Get Mentored : Answers to your Queries – Volume 1

Following are some of the queries we have received in the past few days..

Question1 ) I am an intellectual property [IP] analyst working with Honeywell research in Bangalore. I want to get into a full fledged consulting role in the areas of technology strategy, innovation and IP management, with a consulting firm.

Please allow me to have an oppurtunity of getting mentored here………...By Suddha Sattwa

Sulbha: Dear Suddha,It would have been nice if you could have mentioned the kind of work you do, length of experience you have and your educational background to be able to give you a clearer way to enter into a consulting role. But to give you some ideas on some of the must haves and must dos that you would need in order to enter into a full fledged consulting role are:
• Having understanding business model and not just products
• Understanding of business needs wrt to all stakeholders
• Ability to work on multiple clients simultaneously
• Good analytical skills
• Ability to think multiple solutions for a problem
• Ability to meet deadlines
• Ability to handle pressure
• Ability to work in a team
• Ability to stretch

If you feel you have most the abilities mentioned above then you are ready to take the plunge, if not then please don’t let go off your relevant experience. Try to enhance your skill in your current domain and develop expertise and rise in your firm. Because shifting in a different domain would mean discounting your earlier experience starting from the scratch. If you’re ready for such a start then chose the area of interest carefully and imagine your comfort, like/ dislike doing the same work for another 10-15 years. If u feel your calling is in the field then go for it.

Question 2) I wish to enrol for the mentorship program started by Consulting Network. I need to make a choice on becoming internal / external management consultant. Thank you for this initiative …Mihir

Sulbha: Hi Mihir, I am sorry but I do not understand your question. Please explain what you mean by an internal and external consultant. An internal consultant is the one who provides advice to the firm internally and external consultant is the person who is hired by the firm to provide advice. If my understanding is different than your please let me know. Once I have the clarity, I will be better able to answer your question.

Question 3) Dear Ms. Sulbha, I want to start my own consultancy and would require a Know -How as to how I should go about building my Career…Varun

Sulbha: Answer to your questions need lot of information from your end. And then probably it will be a very long answer because lot depends on what you want to do and how you want to do. But before you start with anything, appended are some very basic prerequisite to start your own enterprise
• Have a goal in your live, have a vision for yourself
• Chose your area of interest and expertise,
• Develop deep and sound knowledge about your interest area
• Conduct deep dive analysis wrt all the stakeholders
• Hone your analytical skills
• Know your strengths and weakness
• Connect with people, as much people as you can
• Be on the lookout for opportunities
• Have lot of discussion with industry experts
• Do lot of researcher / read a lot
Though the list of prerequisite can run into pages but just to give you a snap shot of traits of successful entrepreneur, I suggest you to read one of the article on Consulting Network site ( http://consultingnetwork.co.in/traits-of-the-successful-entrepreneur/1312/)  Probably this will give you more insights and will help you.

Question 4) Greetings! I take this opportunity to check with you about my chances of landing in an HR Consulting role with a good Consulting firm.I hold a post graduate degree in Human Resource Management. Have overall experience of over three years in recruitment consulting. Also have about 10 months corporate hiring experience in a start-up with about 200 employees and offices in around 6 countries.

I would like to enter the Management Consulting space. My interest revolves around gaining experience in various aspects of HR Consulting.

1) I have handled clients/accounts (ITes, Analytics and KPO space) during my recruitment consulting days. Have experience in BD, client servicing, invoicing etc apart from sourcing, screening, assessments,selection and interview co-ordination. Began with junior level hiring and moved on to middle and senior levels. Have handled exclusive accounts for my firm and have been able to work closely with clients to fulfill their hiring needs. Will this experience help me in an HR consulting role? If so what aspects of these may favor in fetching me an opportunity?

2) Considering my experience; what other skills do you think I’ll need to work on to enter the HR consulting space.

Looking forward to your valuable suggestions and advise….Jaanki

Sulbha: HR consulting covers has a wide gamut of HR activities including performance management, rewards & recognition, industrial relations, employee engagement, policies formulation, recruitment etc. Recruitment is just one of the small part of the bigger HR activities and working in a recruitment firm is quite different from recruiting as a consultant for your client. As a consultant you may be required you to do competency mapping for roles, apply various tools like MBTI, psychometric analysis etc, conduct interviews and map candidate’s potential to the role, etc
Though you have hiring experience which must have mainly involved procuring and screening CVs and facilitating interviews with the clients, only this experience will not help you grab a role in HR consulting. If you have been part of recruiting and conducting interview then it may be counted as relevant experience.
If you want to enter in HR consulting role, you would need to develop more hands on experience on various other HR activities. Plus without relevant experience it will be little difficult for you to enter this new domain, also with no prior experience you would need to discount you previous recruitment experience, which means you could need to start at a lower level than your existing one.
Also try to explore how confident you are with your analytical skills, thinking creatively, handling multiple clients at the same time, meeting tight deadlines, handling pressure etc as these are some of the prerequisite to be successful in consulting domain.Hope this will help you. Wishing you all the very best in your future endeavours.

Question 5)

My name is Lagnajit. Currently I am working in Oracle, as a Supply Chain Presales Consultant. Typically its a standard presales role involving more of marketing our SCM products (in areas of Transportation, Warehousing, Planning, Logistics etc) to enterprise clients . Its a 100% client facing role involving requirement gathering, solution roadmap preparation, demos , mgmt presentations, and more focused on functional and NOT technical presales.

I have been doing this for now 2 and half years post my MBA from SP Jain Mumbai in Marketing.  Prior to that I did my Engineering from NIT Rourkela. So in short, I have two and half years workex in IT presales and sales-consulting.

I would like to explore opportunities in Management consulting / Strategy consulting roles; but have no prior relevant workex in the same. I have a couple of querries around the same.

First of all my querry is — Is this shift feasible from Industry acceptability ? Common perception is that the consulting industry either absorbs fresh MBAs or ppl from strong Industry domains and/or  previous consulting background. My background as you can see is an IT presales background (though centered around business solutions in SCM space).   –

Secondly – if feasible, what are the options in the Consulting domain available for me, given my Oracle background of 2.5+ years.. I have developed a strong interest in Supply Chain and Logistics, and would ideally like to start with Business Process consulting in these areas, before moving to full fledged strategy consulting roles.  Hence what could be potential areas of opportunity in Tier 1 or Tier 2 consulting cos, and what could be a typical growth path within the consulting org, and also exit options later on. I hope you can mitigate some of my doubts here, and help me by giving me a direction…Lagnajit Patnaik

Sulbha : Dear Laganjit, Answers to your questions are mentioned below. I hope they will help you.
(i) Yes, your understanding is right, good consulting firms take either fresh MBAs or experienced consultants or industry people with strong domain knowledge and experience. If you want to shift into a new field all together then you would need to discount your previous experience that would mean that you might need to start afresh. But if this is not what you would like to do at this point in time in your career then try to explore opportunities for different consulting experience within your company. Gaining experience on your same company has two advantages, (i) firstly you won’t need to compromise on your level or compensation, (ii) secondly you would have some understanding of the business and clients also your working environment will be conducive to your growth.
(ii) Since you have pre sales experience in SCM, you can look out for consulting opportunities in this niche area of SCM and try to harp your skills.  Big IT companies like HCL, IBM, Accenture are also working well as SCM consultants. So if you are looking for a change they can be your prospective employers. But if the employer doesn’t find an exact expertise in your skills you might need to discount on your experience.
Growth path in different in different companies is different, but typically it takes 13-17 years to reach to the senior management position if you start fresh on a consulting firm. However this growth path can always be shortened if you have the desired skill, aptitude and attitude to excel.

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