Hey there, peoples. I’ve got a doozie of an email that I’m responding to in this entry and I had to be really careful about how to address it because the reader is in a bind. In short, she started off at a well-known consulting firm and was counselled out after her first assignment. She’s asking for advice on some specific questions and I’ve answered them, but I was even more thoughtful about this response than I’d normally be because of the sensitive nature of her situation. Also, I should tell y’all that my response below actually my second reply to her, the first one was about four sentences long and I promised her that I’d follow up with a more thought-out response. I don’t know if I nailed this response in the manner that she needed, but I hope I did…
———-
JS wrote:
“Hi Marquis,
I chanced upon your blog and find it a great career resource for those seeking a consulting job. I hope you can give me some insight into this issue:
I am working at a well-known financial services consulting (lots of risk mgt + some strategy work) firm. The issue is that I screwed up on my first assignment and that led to me being out counselled
. The company just gave me 1 months’ notice and it seems that I gotta get a job before the end of the month. In totally I’d have been with this company for only a couple of months and this is my first real job. The company was nice about it and asked me to submit a resignation so I would officially have resigned instead of being fired.
The questions I hope you can help me with are:
1. If I apply to other strategy consulting firms, would they have suspected that I got fired? Is my resume likely to be thrown out without me being able to explain my situation?
2. I suspect it might take me more than a month to find a new job. Meanwhile, I have a government (public policy related) job waiting for me that I am thinking of taking up now because I dread a gap in my resume. Would the government job hinder my chances of landing a consulting job?
3. I am thinking of applying to Accenture strategy consulting. How much of the consulting work there is actually strategy? And what do you think is special about Accenture vs other consulting firms (other than the tech focus)?
Thank you so much for your advice!
JS”
———-
My response:
JS,
Let me start by apologizing for taking a while to follow-up on my last email to you…things have been really busy lately, but I have been thinking through your situation since I got your initial email. I’ve got to admit that this is a first for me because I’ve never had a reader come to me with a situation like yours, so my response might not be perfect, but I’m going to lay out a way for you to think through your situation. Just know that things like this happen to people all the time and isn’t representative of your intellect, capabilities, or quality as a professional. It’s just a stumbling block that needs to be dealt with in a productive way to keep it from being a major factor in your career going forward.
OK, let’s get to your questions:
1. “If I apply to other strategy consulting firms, would they have suspected that I got fired? Is my resume likely to be thrown out without me being able to explain my situation?” –> This is a difficult question for me to answer because I’ve never been a recruiter at any of the consulting firms. It would look a little strange that you’d be looking for a spot at a new firm after less than a year at your former firm and anyone screening your resume would have several questions. With so many people applying to consulting firms nowadays (especially since the US economy has gone haywire), I’d guess that the folks screening resumes might pass over yours because of your lack of other work experience. Once you’ve got some more work experience on your resume, your short tenure at your first company probably won’t be a big deal, but an early departure at this point in your career isn’t exactly a good look. If you want to move back into consulting at some point, it might make sense to do something else for a year or so (or maybe wait until after B-school) before applying to the strategy consulting firms.
2. “I suspect it might take me more than a month to find a new job. Meanwhile, I have a government (public policy related) job waiting for me that I am thinking of taking up now because I dread a gap in my resume. Would the government job hinder my chances of landing a consulting job?” –> By now, you’ve probably made your decision to take the public policy job and, if so, I am a big fan of this move. With you being so early in your career, you shouldn’t allow large gaps to form in your work experience and this job would let you jump right back into the working world. I know of some people who have come back from having work experience gaps, but several of those had a difficult time getting past the questions that recruiters raise when reviewing their applications. As for your chances of getting a consulting job, I don’t believe the government job would negatively impact your candidacy for a consulting gig later on. I know several folks who have gone directly from non-business positions directly into strategy consulting firms and each of them were able to frame their previous experiences to make themselves attractive to consulting recruiters. Plus, if you go to graduate school before applying, you’ll be in a great position to be considered by the firms because your graduate degree AND your prior work experience will serve as the foundation of your candidacy, rather than your previous work experience on its own. Again, take what I’ve said here with a grain of salt because I’ve never been a recruiter at any of the firms, but, as far as I see it, you should be fine for getting back into the consulting industry later on if you take that gov’t job.
3. “I am thinking of applying to Accenture strategy consulting. How much of the consulting work there is actually strategy? And what do you think is special about Accenture vs other consulting firms (other than the tech focus)?” –> This is an intersting question that I don’t think anyone has ever asked me before. Before I start, I’ve got to let you know that I only spent 10 weeks in Accenture’s Strategy group during my summer internship, so I’m far from an expert on what differentiates them from the other strategy consulting firms. With that said, I’d say that the work done there is basically the same kind of strategy work that is done by the other strategy shops like McK, BCG, Bain, and Booz Allen, so I wouldn’t say that it has a “tech focus”. They have several industry areas of focus, including Consumer Products, Communications and High Tech, and Financial Services, so, despite Accenture’s overall reputation for Technology, the Strategy division does work in several other industries. One thing that makes it different is that there’s a HUGE part of Accenture overall that does IT consulting work, so the Strategy group could serve as a natural lead-in for the Technology group to come in afterward and do any needed technical implementations. This could offer an exciting opportunity for consultants who would like to see things go from end-to-end by starting off with the up-front strategy work and then stay on through while the technology solution that supports that strategy gets put in place. Is this the sort of thing you were getting at with your question???
That’s about all I have for you except to say that I am so sorry that circumstances turned out this way with your first job. I encourage you to keep your head up and know that stumbling out the block in a job doesn’t doom your career forever. Now is the time to think strategically about how to proceed and I’ve got my fingers crossed for you as you move forward from this. I hope it all works out for you and feel free to follow-up with me if you’ve got additional questions. Take care.
-Marquis
———-
JS wrote:
“Hi Marquis,
I chanced upon your blog and find it a great career resource for those seeking a consulting job. I hope you can give me some insight into this issue:
I am working at a well-known financial services consulting (lots of risk mgt + some strategy work) firm. The issue is that I screwed up on my first assignment and that led to me being out counselled
. The company just gave me 1 months’ notice and it seems that I gotta get a job before the end of the month. In totally I’d have been with this company for only a couple of months and this is my first real job. The company was nice about it and asked me to submit a resignation so I would officially have resigned instead of being fired.The questions I hope you can help me with are:
1. If I apply to other strategy consulting firms, would they have suspected that I got fired? Is my resume likely to be thrown out without me being able to explain my situation?
2. I suspect it might take me more than a month to find a new job. Meanwhile, I have a government (public policy related) job waiting for me that I am thinking of taking up now because I dread a gap in my resume. Would the government job hinder my chances of landing a consulting job?
3. I am thinking of applying to Accenture strategy consulting. How much of the consulting work there is actually strategy? And what do you think is special about Accenture vs other consulting firms (other than the tech focus)?
Thank you so much for your advice!
JS”
———-
My response:
JS,
Let me start by apologizing for taking a while to follow-up on my last email to you…things have been really busy lately, but I have been thinking through your situation since I got your initial email. I’ve got to admit that this is a first for me because I’ve never had a reader come to me with a situation like yours, so my response might not be perfect, but I’m going to lay out a way for you to think through your situation. Just know that things like this happen to people all the time and isn’t representative of your intellect, capabilities, or quality as a professional. It’s just a stumbling block that needs to be dealt with in a productive way to keep it from being a major factor in your career going forward.
OK, let’s get to your questions:
1. “If I apply to other strategy consulting firms, would they have suspected that I got fired? Is my resume likely to be thrown out without me being able to explain my situation?” –> This is a difficult question for me to answer because I’ve never been a recruiter at any of the consulting firms. It would look a little strange that you’d be looking for a spot at a new firm after less than a year at your former firm and anyone screening your resume would have several questions. With so many people applying to consulting firms nowadays (especially since the US economy has gone haywire), I’d guess that the folks screening resumes might pass over yours because of your lack of other work experience. Once you’ve got some more work experience on your resume, your short tenure at your first company probably won’t be a big deal, but an early departure at this point in your career isn’t exactly a good look. If you want to move back into consulting at some point, it might make sense to do something else for a year or so (or maybe wait until after B-school) before applying to the strategy consulting firms.
2. “I suspect it might take me more than a month to find a new job. Meanwhile, I have a government (public policy related) job waiting for me that I am thinking of taking up now because I dread a gap in my resume. Would the government job hinder my chances of landing a consulting job?” –> By now, you’ve probably made your decision to take the public policy job and, if so, I am a big fan of this move. With you being so early in your career, you shouldn’t allow large gaps to form in your work experience and this job would let you jump right back into the working world. I know of some people who have come back from having work experience gaps, but several of those had a difficult time getting past the questions that recruiters raise when reviewing their applications. As for your chances of getting a consulting job, I don’t believe the government job would negatively impact your candidacy for a consulting gig later on. I know several folks who have gone directly from non-business positions directly into strategy consulting firms and each of them were able to frame their previous experiences to make themselves attractive to consulting recruiters. Plus, if you go to graduate school before applying, you’ll be in a great position to be considered by the firms because your graduate degree AND your prior work experience will serve as the foundation of your candidacy, rather than your previous work experience on its own. Again, take what I’ve said here with a grain of salt because I’ve never been a recruiter at any of the firms, but, as far as I see it, you should be fine for getting back into the consulting industry later on if you take that gov’t job.
3. “I am thinking of applying to Accenture strategy consulting. How much of the consulting work there is actually strategy? And what do you think is special about Accenture vs other consulting firms (other than the tech focus)?” –> This is an intersting question that I don’t think anyone has ever asked me before. Before I start, I’ve got to let you know that I only spent 10 weeks in Accenture’s Strategy group during my summer internship, so I’m far from an expert on what differentiates them from the other strategy consulting firms. With that said, I’d say that the work done there is basically the same kind of strategy work that is done by the other strategy shops like McK, BCG, Bain, and Booz Allen, so I wouldn’t say that it has a “tech focus”. They have several industry areas of focus, including Consumer Products, Communications and High Tech, and Financial Services, so, despite Accenture’s overall reputation for Technology, the Strategy division does work in several other industries. One thing that makes it different is that there’s a HUGE part of Accenture overall that does IT consulting work, so the Strategy group could serve as a natural lead-in for the Technology group to come in afterward and do any needed technical implementations. This could offer an exciting opportunity for consultants who would like to see things go from end-to-end by starting off with the up-front strategy work and then stay on through while the technology solution that supports that strategy gets put in place. Is this the sort of thing you were getting at with your question???
That’s about all I have for you except to say that I am so sorry that circumstances turned out this way with your first job. I encourage you to keep your head up and know that stumbling out the block in a job doesn’t doom your career forever. Now is the time to think strategically about how to proceed and I’ve got my fingers crossed for you as you move forward from this. I hope it all works out for you and feel free to follow-up with me if you’ve got additional questions. Take care.
-Marquis
