What does a consultant actually DO?? 12

[Fasteddie82]

OK, so I’m in the process of searching for a new job. I have a BS in Aerospace Engineering, and 5 years of experience as an engineer.

I know that the Big Four consulting firms hire engineers as consultants. After searching their job listings, I found one that looked interesting. The Job title and Responsibilities are posted below.

I’ve read the responsibilities part several times, and I still can’t make much out of it. There’s lots of nebulous duties like “serve as a resource” and “provide working level knowledge.” But what does a consultant actually do on a day to day basis?



Job Title: Associate/Sr. Associate, Risk Management, Aerospace & Defense

Responsibilities::
• Provide working-level knowledge within A&D and highly engineered manufacturing operations and/or supply chain functions; demonstrate experience in executing process and strategy improvement; provide value to clients by assisting with process transformation, improved operational performance, and organizational realignment
• Serve as a resource and key team member in client projects, and support progress against project milestones to help ensure timely delivery of project deliverables
• Demonstrate solid written and oral communication skills, such as status reporting, briefings, and one-on-one interfacing across multiple-level and cross-functional client representatives
• Contribute to the development and publication of thought leadership solution offerings
• Assist leadership in the creation of proposals, other business development activities, and practice administration

 

[SylvestreW]

Consulting -
If you aren't part of the solution, there's good money to be made in prolonging the problem.

"If Hamilton Sundstrand can't slove their problem, then I don't think and outside consulting firm would be able to.
Is that what the issue is? Is Management Consulting just some big sham that consulting firms sell to clueless company CEOs?"

YES. Most manager, when told the problem can't be fixed, are convinced that hiring expensive consultants will solve the problem.
And of course, consultants are more than happy to be paid to try to solve it.

If you want to know the real dish with those jobs, read

http://www.gettingdrunkinfirstclass.com/

 

[HgTX]

Often consultants are simply outsourced versions of various positions that used to be done in-house.

Hg

Eng-Tips policies: faq731-376

 

[SWComposites]

Mike Halloran beat me to the response I was going to post, and said it even better than I could. There is a BIG difference between the big management consulting firms and individual (or small company) consultants. The latter typically specialize in a technical area and can provide real value. The former are typically hired by management when said management has no clue what to do and/or want to implement something painful (like downsizing) but don't want to be blamed for it. To succeed in a big consultancy you need to be able to spew management BS with a straight face all while sounding impressive and that you know what you are talking about (hense the need for a dark suit, wing tips, etc.). From experience, any engineer in a company where "consultants" the big companies like KMPG are brought in quickly learns to detest and avoid them. If your goal is to go over to the dark side (management) and never return to real engineering, then working for a big consultancy might make sense. But don't expect any of your engineering peer to ever respect you.
Cheers,
Steve

 

[MikeHalloran]

Since you asked, Fast, I won't hold back so much. ;-)

You may already be overqualified. Consultancies like to indoctrinate young people before they are capable of understanding what a crock the company line actually is.

They don't even bother to customize 'solutions' for a specific customer (they do _charge_ as if it were custom work); they just keep recycling the same stuff, and train successive generations of fresh faces to sell it as if it's the greatest thing since canned beer. If they hire you with essentially no experience, you can do a better job selling, because you won't know any better.

With five years experience, if you have been paying any attention at all, you will spend a lot of time swallowing your tonque while attempting to recite the script with a straight face while feigning enthusiasm. If you can do it, you could probably do well as a thespian.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[DaveVikingPE]

I've learned to "protect" myself from consultants by first of all writing down what it is I need/expect/want/etc. from them. Yeah, they'll ask you what time it is and then bill you for it - so don't tell them what time it is. Instead, tell them that you're paying them to know what time it is.

If you give them a sample of something and they simply put their own cover sheet on it and charge you for the entire product... be sure that your contract with them doesn't allow that to happen.

 

[rbulsara]

If don't trust your consultants (be it engineers, lawyers, doctors or whosoever) do not hire them!!

To have the mentality that the consultants are there to get you, is self-destructive mentality and even inferiority complex. The very fact that you are in need to hire a consultant, you must be ready to pay for it, even if all it is "what time it is", because you obviosuly fail to accomplish that task on you own.

It is true , that as in all profession some are better than others. You need to do your own deligence to pick the right one and in the end you do get what you pay for.

 

[rbulsara]

To answer OP:

Consultants offer solutions to their clients’ issues; it's as simple as that.

If you think you have the expertise to solve others' issues, you are qualified. Successful consultants are knowledgeable and confident enough to make decisions/recommendations on their own and standby it, and not pass the buck.

 

[opsops3]

As an engineer, I avoid management consultants, IT /change management consultants and accountants. and I know why I used to be one of them for a while. What a game.




It seems to me the weaker professional they are the quicker they make it to the above.

 

[epoisses]

@FastEddi

"Qualifications for both positions:
• Two years of combined advisory or industry experience in Aerospace and Defense manufacturing operations and/or supply chain management (e.g. procurement operations, global strategic sourcing)
• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college/university
• Strong analytical, presentation and other communication skills
• Experience in the co-development of proposals, deliverables and reports
• Willing to travel
Additional Qualification for Senior Associate:
• Additional year of advisory or industry experience in A&D or supply chain management industries"

Yes we had someone like that over from KPMG the other day. What this sophisticated supply chain management boiled down was basically fly over to France, count a couple of drums, fly back and make a report out of it (probably the hardest part).

I think you should ask them to give a couple of real life examples of missions that you would get on your plate. Question them and keep questioning until all the buzzwords have been filtered out and you have a substantial reply.

 

[quark]

A little joke I heard about consultants.

A shepherd is walking on a road along with his sheep. A mercedes comes along very fast and stops suddenly infront of the flock. An angry looking man in formals gets down, looks at the entire batallion disgustingly and wants to teach the shepherd a lesson. He goes to the shepherd and says that he would tell him the number of sheep without counting but in return he should get one sheep. The shepherd agrees. The man takes out his laptop, gets connected to a satelite, takes aerial picture of the flock, a software counts the number as 567. The shepherd gets thrilled and asks the man to take one of his sheep.

While the man carries one towards his car, the shepherd stops him and says. "will you give me back that creature if I guess your profession?" The man agrees and the shepherd says "you are a consultant".

Taken aback, the man asks how on earth could the shepherd deduce that . "Simple", the shepherd replies, "first you told me the information I knew. Secondly, you don't know what to do with the thing you get in return but you want it. Third, you don't know what you want to get in return. What you are carrying now is a calf and not a sheep."

 

[SomptingGuy]

Fasteddie:

Get an interview. Make them put you up in a hotel. Drink the minibar dry. Claim for the newspaper you bought to pass the time on your expensive train journey. In short, fleece them. Then as epoisses said, get them to give you some realistic examples of assignments. Give them the run-around and then turn the job down if offered.

 

[prohammy]

Design Engineer - person owned by company to perform engineering and (mainly) paperwork duties. Output - paper.

Contract Design Engineer - person employed by company to focus on design (Contract Draughter - employed to focus on draughting). Amazing that at this level, the cost associated with these type of engineers manages to focus the manager's mind. Output - parts that will become a machine (also called life-blood of the company)

Consulting Design Engineer - person (barely, possibly wolf in sheep's clothing) employed by company to focus on concept design and more often than not tasked with producing 'concepts' for future developments. Output - does not matter, will always have no relationship to the end product.

It's like the add...

Engineer - cheap
Contract Engineer - dear
For everything else - be prepared to max out your Mastercard

Kevin

“Insanity in individuals is something rare, but in groups, parties, nations and epochs it is the rule” Nietzsche

 

[rbulsara]

The values are in concepts not the grunt work!!!That is whay people with concepts and vision are remembered much longer than number crunchers.

The unfortunate is most "consulting" engineers do not understand their own role. Think how consultants of other trades think and earn, lawyers, counsels, doctors, management consultants or any other.. Like it or not the do make more money than number crunchers.

 

[rbulsara]

Let me tell you about some owners who hate cosultants:

They are the ones who does not have qualificaitons to perform design calculations or seal and stamp design documents, but would like their crazy ideas implemented without validation.

 

[ScottyUK]

/Rant On/

In the UK consultants have become the easy option for managers who have neither the education nor experience nor ability to understand a problem at a technical level, and who assume that everyone who works for them has a similar level of ineptitude. Thus they assume that a problem can't be fixed in house because, after all, they can't fix it so why would anyone working for them be able to? The consultant comes in, pesters the life out of the engineers who would have fixed the problem had they not been prevented from doing so by their meddling pseudo-engineer managers, then presents his thin report misquoting what he was told by the staff engineers, padded out with lots of complicated jargon and weasel words, and of course his big fat bill. The engineers file the consultant's report in the bin and solve the problem the way they were trying to all along, and the management believe that they solved the problem by bringing in the consultant! Everyone is happy! And then over time the engineers get sick of the charade and get out of engineering or leave the UK to work overseas. Slowly the UK's industrial base dies and there are no jobs anymore. Everyone is sad.

/Rant Off/


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Sometimes I only open my mouth to swap feet...

 

[271828]

Since we're all in a "tell you what I really think" mode, I can tell you what THIS consultant does:

I work hard and bill for the exact amount of time (well, rounded off to the nearest 0.5 hour) I spend on clients' projects. That's A LOT more than I'm sure they can say about their employees. I've worked in engineering offices before, and aside from personal phone calls, personal e-mails, surfing the net, BSing with co-workers, getting coffee, smoking, etc., most engineers claim to work 40-50 hours per week and do no more than 15-20 real hours of work/week.

I can also say what I DON'T do: I don't whine about not getting ownership fast enough or the size of my raise or bonus. I don't try to milk time, watch the clock, or expect an employer to take care of my health insurance or add to my retirement accounts. I don't whine about working evenings, weekends, or holidays.

That's why they don't mind paying me 3-4x the hourly rate of their employees.

 

[metengr]

What do consultants do?

Hmmm,.... take your watch and tell you what time it is.

 

[rbulsara]

It’s very simple; if you do not need consultants, do not hire them. I have no sympathy for those who need to hire consultants but will complain about fees. It's none of owner's business to know how efficiently or non-efficiently a consultant does his/her job, if there is a fixed fee contract. If you hired the consultants on hourly rate thinking that you were going to outsmart the consultant, you are yourself to blame.

I am not saying consultants are the smartest or godly bunch; it’s just that they offer a service for a fee. If you use their service, you pay for it. If do not like their fees, find someone else.

metengr:
If you need to hire a consultant to read your watch, you don't deserve the watch anyway!!

 

[GregLocock]

Yes, I agree, but I think that's the lesson that the automotive business has learned. There are some specialised consultants, say Ricardo, who do actually have a great deal of accumulated knowledge in some areas, and who can be of enormous help. But equally, there are many consultants who are learning on the job, and whose main value is in re-presenting the correct solutions that were identified internally but discarded as being too expensive/difficult/unpolitic or whatever. They are still of some value.

And then you get the ones who send in 27 year old MBAs to re-engineer your company. Hell has no pit deep enough...

Having said that if a company's management is mug enough to fall for the third type, and is unable to recognise the difference between the first two types, then that is scarcely the fault of the consultant.

Cheers

Greg Locock

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[ScottyUK]

I agree with the last few posts. There are some consultants who are absolute gems, truly worth their weight in gold. These guys are usually the ones who have specialised all their lives in a fairly narrow field. Consequently they have often forgotten more about that field than most of us will ever know; in my industry they can save the company the cost of their fees hundreds of times over with one good result.

They are woefully outnumbered by the other kind of consultants!


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Sometimes I only open my mouth to swap feet...