Reflections on over 13 years in consulting
After more than 13 years in the consulting industry, particularly in IT consulting, I am soon bidding farewell to a significant chapter of my professional life. During this journey, I’ve had the privilege to work with some of the largest French companies across various sectors, including industry, energy, banking, insurance, fashion, and luxury. This experience has allowed me to meet a diverse array of people from all corners of the globe. As I reflect on these years, it’s time to take stock and share what I have learned.
Consulting has been an incredible training ground, honing my ability to quickly become beneficial to any organization. This adaptability likely stems from the nature of consulting itself, where every six months to a year, I would find myself in a new project, a new context, and with new people. This constant change necessitates a focus on facts and the project at hand, sometimes at the expense of deeper human connections. It’s a way of concentrating solely on what is essential. However, this aspect of consulting can also lead to a certain detachment in professional relationships. Knowing that each engagement is temporary, one might erect barriers to protect oneself, focusing only on the job.
One of the most critical skills I’ve developed is the ability to listen — truly listen. Understanding and absorbing the needs of clients quickly is paramount. It’s an exercise that demands patience and precision, often requiring one to suppress the urge to impose one’s own vision or do more than what is asked. It’s about mastering the basics and thoroughly comprehending the client’s needs, even if that means sticking to the prescribed requirements. While thinking outside the box is valuable, sometimes it’s essential to remain within the given framework to stay relevant.
I am also grateful to consulting for teaching me to learn quickly and adapt to new contexts. This agility is imperative in today’s fast-paced world. Additionally, I’ve learned to distance myself emotionally and not take things personally. In any professional setting, compatibility with colleagues can be hit or miss. I’ve developed an early sense for whether a project will succeed or fail, which is quite amusing and often accurate. From the first few days, I could tell if my professional relationships would flourish or flounder.
Consulting, often criticized as a tough industry driven by financial motives, has its merits. While the emphasis on profit isn’t entirely unfounded, consulting has provided me with a perspective on work that treats it as a means rather than an end. This outlook has allowed me to draw a clear line between my professional and personal life, ensuring a robust boundary that protects my family life.
I also learned the internal role and, more importantly, the management aspect of helping people grow and providing them with the necessary ground for their emancipation. Again, this can be a challenging world because one must learn to manage teams that are also there to learn as quickly as possible, gain maturity, and then move on to other opportunities. This immediacy inherent in consulting is an inexhaustible source of discussion, highly beneficial to companies that may sometimes become complacent. Nevertheless, it is a fertile ground for the pursuit of productivity.
Now, it is time to test something new, potentially with a longer-term vision and a different approach to teamwork, where a shared vision must make sense.
In conclusion, my years in consulting have been immensely rewarding. They’ve equipped me with skills and insights that are invaluable as I transition to the next phase of my career. I owe a great deal of my professional growth to this industry, and for that, I am profoundly thankful.
Take care 🤟
