Throughout the consulting career recruiting process, I found it memorable that in both informal conversations and formal presentations, the issue of personal life management did occur as a poignant topic of conversation. The unifying message that was put forward was that the consulting lifestyle can easily strain any relationship if it wasn’t properly managed. I vividly remember one consultant telling me how a long-term romantic relationship fell apart because there was insufficient attention paid to the personal front. I always found it interesting that I seldom heard any of my graduate school peers reflect on how they would adjust to managing their personal life upon entering consulting. Those that did were nearly all parents or were expecting a child.
I fully understand that the demands of a consulting career, especially in the first year or so, requires some personal sacrifices in order to succeed professionally. However, I do not want my consulting career to wreck the cherished relationships I have spent years and decades building with loved ones and friends. I know it is possible to establish a healthier balance because I have encountered many a seasoned consultant who has maintained a robust personal life, albeit with sacrifices. Taking advice and queues from them, like any good budding consultant, I have broken down the problem and developed a personal plan. I want to share four tips I learnt during this process to help you adopt your own measures for managing your personal life after accepting that offer.
1. Communicate the Unpredictability of Consulting
It has been made clear to me that the key personal life challenge of a consulting career is that of unpredictability. Between greatly varying project needs and additional duties, some workdays can unexpectedly stretch to 18-hours while a rare 8 hour day can sneak in from nowhere. Sometimes a consultant can plan their days and week, but often it is just impossible. Many people struggle to grasp this type of work reality posed by a consulting career. I seek to get ahead of it by actively communicating to those in my personal life the reality of this unpredictability in order to manage expectations. It is also important to help others visualize what this means. For me, this means regular social occasions I previously have been active in like bar trivia or weekday intramural sports will likely be on pause for a while. When I do seek to socialize, it might take place at awkward hours (i.e. dinner at 9PM) and on shorter notice.
2. Ask for Continued Support and Seek Understanding for Changes
I don’t want the important people in my life to feel abandoned or devalued because of the strains of consulting. For one thing, it has been explained to me that loved ones and friends become even more valuable during the rigors of consulting. Hence, I seek to proactively let people know that their continued support means a lot to me, and I appreciate their patience as I embark on my consulting journey.
3. Have Necessary Conversations Early On
There are a few people in my personal life that I know I should talk to to ensure that our relationships stay strong during my transition into consulting. One of those conversations will be about how we come up with a communication strategy given the strains of consulting travel and long work hours. She just naturally hates talking on the phone and prefers meeting up in person, so we will have to work out a solution. Another one of those conversations will be about the need to plan major personal life activities (trips, events, etc.) more regularly and further in advance. That can be hard for someone that doesn’t like long range social life planning. I am approaching all of these conversations as a process with the aim of finding mutually workable solutions, and definitely not as an ultimatum where I bluntly pressure people to adjust to me or else.
4. Identify Top Personal Life Priorities
I have also been informed that consulting firms generally make an effort to accommodate their consultants’ personal lives where possible. The most interesting arrangement I ever heard of is how one consultant got off work earlier on Fridays in order to go out on dates. Another common situation I hear about are consultants who face unexpected distressed family situations who are able to make special arrangements with the team to be closer to home. I plan to prioritize family events (i.e. Christmas) and weddings and emphasize that these are my top personal life priorities that I seek for my team to work with me on.
Ultimately, I’m thrilled to begin my consulting adventure and will dive in full throttle. However, I perform best when I know I have solid relationships with loved ones and friends. As a result, I view proactively conducting personal life management as both essential for ensuring work performance and necessary for maintaining a healthy social life. I’m sure that is true for many other future consultants as well.
Hall Wang is a dual degree MBA and Master of Public Policy graduate from Georgetown University who will be matriculating into a major management consulting firm in the fall. He has worked at America’s most innovative companies including Blue Origin and Facebook, as well as having done two combat deployments as a US Army Officer.
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