Some perks that I am enjoying….

1. Office (temporary) in a five star hotel
2. My desk is next to the Frech Window which overlooks the Arabian Sea and of course the (in)famous bandstand. While the sea waves keep hitting the rocks quite monotonously, there is quite a variety behind the rocks themselves.
3. Go home for lunch
4. Get to see Bollywood celebrities, at least one a day
5. Free-to-use gym (yet to use)

Travel will be limited till we hit the projects (some of us who joined are already on projects). As we are a start up, working mostly on business development -Researching (trying to pull out relevant and credible info), learning to make PPTs (quite tough), and writing proposals are somethings which I am working on good part of my time. Patience, not abundant with me, is a quintessential attribute needed to do all of the above things. Getting there………..

Being good with a tool that can help analyze data, and being good at making PPT slides are two qualities which a consultant cannot afford not to have. But these two are just tools. These matter at the micro-level.

Being able to make smart assumptions and build hypotheses which are verifiable through data and being able to convey the message/findings through the PPT slides are more important attributes.

At the top of the pyramid will be the ability to understand business issues at macrolevel, relate to people and understand what they want. It need not be just the client. It can be team mates, boss, anyone in the form, or any other person who supports our work.

What out of these aspects of work one needs / uses most depends on which level one is at.
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Given that our firm is a start up in India, we get to do a lot more things than just being a newly hired consultant. There are a lot of opportunities to learn things which will be with us for a long time.

Everyone in the firm believes in keeping the weekend free to be with the family. That is quite a thing. When you know that you will have to time to be family, it gets quite easy to stretch during week days. Of course, it is even easier when the work is enjoyable………

It has been a long gap. It is too early to write about what it feels to be a management consultant. We have been undergoing training, which feels like ISB-extension. A few partners have flown in from far away places to train us. The entire org is quite enthu about the new hires and the new office in India. So much so that the global CEO is expected to be in India this month end to spend good amount of time with each of us. I more or less know what I am going to do for the next one or two months. The work is going to be exciting, no doubt. I await all the new things and the unpredictability that a consultant’s life will bring along.

Mumbai has been both kind and unkind. Kind because I dont have to navigate through the roads of Mumbai. My office and house are separated by about 4 minutes. Unkind because the weather has been heavy resulting in my catching cold and a little bit of fever.

But then that is how life is………….

PS: Hope to be regular now that I have internet at home too.