For my loyal readers out there, I’m giving you $50 OFF the BRAND NEW HOME STUDY VERSION of my training program “New Consultant Boot Camp.” But hurry, sale ends February 10th! Get the details here…

Question: “I despise traveling for work every week and I want to make it stop! My project leadership has informed that as long as the role seems like a good fit, I’m out of luck. What’s the best way to make things happen without burning bridges?”

Do you ever feel like a broken record, doing the same “crap work” over and over again? You wonder how any of it could really matter. It’s easy to lose sight of how the “little stuff” could possibly make an impact. So, here’s a little reminder of how that which seems insignificant can make or break a client engagement.

My sister Laura got married last week. Aside from being a beautiful event, it was also a great lesson in the importance of getting buy-in, and the impact not doing so can have on your budget, your workload and your relationships with your clients and coworkers. Sound like big leap? Hang with me and keep reading.

I was sitting in the tub in an old hotel recently, happily watching the water rise, when something caught my eye. There was a hole in the side of the tub with a large pipe coming out the side and down into the floor. It was an overflow tube, common in many old tubs. This image could not be more apropos for consultants. The water is always rising, but there’s only so much room in the tub. And on the job, there’s endless work to take on, but only so much one person can do in a fixed number of hours in the day. So if you’re drowning in work right now, here are three easy ways to create your own overflow tube and make more room in the tub.

Are you having a rough time on your project? Do you wake up every day scheming how you can get off the team – or even jump ship and leave your firm? If you’re jumping up and down screaming – “THAT’S ME!” – then take a deep breath and keep reading. Here’s how to get out of a bad situation with your good reputation still intact.

Nothing is perfect. Even if you loved your job in the beginning, stress, people, schedules, new challenges, even clients can cause those rose-colored lenses to get scratched. Maybe you’ve got too much work on your plate. Perhaps the travel isn’t “fun” like it used to be. Or, you might be on the brink of breaking through to a new level in your career and the amount of “stretching” you’ve been doing isn’t comfortable. Here’s a quick list of 9 sure-fire signs your subconscious is telling you that something’s gotta give!

If you haven’t had a bad project, you will at some point. Mine came in the summer of 2007 – and it seemed like the end of the world. When this happens to you, how can you make sure these little gems are just a speed bump and not a complete disaster? Here are a few pointers.

Submitted By: Kristine Schoonmaker
In just a one day I’m going to be sharing the 3 questions (and the answers too) that you need to know if you want less stress, better performance, and more free time as a new consultant.
I’m really excited for the call and hope you are too.  If you haven’t already reserved [...]

When you’re trying to break into consulting, there’s a lot of prep that goes into getting past the interview. But, once you land the job, the real fun begins! Have you ever considered the things you need to do — right now — to start building valuable experience, perform well on your projects, and really differentiate yourself as an up and coming star? All you need are the answers to 3 questions…

Consulting firms – and all companies really – look to fill their areas of greatest need when hiring new employees. While your skills, education, experience and interests are important, at the end of the day, they need to fill the seats to meet the demands of their clients and the type of projects they are selling most. So it should be no surprise when someone with a highly analytical mind and an interest in strategy gets aligned to technology, especially for new hires coming right out of college with limited experience. When you find yourself in the wrong spot for you, here are 7 strategies you can implement to help you get a move on inside your firm, rather than quitting and going somewhere else.

Everyone has had those moments: You accidentally send an email to the wrong “Jane,” dial into a client meeting an hour late because you forgot you were in a different time zone, or call your partner by the wrong name. If you’ve been fortunate enough to avoid these little hiccups, don’t laugh just yet. Your time will come. But when it does, don’t panic. You absolutely CAN recover from these embarrassing moments even if they are a little painful. Here’s how to do it.

There are some people that know exactly what they want to do professionally for as far back as they can remember. And then there are the rest of us that are slightly later bloomers in that department. One big reason many pursue a path in consulting early in their career is to get a lot of different experience so they can figure out exactly what they want to do later. There are lots of problems with this approach that lead to frustration and burnout. If you are bold enough to declare your focus early, however, you reap many professional and personal benefits.

Just say the words “expenses” and “time reports” and anyone working in consulting longer than one pay period will cringe! It’s a painful administrative chore that no one can entirely escape. You may be lucky enough to have a single client or project for a while. But, let’s be honest – before long, you’re billing to your client, helping a partner with a proposal on the side, spending time planning your next office meeting and traveling to boot. At the end of the pay period you’re racing against the clock, trying to remember everything you did for the last two weeks, scrounging around your bag for receipts, and getting frustrated with all those pesky reminders popping up in Outlook to remind you you’re late for meeting. Here’s how to quickly organize your activities to save you time, cut out frustration, and make sure you get paid on time.

My better half and I have been in the travel game a long time. In fact in the years we’ve been together, we’ve virtually never been in the same city, together, one-hundred percent of the time. When I was working for Accenture, he had a role in town and I was the one gone all the time. Now that I am running my own company, he’s back on the road and I’m the one that has to say goodbye on Monday and wait impatiently for his Thursday return. Having both been on either side of the equation, we understand each other’s perspective really well. It’s also inspired us to find ways to keep things fun, fresh and strong, in spite of distance.