Thursday, March 04, 2010

A Day in the Life of a Consultant on the Road

As you may have read in my earlier posts, I work as a "Consultant" in middle managment role in the Management Consulting division of "Large Consulting Firm."


That's me at work.

You've seen my Travel Tips and many of you have asked about what it's like to work in consulting.

Since Kelly at Kelly's Korner is having everyone do "a day in the life" for her weekly "Show us how you live" blog carnival, I thought I'd give you a glimpse into my average day at work when I'm on the road at the client site.

5:45 AM - Alarm goes off. Hit the snooze bar once.

5:50 AM - Out of bed. Get ready for work in my hotel room while listing to NBC news. Put on favorite business casual outfit - Express editor pants and a belted sweater from Banana Republic.

6:30 AM - Breakfast at the Sheraton Club Lounge. Oatmeal, yum! Read USA Today. Get coffee to go.

7:00 AM - Arrive at client site. Conference call with Europe Team. Love those accents!

8:00 AM - Read and respond to emails from clients and team members. Create today's "to-do" list.

9:00 AM - Compile project stakeholder analysis. Send to my Sr. Manager.

10:00 AM - Update team's Microsoft Projct Plan. Fill out weekly status report.

11:00 AM - Project team status call with the clients and team members.

12:00 AM - Lunch at local salad/sandwich place. Read blogs/tweet with extra time.

1:00 PM - Meet with my boss to talk about opportunities to renew or sell more work at our current client.

2:00 PM - Finish up some process documentation for the project. Call out key areas for process improvement.

2:45 PM - Ad hoc conversation with client about current project risks/issues.

3:00 PM - Read and respond to more emails from clients and team members. Prep for upcoming presentation.

3:30 PM - Present process documentation and process improvement ideas to client team lead for approval and project sign-off.

4:30 PM - 1:1 with one of the team members that reports to me. Review deliverables, discuss upcoming milestones, provide feedback.

5:30 PM - Finalize project strategy presentation for tomorrow's meeting and send to my boss for review.

6:30 PM - Read and respond to final emails from clients and team members.

7:00 PM - Sushi dinner with project team members.

8:30 PM - Blog and answer personal email from hotel while watching TV.

9:30 PM - Call the Mr. to talk and say goodnight.

10:00 PM - Read.

10:30 PM - Lights out.


Wow, sorry if I just made my job look really boring. If you're still reading, I'm sorry (and amazed). It's just hard to talk about my job without getting into specific project goals and specific project deliverables, ya know? But I really do love my job!

I hope this gave you a better look into what my average day is like. I can't wait to read everyone else's day in the life!

Show Us Your Life with Kelly's Korner

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do you enjoy all of the traveling? I'm fortunate to be almost 100% based in San Francisco...

What neighborhood are you guys in? Did you go to college at USC?

Ashley Paige said...

haha, i really enjoyed reading this- you sound JUST like my husband.. hotel breakfast, project deliverables at the client site, (he can't stand the current client team lead), project/client dinners (sushi, indian, morton's,) roll-off dinners, calling home to say "goodnight." it makes me laugh. i feel like im talking to my husband! :) what you do is NOT easy!! thanks for sharing!!!

Anonymous said...

Such a busy day! Quite the just-married, young, hip professional you are. :) I'm sure you love every minute of it, too. I know I love my busy job. Doesn't it just make you feel important and special? ;)

Confessions of a Northern Belle said...

Wow you have such a busy day! I am sure being so active makes it go by super fast though!

California Wife said...

Wow, you certainly have busy days! So are you on the road 100% of the time during the week, then go home for the weekends? I bet that's really hard, but since it seems like you enjoy your job so much it must be worth it!

Michelle said...

Hi there. Just popped over from Kelly's Korner. I used to work for ACN and noticed some of the titles/lingo sounded familiar. And the fact that you're doing feedback (right around mid-year) sounds familar too. ;)

Love your blog! :)

LWLH said...

Your a busy lady....go girl! :)

THE Stephanie said...

Very interesting, actually! And very, very busy!!

Lindsey said...

Busy bee!! You look so cute at work!

Crazy Shenanigans-JMO said...

Sounds like when you're on the road you have crazy, jam packed, busy days!

stacey said...

I'm SO glad you stopped by!

I noticed your wedding date is super close to mine - we got married August 3, 2008! I don't know about you, but it seems like so much time has gone by.. I actually had to stop and think if it really was 2008! :)

Katie said...

Thanks for your comment. Job sharing is fabulous. It is amazing what can happen if you are a good employee, come up with a proposal and just ask! Love your blog and so JEALOUS of your upcoming trip to Europe!

Laura said...

Long days! But it sounds very glamorous- and so fun that you get to travel the world~ And yes I get plenty of fakers in my clinic but they dont get very far with me!

Lindsey said...

I just wanted to let you know that my blog address has changed. Hope you have a great weekend!

http://alwayslindsey.blogspot.com/

Eileen said...

this sounds like my husband too! Life of a consultant... deliverables and sushi :) Only he's a little crazy and gets up at 4:30 am local time (so as not to switch between time zones) and goes to the gym for an hour! I just discovered Kelly's Korner thanks to this post, and added my own entry about my life to the list, sharing the consultant spouse perspective :) (It's the one called life as a research engineer if you're intereested!)

In This Wonderful Life said...

I think it sounds fun!!

Fabiola said...

Well, I think you are a busy girl. I come from a whole different back ground (I am from Brazil and I live in São Paulo) and I do have my kind of busy life. My post was about my at my base office days, but when I am away from Monday to Wednesday, my schedule would look like a lot like yours.

Fabiola

~Mrs. Guru~ said...

Wow, what a great job! What is your degree in?

Heather said...

I am amazed by how many girls get up before 6 AM!! What a busy day but it sounds fun! Have a great day!

Aly @ Analyze This said...

Hello! I am a new follower! You have a very similar job as a friend of mine! I don't see how you (?or him) do it, but you do it well and it works for you! Your travel tips are WONDERFUL and I am so happy to have found you via Kelly's Korner!

Happy Blogging and I look forward to see what you blog about next!

-Aly

Teresa @ Grammy Girlfriend said...

Loved reading your blog and your days..For some reason I cannot sleep tonight so decided to blog hop.

Hope you will stop by...I just added some extra giveaways and will draw on Sat night
Teresa
http://teresa-grammygirlfriend.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

Sounds a lot like mine except you have a lot of meetings.. Do you have much time to get actual work done ? And do you still like your job ?

Check out my blog
Http://ThatConsultant.blogspot.com

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