The interview answer

Every consulting candidate prepares for this question because it is asked in every interview.

It might be “why do YOU want to be a consultant?” ̶   a question about capability, i.e. “What do you have to offer that makes you better than the fifty other candidates I’m interviewing.

It might be asked with the emphasis on consultant, which is about how you see the role and why you fit.

It might be asked with the emphasis on the why, which is a straightforward question about why you chose the career path.

Candidates would do well to practice the answers to these questions. They are asked early in the interview, and are often a turnstile question; either you have the right answer, and pass through, or you don’t and are shunted toward the exit.

The right answers usually have something to do with client focus, business improvement, and an affinity for solving tough problems.

The wrong answers include the honest ones like “I have to pay off student debt,” “It’s prestigious,” or “It’s the fast-track to senior management.” Also wrong are any clichés like “inquiring mind,” “natural team player,” or “fascination with business.” Trust me; I tried all of these without success before I wised up and got hired.

You should play to what is unique or unusual about you and your career so far. For example, I started out hiding my theatre degree, and nine years as a booking agent for celebrity speakers in post business school interviews because, I thought it was too weird. I learned that talking about what I learned there, (“not to be intimidated by the powerful, but able to listen for subtleties in the requested help”) made me stand out from the field.

But really, Why?

Moving away from the interview answer, really ask yourself “why?” Yes, consulting has high starting salaries, and that will help pay down student loans, but you’ll work sixty hour weeks for it. The bragging rights, “I got an offer from McKrazee,” only lasts three weeks into the summer, after which your pub time and energy are too severely limited to brag.

In the beginning of my consulting career, I did lots of research with a cadre of recent business grads. It had its moments of shared pain, battlefield humor and the shared accomplishment of meeting a ridiculous work volume on a short deadline. These days work volumes are higher, deadlines shorter and there are fewer people to share the accomplishment with, because AI Agents share the work.

So why? Why would anyone choose consulting as a career?

I went to business school to change careers. I thought I had risen as high as I could as a booking agent. I was wrong. Peers who stayed in the field rose to personal managers of famous people, and probably earned more money over their lifetimes. Longevity in many careers pays off.

I chose to be a consultant because my brother-in-law, changed careers from teacher to consultant, as did a booking agent I knew. I decided on consulting for many of the wrong reasons described above, money, prestige, etc. I was fascinated by business, and was told I was a good problem solver. I was never afraid of hard work, and was all to willing to trade off family time for work, and have the divorce to prove it.

My reasons  ̶  in retrospect

I stayed a consultant for almost forty years, and now nine years into retirement, I still write about the field. Here are some of the reasons:

• The perpetual learning curve. Consulting forced me to learn about new companies, new industries, new ways to solve problems, to innovate, improve, and integrate disparate viewpoints. Consulting can be boring, if you just implement the same methodology over and over, and try anything new. My career was the opposite, very stimulating. I helped people change.

• The people. Consultants are smart, problem-solving oriented, and interesting people. They have to be. They spend a lot of time away from friends and neighbors, with a small group of like-minded souls, or, in many cases, alone. The good ones follow their interests, read, investigate life when they are not investigating client problems.

• Clients are interesting people too ̶  they are in a difficult situation. Something isn’t working and they ask for help fixing it. This doesn’t mean they are incompetent, and consultants who think that don’t last long. Helping requires understanding what clients are good at, and teaching them competencies to improve.

• The challenge  ̶   Consulting by definition works on tough problems. After all the clients wouldn’t ask for help if they could solve the problem themselves. Of course, sometimes the toughness of the problem has to do with internal differences of opinion. Resolving those may require new data, insight, or other forms of conflict resolution. Or it may involve help moving from insight to actions and results, in other words, making change.

• Getting results, not owning them ̶  Clients own the business and the results. Consultants don’t get credit. This is a tough one for many consultants. You have to want to improve business, seek innovative solutions, make an acquisition succeed, but recognize that the work going forward is completely out of your hands. Some consultants (including me at various times), struggle with this. They take the credit and undermine the client or make him or her dependent on you for the next project. That might be good for the consultant in the short term, but a disaster for the client. My best project relationships ended with heartfelt thanks and a handshake, but they ended.

So what about your Why?

Are you looking for consulting as a career change? Or a new challenge? Or because a consulting firm is a good place to be from, some kind of resumé signal that you are a smart problem solver.

Are you looking to capitalize on what you learned in one career and test application across different industries?

Is there something about consulting that includes helping others excel? I came to view consulting as a helping profession like teaching or medicine. I learned not to bring this up in an interview because it was a pretty radical idea then, (“Helping profession? What? You mean like a therapist or social worker?”). I did talk about service, and a laser-like focus on solving the client’s problem, which was received more positively.

Is there something about change? It took me far too long to understand that consulting is always about someone doing more of something, less of something or something differently. When I started out change was a scary word. It may still be for some.

The business world changed quite substantially during my time in the field.  I think the changes on the horizon will dwarf what I experienced. Being at the forefront of change is a challenge, but it’s also exciting, and requires continuous learning and growth.

Are you interested? Ready? So you want to be a consultant?

Why?

Featured Image Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash

I write books for the exception to the rule: “The young won’t listen and the older don’t read.”