Last Updated on February 26, 2024
Navigating the staffing methodologies of elite consulting firms like McKinsey, BCG, or Bain reveals a unique and intricate process. Understanding this process is pivotal, not just for work-life balance but also for aligning your projects with your passions and preferred colleagues.
Early comprehension of your firm’s staffing dynamics – who makes the decisions and how – can be a game-changer, enabling you to strategically network and secure projects that resonate with your aspirations.
Securing the right projects is more than a job assignment; it’s a cornerstone of your professional growth and career trajectory. By targeting projects that align with your interests and goals, you’re not just making sure that you enjoy the work but you are also improving your lifestyle and establishing a name for yourself in your firm.
This article is a modified excerpt from my book “Consulting Career Secrets” and reveals the strategies and tactics that can propel consultants into the realm of high-value, high visibility, and good work-life balance projects.
Treat Staffing Like an Internal Job Market
The first thing you need to understand is that staffing in all consulting firms is like an internal job market. Navigate this job market by keeping a couple of considerations in mind:
A dynamic job market
The staffing process in consulting happens in a dynamic job market that fluctuates seasonally (with fewer projects in the summer). In this market, the partner responsible for the project typically plays the role of a recruiter, seeking suitable candidates to join their team. They rely on their informal network and contacts, engage with other partners and project managers, refer to staffing lists, and collaborate with staffing coordinators to promote their project and identify colleagues who are the best fit with the right match of preferences.
Choosing suitable projects
Go for projects that align with your interests and development goals. The work and tasks you perform daily will not be too different from project to project, so you want to make sure that you enjoy the context.
You might get discouraged if you work on the fifth cost-cutting initiative in a traditional industry in a remote location. The more you enjoy working on something, the more you are willing to dive through tough times, the higher your job satisfaction, and the better your performance in the long run. Hence, take charge of your trajectory and proactively seek assignments that align with your interests, development goals, and career aspirations.
Furthermore, by actively seeking and selecting suitable projects, you can position yourself for advancement and increase your chances of achieving your career goals. For instance, if you wish to specialize in a specific area, pursue projects that offer opportunities to develop your expertise. Similarly, if you aspire to take on a leadership role, look for projects to hone your leadership skills and establish a reputation as a leader (e.g., assume a junior project manager role while still being an associate).
When considering projects, balance various factors, including the industry, client profile (global leader, hidden champion, SME, non-profit,…), topic (strategy, operations,…), logistics (travel, work-life balance, stress levels), and team dynamics (size, experience, leadership). Additionally, recognize that gaining diverse exposure is essential for career progression within your firm. This exposure entails working with various partners and teams across many projects.
Ultimately, taking control of your trajectory within the firm and selecting appropriate projects can accelerate your professional and personal growth. Otherwise, without actively managing your career path, you might feel like a ping-pong ball in the internal job market, bouncing around without a clear direction.
Getting the projects you want and avoiding the ones you do not want
Early in your career, staffing coordinators will assign you projects through a structured process. Your availability, suitability for the project and client, and compatibility with your professional development objectives are considered at this stage. Cultivate strong relationships with these coordinators and regularly talk to them to let them know about your current plans and goals. They are your ally and can help you get on suitable projects.
While your influence on project selection may be limited initially, most firms expect you to chart your path after completing your first few projects. Much of this process occurs informally through networking and shared connections. Reach out to influential partners and project managers two weeks before you return to the market to inquire about opportunities. They may have a project where they need you, or they may know someone who does and can make the introduction. Ensure your internal company profile is up-to-date, your specializations and preferences are visible, and you are subscribed to relevant staffing newsletters.
Recognize that you will not always be assigned to your ideal project, and no project will fulfill all your requirements. However, understanding your preferences can help you set boundaries with partners who want to work with you or staffing coordinators who wish to assign you a project. In such cases, rather than outright declining, present arguments about your professional development goals that a new project must meet. As a last resort, you could mention potential unavailability during part of the project, for instance, due to a vacation that you have already booked. Make sure to use the last excuse sparingly.
Sometimes, you might be unable to decline a project without damaging your career. For instance, this could occur if you have already declined three previous projects and have been on the bench for an extended period.
Select the Right Projects
Staffing in consulting is a sophisticated process. You typically join a new project every few weeks or months, introducing new situations, clients, teams, and logistics. You are expected to adapt quickly to these changes and deliver value as though you have been working with the client for an extended period.
Understanding your firm’s staffing model early on, including who makes the decisions, is vital for effective networking and securing projects that align with your interests and work-life balance goals. Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for consultants to experience burnout after transitioning from one demanding project to another.
During project selection, you should consider factors such as the industry, the business function and focus area of the project, the consulting team, the location, and associated travel requirements, and the timeframe, which refers to the duration of the project or your expected involvement.
You cannot control all five factors simultaneously; prioritization and trade-offs are necessary. Generally, you will have the most flexibility in discussing industry, function, and project duration. Depending on the project’s location and travel requirements, you may also want to explore partial remote work opportunities.
Factors to Consider for Staffing
To optimize your work-life balance and avoid going from one challenging project to the next, consider optimizing for the following conditions when selecting projects:
Leadership team
- Fewer (senior) partners with limited involvement
- No junior partners close to promotion (they may impose additional demands on their teams)
- Partners not known for being workaholics
- Capability to push back against out-of-scope client requests
- Deep knowledge of and strong relationships with the client
- Relevant expertise for the project
Project manager
- Experienced project manager not nearing promotion (avoid junior project managers or those up for promotion, as both may lead to increased work and micromanagement)
- Familiarity with the leadership team and client
- Not known for being a workaholic
- Skilled at pushing back against out-of-scope client and partner requests
- Has a family and children (providing an incentive to maintain reasonable hours)
- Previous experience with the client
- Knowledgeable about the project context
Team size and members
- Appropriately sized team with suitable tenure and a dedicated project manager
- Team members with prior experience working together
- Few or no junior colleagues on the team
- Adequate support resources
- Adequate team budget (each project has an individual profit and loss statement)
- No standalone staffing, as such situations can be stressful and frustrating. They are stressful because you bear the entire weight of the project and frustrating because you lack colleagues for banter and support (my most exhausting engagement was when I was staffed on my own in a small English town in the middle of nowhere for an entire summer)
Client and its history with your firm
- Long-standing relationship and trust from the C-level (avoid first-time projects with a new client where there is a lot to prove and little knowledge about the organization
- Collaborative, non-hostile working-level clients
- The project sponsor is not a former consultant, particularly from a competing firm
- Non-hostile workers’ representatives
- No internal or public political landmines or public attention that would necessitate crisis management
Client’s problem and the scope of the project
- Well-defined project scope and objectives
- Explicit deliverables agreed upon for the engagement period and at its conclusion
- Industry and/or function that aligns with your interests
- Suitable engagement type or industry (steer clear of due diligence projects, turnaround/recovery projects, brief strategy projects, or industries notorious for long working hours, such as investment banking)
Timeline
- Appropriate project timeline that corresponds with the nature of deliverables (in reality, time is always insufficient, but some projects are more manageable than others)
- Absence of frontloaded major deliverables (e.g., no important milestones in weeks one or two)
Client location and travel schedule
- Single client location and/or minimal travel between client sites (particularly important when dealing with intercontinental travel and varying time zones)
- Convenient connection from your home office (for example, avoid projects that require lengthy weekly travel. The project in the English town had me travel six hours twice per week, some weeks even more)
Seek factors that can improve your work experience, help you keep your energy levels up, and increase your long-term success. Be cautious when a partner makes special promises or refers to a project as a “step-up opportunity!”
Aim to avoid projects that conflict with your lifestyle needs, although it may not always be feasible. Some individuals consistently find themselves on the most challenging projects, while others enjoy a better work-life balance. Your experiences may involve a mix of intense and more relaxed engagements; however, keep in mind that “relaxed” in this context might still mean working more than 60 hours per week.
Over time, you will establish a network of colleagues you enjoy working with, who are interested in collaborating with you, or who might introduce you to staffing opportunities. You can better assess stress levels and project setups through these informal channels.
Avoid These Types of Projects
In any case, before accepting the staffing, you should commit due diligence on the client, the setup, and the team. There are a few warning signs of tough projects that you can already pick up during the staffing process:
- 01 project with a new client
- The project manager is very junior
- The project manager is close to becoming Associate Partner/ Principal
- Associate Partner/ Principal is close to becoming Partner
- The project is a due diligence
- The project is a turnaround/ recovery
- The client is a former consultant (especially if they come from another firm)
- The client has multiple locations you need to travel to (gets worse when they are on different continents)
- You are all by yourself at the client location (standalone)
- The project manager or partners are known to be workaholics
- The project manager is bad at pushing back requests from leadership
- Partner is bad at pushing back client request
Approach the Process Strategically
Make sure to pick up quickly on such things to improve your life in consulting and enhance your chances of success in the long run. Again, be careful when a partner is making special promises to get you on the project!
When discussing options with staffing coordinators or partners, it is beneficial to have a compelling narrative about why a particular project aligns with your development and experience (or why it does not). You can decline a project assignment in some firms if it does not seem like a good fit. Remember to choose your battles.
In the long run – in consulting terms, a few months – you should select projects based on thorough due diligence on the client, the setup, and the team. Reach out to consultants currently on the project or those who have previously worked with the leadership team and project manager. When seeking information, ask intentional and specific questions. Instead of asking, “How do you like the project?” consider asking, “On a scale of 1 to 5, how would you rate the current work-life balance?” or “What are the best and worst aspects of working with this person?” You should also ask about the factors above. This approach will provide valuable insights for your staffing decisions.
After a while, you will have built your own network of people you want to work with and people who want to work with you. As a result, most of your projects will come in via in-official channels anyway.
