milestones defined in the SOW.

4.) Delays in getting inputs from clients

Picture this….you have a well laid out project plan to deliver all your milestones by a certain date. You have enough time to analyze all inputs and prepare your strategy. And then….you get NO inputs from the client teams! “They’re too busy with day-to-day BAU activities” “They don’t have to prioritize your project”

All you can do at this point is to document all email trails and escalate to your project sponsor when it takes more than a week to get inputs. Do this early on in the project or else it’ll look like you’re the one who’s been twiddling their thumbs all along.

5.) Lack of proper relationship management

Consulting is full of big personalities and when personalities get bigger than the higher goal (of successfully completing a project), projects break. This happens usually when a team member clashes with another team member or even a client. The only way to get past this is to keep calm and carry on! Tomorrow’s another day.

6.) Sell sell sell! proposals/sales

The harsh fact is that success in Consulting is all about meeting your numbers and targets. It starts at a BA level and doesn’t stop even at Senior Partner levels. And the primary driver for your metrics is how much revenue or sales have you generated.

Yep…..if you want to succeed, you’ve gotta bring in the moolah. It is considered absolutely fair to ask a Consultant in a top Consulting firm to work on a sales proposal for hours into the night after putting in a 12–14-hour workday at the client. There’s no getting around this one, unfortunately, unless you choose to stay at the same level.

7.) Firm initiatives

This is another deadly time sucker. Firm initiatives are usually internal projects that develop talent and people, eminence (white papers and publications) in the market, tools built in-house that the firm can take to market, recruitment efforts, etc. Basically, these are all the contributions you make to the development of the firm’s people, culture, reputation, and eventually sales.

Top Consulting firms expect their people to go “above and beyond” and in fact, this is an actual question at year-end reviews. “Yes, she/he saved the world but did he/she go above and beyond in serving our firm/clients/people?” True story.

Nobody will say this out loud, but the bottom line is you will never get promoted unless you work on a firm initiative.

There is no escaping the demands of Consulting, especially if you want to make Partner. Here are a few tips on staying balanced and healthy:

1.) Eat right

It's so easy to reach for comfort food when you’re panicked about that deadline….especially for us stress-eaters. This is why a LOT of Consultants are overweight. And it creeps up on you. With the travel and late nights at work and events, very soon its another 5–10–15 pounds.

Be careful about what you put in your body. Many consultants turn to medication/ drugs to help cope with the pressure. Not only will that harm your health and sanity, it will also show up on drug tests that some clients mandate before consultants join their teams!

2.) Working out

A lot of people struggle with this and it can be difficult to maintain a workout schedule with the demanding timelines of Consulting and travel to top it all. What works for a lot of people is to get their workout done first thing in the morning.

I’m a germophobe but if it’s ok by you, try gear that you can borrow for the duration of your stay at certain hotels. Beats carrying bulky running shoes in your carry-on any day.

3.) Meditation/ mindfulness

This made a tremendous difference in my stress levels, even after having 2 kids and still working in full-time consulting as one of the key leaders in Finance. Just 15 minutes a day made me more zen to the point people started asking me what I was doing to stay so balanced!

In fact, many Consulting firms encourage meditation, yoga, and hold such sessions on the Fridays that people are expected to be in the local offices.

4.) Stay positive and optimistic

Take time out to keep yourself happy - whether it is spending time with loved ones, taking up a hobby or playing with your pet.

Consultants live a very fast-paced life constantly meeting deadlines, traveling, and keeping clients / Partners happy. This can affect their psychology in the long run, and in fact consulting firms have now started investing in mental health tools and coaches to support their people.

Do you have more tips on surviving the late nights in Consulting projects? Share below or write to me at punya@byondgood.com

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