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Saturday, November 19, 2005

Consulting...

In Bucharest there has recently been a well-promoted and big-fussed Job fair. You know, that kind of event where 200 companies try to find new employees or at least to enlarge their recruiting database and where young or not-so-young people look for the best-paid and good-opportunity job.

Quite ok, everybody wins, it's a nice event and this things should be done as often as possible.

But...and here comes a big BUT: I was reading today an article about the outcome of the fair, and in the end they summarize the most popular and most offered jobs for young people with no/little working experience. And one of them is ... taaa-daaaam...."Business Consultant" ("Consultant de afaceri" in Romanian).

And it makes me wonder...do these people really know what they are talking about??? I mean, how can you put on the same list and compare a business consultant job with a web designer, a sales representative (we all know what this means in Romania) and even an data center operator.

Where is the fault? Does the company really understand what they want from a business consultant? Do they believe they can train anyone within 1 month in order to do a great job in advicing the client? Or is it just another way of giving a nice name for a job maybe someone will apply for it?

I spent about 2 and a half years doing "consulting", project management and trying to understand the client's needs in a software company. And when I moved to a real management consulting job, I found out that my expertise in the field is quite limited and that this is veeery important. Even more, such a job does not only require experience, but it requires a very analitical thinking, good organizing, good communication skills and so on. And when I say "good", I mean good on a professional scale.

In my job, we are all called consultants, nevermind if it's me or if it's a guy with +20 years of expertise, comming from McKinsey and with a solid MBA behind. But the difference is huge. As in HUGE. Look at how Roland Berger hires its employees...you can't really become a full consultant without several years of solid management consulting expertise.

So, the message is - to both recruiters and candidates -, be careful what you wish for and how you ask for it. You don't want a junior giving advices to your major client. You really don't !

'Cause, as the client says... "I know I'm stupid, there's no doubt about this. But that's why I pay you, to come here and be smart and make me smarter. I can't pay you for being stupid".

Posted by Mihai : 11/19/2005 12:05:00 pm