Why is consulting such long hours?

Question

I'm trying to understand what's expected of the job. Is it because the analysts aren't being efficient enough with Excel, for example? Is it because the data is sometimes hard to clean, or there is too much information?

I have been in Business Analysts roles working 8-9 hours a day, but would like to know why is the hours much longer in MBB, especially since the people there are much more qualified and talented in general.

Thank you

Answer 1

Hi there,

I would be happy to share my thoughts on your questions:

First of all, while I'm not sure why this is the case (and even less sure why working hours can vary significantly from country to country), I'm sure that it's not the efficiency of junior team members who are relatively new to the workforce that's driving the long hours.
Moreover, a related question is whether it has always been this way, or whether there has been a gradual evolution from staffing projects for 40 hour weeks to staffing projects for 60-80 hour weeks. While I know that 20-25 years ago it wasn't much different from what partners tell me, I can't say about earlier times.

If you would like a more detailed discussion on your specific situation, please don't hesitate to contact me directly.

Best,

Hagen

Answer 2

Hi there,

Good question!

It's not related to not being efficient. When I was at McKinsey there was a saying that a McKinsey team can achieve in a week what a corporate organization would need weeks or months for.

Rather, its related to the quantity of the work and the work setup.

There is always more work to be done than you have time for so prioritizing is extremely important. You might have heard of things such as 80/20 vs. boiling the ocean etc.
Additionally, you are always present at the client site with many interruptions, meetings etc. during the day. You can only really start focusing on your analyses and deck once the clients leave the office or you leave the client site and head back to the hotel.

If you want to know more about the daily life of a consultant, I have written a book on the topic called Consulting Career Secrets. It's on Amazon and discusses everything you need to know to figure out if it's a career for you and if yes, how to excel at it.

Cheers,

Florian

Answer 3

Hi there,

I believe it is driven by the project nature of the job. Projects are sold by partners and delivered by consultants. Partners are incentivized to keep selling more work.

Since consulting is a people's business, it is important to ensure that clients stay happy - in order to sell them more work in the future. So project teams are expected to go the extra mile and not just deliver but often "over deliver". This can be in the form of more frequent and comprehensive updates or an increase in scope. Now add to that the day-to-day routine of frequent meetings, extra requests, unforseen bottlenecks, etc. and you end up working long hours to get everything done.

Often times, partners will also require the assistance of consultants in preparing proposal documents for potential future projects. This can happen not only to consultants "on the beach" but also to ones who are currently staffed on a project. So there is an extra layer of workload added.

These are just some of the drivers that can lead to long working hours for consultants. It doesn't mean that every project or every firm operates like that, but I have seen and heard it often enough to think that these things are a pretty common occurence.

Best