Originally Posted by
pemberly
Charles River, right? I don't know much about them besides that they're quite techie focused. Basically management consultants tell companies what they're doing wrong and how to do it the right way. Or that should be what they do. They offer an objective (hopefully) external view, and they do things for a company or entity that might not have the expertise/time to do it themselves. A large part of consulting is also to constant look for more projects. You want to always be working. Which reminds me that I have to email someone back. aaarggh.
Most of consulting isn't the fancy stuff you see on tv. Everyone would love to have high level projects, but most are things like government compliance, market analysis, drafting HR policies, sourcing and procurement, etc.
But it's pretty fun. I'm never really doing the same thing over and over again. There's a lot of travel which is cool since I'm young and free. And all the projects I work on are important to someone; like, I feel like someone out there cares that I do a good job, because they're paying for it.
One thing I should note is that brands, degrees, certifications are very important; not because Harvard grads are so awesome. You're selling basically people to companies, and they're more likely to buy when they see fancy words like Stanford MBA, CFA.