Employees are supposedly the most precious and valuable assets of an organization. Growth of any organization is directly proportionate to the ways employees contribute to it. An organization can achieve its desired goal by Recruitment quality employees with right skills, knowledge and more importantly the one who will fit in the culture of the organization and remain loyal.

Therefore, recruitment plays a vital role and becomes a tough task as it would impact work performance and the cost incurred in recruitment. A good recruitment would select a candidate with right knowledge, skill and the one who will be the right fit for the job and that too of course at the minimum cost.

However, recruitment should not just involve matching of right skills and knowledge with the job requirement; but it should also look at the psychological factors of the candidate. While a candidate with right set of skills may join the organization his behavioral pattern could be totally different as compared to the organization’s culture as well as to the job involved – and this could pose a critical issue. A very common case of manipulation happens when candidates do some research on the interviewing company and then respond to every question asked in manipulated manner in order to increase chances of selection and sometimes these people get selected too. All they need is to fake or manipulate for 30-40 minutes. These types of misfits usually give a lot of problems like attrition, job title mismatch, lack of interest in the work etc.

Can this be eliminated completely? Perhaps not – can this be avoided at least? – Absolutely yes! Answer is DISC profiling. DISC is acronym for four personal traits viz. Dominance, Influence, Steady and Compliance. It is a personality assessment tool that helps to judge the behavioral pattern of a candidate which then can be matched with the job requirements and the best match can be selected. DISC profiling could help tremendously during recruitment when used appropriately and in correct manner.

DISC profiling is a tool which facilitates understanding of human behavior and personality of an individual. It basically indicates how a certain person reacts and would possibly react to certain conditions. It provides information about individual’s behavioral style, strengths, skills, direction of opinions, perceptions, expectations and sources or causes of motivation.

DISC was created on the idea that all the individuals exhibit one of the four types of behaviors but to a different magnitude and mix.

D stands for Dominance: Individuals who are D type are dominant, direct, and decisive and result driven. While talking they usually cut the crap and directly come to the point. They like to be independent and have strong will power, take quick actions and demand results. They like making decision for themselves and the bottom line too. Whenever a person on the job is required to be decision maker and ownership taker – usually in senior management position, this trait is the one to look for.

I of Influence: People who are persuasive, energetic, friendly, outgoing and enthusiastic. They prefer socialising and sharing of thoughts. When talking these individuals may usually talk lot more about other things apart from main discussion point. Most of it could be categorised as a part of small-talk.

S of Steadiness: These are the individuals who are consistent, helping, good listeners, typically less talkative and believers of facts and figures. People who exhibit this trait do not believe on just talks and speculations but depend on hard facts and figures and are rule followers.

C of Compliance: Usually cautious and concerned. The main motivational factor for their work drive is fear of failure or anything else; such that one would do something only because to avoid negative effect of it.
It may not be appropriate to say which of these traits cause people work best as it totally depends upon the nature of work and environment they are part of.

DISC can be used for many applications in an industry but the most important and effective use can be in recruitments. As it can help in identifying blueprint of the behavior pattern of the person along with his/her approach towards life and work as output. With the help of this profiling we can also identify the fake behavior of the candidate in an interview – this is the power of all the psychological tests anyway. And therefore we can match the temperament of the individual with that of job profile for correct match.

A set of psychometric questions are used during DISC profiling test as part of recruitment process. Responses are then analysed in specific manner to get the results which indicate the most prominent factor and the least prominent factor. It usually provides prioritised sequence of all four characteristics such that – if a person is less dominant but highly methodical results would show SICD. Or someone who is more of social in nature and can dominate in certain situations but never works from risk avoidance perspective would show IDSC.

This is how DISC profiling can help organizations to put right person for the right jobs and thus avoiding round pegs in square holes which is one of the typical industry issues in employee engagement space.

DISC profiling is the tool that helps to hire the correct employee for an organization according to their culture and need. It does not measure skills, qualification or intelligence. Rather it checks the more important aspect which is personality and behavior of an individual. This not only can save costs, efforts and time of recruitment but also can increase effectiveness of every employee and so the organization.

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Terms and Conditions for the constest

• We assume no liability. Determining the usefulness of the resume(post makeover) is purely at the discretion of the winner.
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Now that we have that out of the way; Here is how the contest works – You need to fill in the form mentioned below. You are allowed to fill this form only once. Each person who fills the form will be eligible to win the resume makeover. The winner be selected based on a simple point system. The person with the highest number of points at the end of the contest period wins.  following are details on how you can earn these points

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However, the problem is that we get so caught up in the nitty gritty of implementation; we forget why we are here in the first place, why are we do things that we are doing! Why is just as important as the How; and so they are not mutually exclusive.

As far as business context is concerned, not having answer to this critical and ultimate question is sure problem in almost all the change management initiatives. Not only this but also when an organization is trying to revamp and go to next level of excellence and advancement this becomes a roadblock.

Any change that is suggested or tabled gets rejected due to stiff beliefs conceived by employees over a time in an organization. “We have always done it this way – why change?” This is typical argument made by everyone in the system that is resisting the change. However, a very few people take some extra efforts and pain to understand, why this is so in first place.

There is a very interesting story about monkey-experiment which I find relevant to this topic. The experiment involved five monkeys, a cage, a banana, a ladder and a water hose. These five monkeys would be locked in a cage, after which a banana was hung from the ceiling with, fortunately for the monkeys (or so it seemed…), a ladder placed right underneath it.

Of course, immediately, one of the monkeys would race towards the ladder, intending to climb it and grab the banana. However, as soon as he would start to climb, the sadist (or so called ‘scientist’) would spray the monkey with ice-cold water. In addition, however, he would also spray the other four monkeys…

When a second monkey was about to climb the ladder, the sadist would, again, spray the monkey with ice-cold water, and apply the same treatment to its four fellow inmates; likewise for the third climber and, if they were particularly persistent (or dumb), the fourth one. Then they would have learned their lesson: they were not going to climb the ladder again – banana or no banana!

In order to gain further (insightful) pleasure prolong the experiment, the sadist outside the cage would then replace one of the monkeys with a new one. As can be expected, the new guy would spot the banana, and think “why don’t these idiots go get it?!” and start climbing the ladder. Then, however, it got interesting: the other four monkeys, familiar with the cold-water treatment, would run towards the new guy – and beat him up black and blue. The new guy, blissfully unaware of the cold-water history, would get the message: no climbing up the ladder in this cage – banana or no banana.

Then the scientist outside the cage would replace a second monkey with a new one, the events would repeat themselves – monkey runs towards the ladder; other monkeys beat him up; new monkey does not attempt to climb again – with one notable detail: the first new monkey, who had never received the cold-water treatment himself (and didn’t even know anything about it), would, with equal zeal and enthusiasm, join in the beating of the new guy on the block.

When the researcher replaced a third monkey, the same thing happened; likewise for the fourth until, eventually, all the monkeys had been replaced and none of the ones in the cage had any experience or knowledge of the cold-water treatment.

Then, a new monkey was introduced into the cage. It ran toward the ladder only to get beaten up by the others. Yet, this monkey turned around and asked “why do you beat me up when I try to get the banana?” The other four monkeys stopped, looked at each other slightly puzzled and, finally, shrugged their shoulders: “Don’t know why. But that’s how we do things around here!”…

This fairly explains the importance of our ultimate question – WHY. Over the years, all organizations do develop many routines, habits and practices which are also called as ‘organizational culture’. These cultures can be remarkably different, in terms of what sort of behavior they value and what they don’t like to see, and what they punish.

Always, these habits and conventions have been developed over the course of many years. Very often, nobody actually remembers why they were started in the first place… Quite possibly, the guy with the water hose, the sadist who troubled these monkeys has long gone.

And therefore, don’t just beat up the new monkey – whether it is a new employee, a recent acquisition or a partner. Because their questioning of “the way we do things round here” may actually be quite a valid one! Not only employees but as a leadership in your organization you should be the first one to ask these questions. Nurturing habit of asking WHY as and when appropriate will pay-off in long run. This can develop ever-growing and improving culture in your team and organization.

To begin with, try doing one simple experiment yourself for couple of weeks – you will discover many new things, guaranteed! Start asking WHY in appropriate tone and manner at least five times. This is same as one of the many powerful Root-Cause-Analysis (RCA) techniques.

Moral of the story – use this ultimate question in right way and see the effect!

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Your Name:

Sulbha:  Dear Himanshu,

I have been receiving many requests where people from varied domains want to move to the consulting profession. My advice to all these individuals has been constant – pursue your heart and know your skill set.

Because at some point in time certain career choice may seem to be lucrative but it is important that you have the requisite aptitude, skill, attitude to excel in that field. I would also suggest that you personally meet and interact with people from the consulting industry and understand the work culture, pressure, timelines, clients and manager’s expectation, and only then only make your choice.

If you are a person who keeps work life balance as one of the priorities, who pursues hobbies or have other interests, then you might not get enough time to pursue these interests, or rather you would have to work hard to continue pursuing those interests.

If you are really keen to get into consulting, then you should start doing the following:

• Identify your core strengths
• Looking out for opportunities where you can use your existing experience in advising the clients.
• Sharpen your communications skills (both oral and verbal) – it is one the most important skill for a consultant
• Inculcate habit of reading – focused on your area of expertise where you think you can advise clients well. You should have complete knowledge of industry/ sector and you should be updated about your sector.
• Increase your network – interact with consultant and look out for opportunities that you may approach – I suggest you start at our members section – http://consultingnetwork.co.in/members
• Revamp your resume – Go through various articles on consulting resumes on our site.
• Prepare yourself well for the interview by knowing about the firm, its services, sector knowledge, economics, market dynamics
• Be prepared to answers questions such as – what will you add to the firm? Without prior relevant experience what value proposition do you bring on the table? Why should firm choose you  over someone with more relevant experience?

All the best.

Sulbha

Your Name: Vivek Kumar
Message: Hi,

I am an MBA with 8 years of experience. I\’m currently working with a large PE player in risk management function and have previous experience with a large private bank in Credit Function, NPA resolution and fund raising.

I am looking to join the Consulting industry in areas of Strategic Consulting or Financial consulting.I am looking at boutique consulting firms. However, I do not know of too many of them or their standing in the market. Could you help me with a list of such boutique consulting firms.

Sulbha: Dear Vivek,

Boutique firms are those firms which provide niche services in specific industries, functional areas or technologies and they do not have more than 250 consultants on their payrolls. These firms thrive on their very high quality experts and are instrumental in introducing new concepts which are later emulated by larger firms. Some of the names of know boutique consulting firms have been listed below for your quick reference.

• Erehwon Innovation Consulting Pvt. Ltd,
• Hiresh Bi]jroor Consulting
• Avalon Consulting
• Saint Consulting group – it is Massachusetts based firm
• PRTM Management Consultants (Pittiglio Rabin Todd and McGrath),
• Acquity Group Llc. in Chicago
• Sicofin and Asociados headquartered in Mexico City.
• Diamond Management and Technology Consultants, Inc. has set up an office in Mumbai
• Everest Consulting Inc

This list is just indicative and not exhaustive.

Your Name: Rahul
Message: Hi Sulbha,

I am writing this email to obtain suggestions from you regarding my career. I find myself in a quandary and am in much need of well informed advice.

My Background

I am a graduate of IIT Delhi. I had to undergo an eye surgery due to which I had to miss the placements altogether at IIT. I took the CAT 2010 and achieved a percentile of 99.69 and secured calls from IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Calcutta. I couldn’t clear the interviews, I think largely due to the fact that my performance at IIT had been quite bad, without getting into the reasons for it. That notwithstanding I did manage to get in to the waitlist of both the institutes and am quite confident that with some work experience behind me I should be able to join them in my next attempt. Some of the salient features in my CV are my experience of interning at Kotak Investment Banking, my score during school (91.4 percent aggregate and 94.3 percent in the sciences in 12th Std and 100 percent marks in mathematics in my 10th standard) and my gold medals in Lawn Tennis and other extra curricualr achievements.

My Goal

Post my MBA I’d like to join one of the top consulting firms. My understanding is that for my CV to be shortlisted during recruitment I should have displayed exceptional academic performance which I intend to do during my stint at B school. But in the meanwhile I intend to boost my CV as academic performance will not come into play during recruitment for summer internships at IIMs apart from other reasons. To that end I am planning to give CFA exams and more importantly gain relevant work experience.

My Quandary

I find that most of the top organizations recruit freshers/undergraduates only on campus. The boutique consultancy and investment banking firms and other financial services firms seem to prefer candidates with a finance/MBA background or with prior relevant experience even for the entry level jobs. This is my inference based on my communication with 40 odd organizations so far.

Kindly tell me in which direction I should proceed from here. Should I continue doing what I am doing and keep looking for jobs in similar firms and be patient? Is there any kind of companies I should be targeting in particular, start up organizations or early stage ventures for instance? Is there a source where I could come across such smaller organizations? Or is there any other path I should explore?

Regards
Rahul

Sulbha: Dear Rahul,

Your understanding of getting into boutique consulting/ Investing banking or FS firms is right, most of them hire through A-grade campuses only. This method of breaking into consulting is the best and most effective

Since you have got great percentile in your CAT exams and I am sure if you work on cracking the interview and GD, cracking it won’t be difficult with experience at your hand as well.

Your credentials are quite impressive; you now need to concentrate on cracking the IIM interview and road to your choicest firm will soon meet you.

Regarding the firms you wish to join, it entirely depends on your risk taking appetite. Start ups are great learning places but they might not have frills and other comforts that come with well established firms.

While choosing an employer please give maximum weightage to the quality of work that will come to your platter, then people you will work with. All these firms who come to hire at IIMs are almost at par with each other in terms of brand/ compensations. So you don’t need to worry on this aspect.

Wishing you very best in future endeavors.

Regards,

Sulbha

Your Name: Gayatri

Subject: Hi Sulbha,

I have been working with and Analytics Company in Catastrophic modelling for the past one and a half years,
after completing my M. Sc. in Statistics from Hindu College, University Of Delhi. I did my B.Sc. in the same subject. I also have a few months of trainings with IBM and BBC, WST. I have been eagerly wanting to get into Consulting  firms. I do not want to already start as a consultant, but do wish to get on the right track. I have not received any call, this in turn is making it difficult for me to make any further carrer decisions. Do you suggest I study more to get  atleast in the right firm?

Thanks.

Sulbha: Hi Gayatri,
Right now you are working in a niche sector, where assessments can be used in insurance industry, and will have confluence of actuarial science, engineering, meteorology, and seismology. Since this is a super specialized field and only few consulting firms are working on providing consulting in these domains, the number of opportunities may be few, however if you do manage to break into such firms then growth can be quite rapid.
There are consulting firms that do consulting in climate control and sustainability projects or insurance sectors where actuarial science is needed to advise clients. Do not get disheartened with initial struggle; you should target those consulting firms who are working on such projects, a personal contact in any consulting firm helps as they may circulate your CV faster and would know of exact requirements in teams. Try connecting with people through Linkedin or other professional site and explore opportunities.
All the best.
Regards,
Sulbha

Name: Narasimhan

Subject: Hello Ms Rai

I have a question regarding the chances of me making it to an associate at one of the top 5 consulting firms.
I have very substandard grades at my undergraduate level (around 2.6) but i qualified to the Delhi school of
economics international business course standing all India 16th.I plan to pursue Msc Management and Strategy
from LSE after the completion of my International Business course and am working towards it.

Are Msc’s hired at the associate level?how would you rate my chances to make it to a top 5 and what could do i
do in order to improve them?Could you also indicate the kind of people my networking should focus on to land
a job or an internship?

Many thanks
Narasimhan

Sulbha: Hi, Narasimhan,
Its great you recognized your calling and are now working towards it. Yes top 5 consulting firms do hire from LSE. Good score at LSE, couple with the extra effort you do in terms of paper presentation or projects that you take up help you catch their attention.

You should work toward increasing your professional network. Try to interact with people in consulting firms, get their perspective, to understand its nuances. You should also interact with people in industry to know their challenges and how consultants can be resourceful to them. You should always interact with your professors as they are also well networked and can share great insights and provide you important contact that can help you.
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Sulbha

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Your Name:

I am a Computer Engg from BIT Mesra and an MBA International Business and Marketing from Amity International Business School and was also awarded a silver medal for academics by the student council at Amity University.

I am currently working as an Sales Manager with a company by the name of Bertelsmann Marketing Group (BMG) which is a 16 trillion pound group, we are primarily a VAR for Microsoft.

Now I have a experience of 3 years out of which 2.5 years I have worked as a BDE – Presales in Nucleus Software Exports Ltd.

But now I intend to work as a management consultant in a good consultant firm namely (KPMG,PWC,Accenture,Deloitte..etc).

I would request you to please suggest what should be my next action plan as I am really looking forward to reboot my career path in 5-6 months.

Regards
Ravi Shankar
Dear Ravi,
Sulbha: Presales experience involves pitching your product to the prospective client. This requires conviction to sell and ability to answer the queries of the customer as to how your product will meet his requirements.

On the other hand as a consultant your job will be quite different, you would need to investigate the various issues that the client may be facing and would need to provide solutions to him to address those issues.

You would not have anything readymade (such as a final product) that would need to be delivered, rather you would need to create solution to meet the objectives. This is a different ball game all together. Though you have requisite educational background but your experience may not be  conceived to be relevant by the recruiters.

If you intend to join the consulting domain you might need to start afresh. If you feel consulting is your calling you should start your research and connect with your target firm, to be specific, interact with people from the target department of your target firm. Learn what they do and how they do it and how you can apply your existing skills and exactly what they do. If you have skills that your target firms require, you are immediately an interesting proposition to the recruiters.
All the best.
Sulbha

Your Name: Abhijeet
Subject: Strategy consultancy
Message: Hello mentor

Thanks for taking time out to answer my query.

Iam 30 yrs old and presently working in the merchant navy. I plan to do an MBA. Although I come from a non traditional background, i feel that my years of service in the merchant navy where i have risen to the rank of a Captain, have given me a skill set that can be readily transferred in a job such as strategy consultancy. However, this is my understanding and is ofcourse based on only what i read on the net. I would be extremely grateful if you could outline what a strategy consultants basic skill set would be and weather a career switcher will be at a disadvantage breaking into a consultancy job. FYI working in the merchant navy i have had the experience of working with multi national crew at different levels of responsibilities. There is a lot of focus on teamwork at lower ranks and at senior ranks one gets a good managerial experience which can be considered as good chance of honing our leadership skills. We are required to come up with practical solutions without the luxury of time or of external help.
That about sums it up in brief what i do and what i want to do. Id be extremely grateful if you could guide me whether i will be able to make a lateral shift into a consultancy job or i would be required to join as a fresher and in either case would an MBA be of help.

Sulbha: Strategy consultants are consulting experts who assist companies in finding answers to nagging questions regarding the future activities of the business.

An effective strategy consultant can work with the client to assess the current status of the consumer market and determine if the time is right to move forward with such projects as acquiring a competitor, restructuring the corporate organization, launching a new product line, or engaging in a major new public relations campaign. In this application, the consulting focuses on the possible outcome of any given strategy assuming it were implemented within a current set of circumstances.
Regarding your next question, whether a MBA would help, so the answer is, MBA from a premier institute would definitely act as a catalyst to help you attain your desirable job. But there is a possibility that you may have to start afresh, unless you plan to use your skill in providing consulting to firm involved in utilizing facilities of big ships or marine management, shore/ offshore facilities management etc. At such places you may even get recruited for senior position as your current experience will be counted as relevant.
Hope this will help.
Regards,
Sulbha

Your Name: JEENY SHARMA
Subject: Looking for a career as a Business Analyst.
Message: Hi

I have 4 yrs ,of experience in Business development/ Inside sales.
I am considering a domain change, by working as a Business Analyst.

Kindly guide me on what road-map i can have within this role and how do i pursue it and is there a good chance of me getting into Consulting role moving further?
Any advice would be appreciated.

Best regards
J

Sulbha:Dear Jeene,
If you are looking for domain change you should look for opportunities that are present in your current organization. In my opinion role transition in an existing organization rather than looking outside without requisite/relevant experience is easier.

Further it is easier to convince people you have worked with rather than convincing those at a new place. Regarding getting into consulting role and moving ahead, it should be possible. Your experience as Business Analyst will help you analyze organizational problems, understand design of businesses, ways and means of addressing stakeholders’ needs and the nuances of consulting domain.
All the best.

Your Name: Sonia
Subject: 5+ exp. and a graduate
Message: Hi Sulbha,
I have 5+ years experience and I am an engineering graduate. However most of my work ex. has been related to corporate affairs and internal company strategy. I have worked with three start ups and have an excellent marketing and sales strategy work ex. I currently do not have a MBA degree but plan to pursue it in future. I am very passionate on securing a consulting job. Please advise.

Thank you much for your valuable time

Regards
Sonia

Sulbha:Dear Sonia,
Working with start ups gives tremendous exposure to individual. He or she learns to face and act in a  real time business situation. If you are keen to join consulting, your experience will come very handy. You should market yourself appropriately and target domain where you have worked.

Yes! a MBA degree definitely helps but to begin with you can look out for opportunities in consulting firms and after few years you may go for full time MBA course. You should look out for consulting job in the area of your expertise area and I am sure you will be successful.

Make contact with right people in the field, prepare your resume which highlights your achievements, demonstrates your ability to manage tough situations, conditions, processes, people etc. It should reflect your strong communications skills, analytical skills, ability to present solutions and their impact.

We recently published an article on writing consulting resumes. You can go through that article for some helpful tips
Best of luck.
Regards,
Sulbha

Name: Murali Ahobala
Subject: Stepping into consulting
Message: Hello Sulbha

I am experienced in Supply Chain, Strategic sourcing and vendor development in the manufacturing sector.
I am also pursuing an international PGDM in Supply Chain with International Trade Center and Indian Institute of Materials Management.

Now, I like to step into the field of Business Process Consulting or Supply Chain Consulting.

I have structured my resume is a way such that all the required skills and competencies required by a consultant (functionally) are included.

How difficult is it to market myself to enter into consulting firms like the Big 4 in India? I have tried before and did not succeed.
Can you share a few tactics that I can use and some important points that I have to consider? Also, the best way in which I can approach them for a future career prospect with them?

Thanks in advance for your feedback!

Best Regards
Murali

Sulbha: Dear Murali,
Managing supply change and vendors for any particular sector gives you exposure to only one type of industry, where as in consulting domain you may have to work across various industries and you cannot be restricted to exposure to just one particular industry.

To get into any consulting firm in Supply Chain consulting, it is important that you not only understand the basic functionalities but also the industry types, their challenges, their requirements etc. It involves many aspects like Sourcing and Procurement, Manufacturing, Logistics and Distribution, Sales and Demand Fulfilment, Service Management and Information Technology etc. You should have detailed understanding of each aspect and should be able to liase and manage all stakeholder to be able to deliver complete solution to your client.
Tactics for getting into consulting field are simple, (i) good relevant experience, (ii) good communication skills, (iii) analytical skills, (iv) ability to think beyond obvious, (v) ability to work independently, (vi) good understanding of various industries and their businesses etc… the list can be much more ellaborate but the 6 points mentioned above the most basic considerations.
You may need to reconstruct your resume. Think about the skills used in the process of engaging a consulting project:
• Building and managing a team
• Project Management
• Gap Analysis
• Selling to Client
• Data Collection and its analysis
• Problem statement Formulation and solving it
• Constructing Recommendations
• Presentation (to client/management)
• Implementation (which may involve more team building, etc.)

There are two general approaches to building a consulting resume. One may fit better than the other given your background. The key is to make sure you present all the various skills used in a consulting engagement, plus whatever technical and soft skills you have to present, as best you can. The two approaches are:
i) Consulting resumes may look very much like their functional counterparts. However, constructing the resume so it more closely mirrors the work being performed is a definite advantage.
ii) Experiences can be listed by project, with the supporting bullet points elaborating on the process used to manage each project. In this case, you would present the top 3-5 projects for one or more positions and not mention smaller projects.

The key here is to focus on a few wide-ranging projects that demonstrate a variety of skills. You wouldn’t want to elaborate on every project.

To begin with you can also look out for opportunities in companies like Infosys (refer attached webpage) and then look out for core consulting firms few years down the line.
Let me know if you have any other queries.

Regards,
Sulbha

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Consulting Network

The larger the island of knowledge, the longer the shoreline of wonder.  ~Ralph W. Sockman. Consultants are not only renowned for their knowledge about business in general but also for their personalities. But the question remains – Where is all this knowledge? and How can an outsider (or as aspiring consultant) understand more about this noble profession.

We saw a need that demanded attention, and we responded. On 13 September 2010 we launched a consulting blog network that bring together knowledge from various blogs published and maintained by consultants and consulting companies at one place.

Thousands of readers visit Consulting Network each year.Would you like to share your blog posts with all these readers, which include practicing consultants, recruiters, industry experts, aspiring consultants, MBA students and experts? If yes, then join the Consulting Network Blog Network.

Once a blog publisher joins the Consulting Network Blog Network, we promote their blog posts across our entire group of websites. We have tons of community members who are constantly trying to learn from other people’s experiences and perspectives.

What sets up apart?

1. We ensure that only quality blogs are published on our network

2. We are the only blog network catering to the consulting community

3. We have a dedicated and experienced team

Want to learn more and join our network?

Visit http://www.consultingblognetwork.com/join

Some of the blogs that are already a part of our network include:

Business Blogs:

Consultant Blogs:

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Why the Blog Network?

One simple answer, Knowledge, there is so much of knowledge all around and yet, it never reaches its intended audience. Our blog network is a simple attempt to collate that unorganized knowledge at one place.

Do you want your blog to reach thousands of visitors?

Thousands of readers visit Consulting Network each year.Would you like to share your blog posts with all these readers, which include practicing consultants, recruiters, industry experts, aspiring consultants, MBA students and experts? If yes, then join the Consulting Network Blog Network.

When you join the Consulting Network Blog Network, we will promote your blog posts across our entire group of websites. We have tons of community members who are constantly trying to learn from other people’s experiences and perspectives. This entire initiative is based on quote – The larger the island of knowledge, the longer the shoreline of wonder. ~Ralph W. Sockman.

If you’re interested, then Contact us using the form below

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Such is the dominance of smartphones in today’s business world that many organizations make it mandatory for senior personnel to own one. But that’s not all, i recently read an article on Harvard Business Review(HBR) that talked about how entrepreneurs are changing the way they sell their ideas, it is not uncommon for an entrepreneur to whip out his smart phone and showcase his idea by simply touching a few buttons on his smartphone.

The flip side of this story is that a lot of people are now addicted to their smartphones. a study done  by David Vance, assistant professor of accounting at Rutgers-Camden university, and Nada Kakabadse, professor of management and business research at University of Northampton, UK  found that a third of BlackBerry users show signs of addiction “similar to alcoholics.” But in case you thought it was merely the corporate world that suffers from this addiction. Think again.

Few years back the smart-phone market was well segregated. While BlackBerry’s were in vogue with the corporates, teenagers and young adults were lining outside Apple Stores to buy IPhones. A lot has changed since then. Every few days one of my friends update  their Facebook status with their BlackBerry Pin. While BlackBerry has managed to enter the “teenager and young adult” market segment, IPhone is not too far behind in eroding the BlackBerry market, IT departments are flooded with requests by users to connect their IPhones to corporate networks. I recently read an article which states that many companies were considering moving to IPhones. Recently Standard Chartered bank announced that it has moved to IPhone from BlackBerry.

I decided to compile list of 5 signs to diagnose a smartphone addiction and a 3 step plan to cure that addiction. So here we go..

Top 5 Signs that you are addicted to your smartphone are:

1. You wake up at 3 Am in the morning just to check your emails. Even worse, you reply back at the same time.

2. You are constantly seen tapping into your smartphone during lunch hours/coffee breaks/dog walks etc.

3. You have completely forgotten that Black berry is a fruit

4. An email alert on your phones brings a big smile on your face

5. You secretly enjoy the fact that people think you’re a smartphone addict.

A 3 step plan to cure your smartphone addiction

1. Acknowledge the addiction : Its important to be aware about a problem. Acknowledging the problem is half the cure

2. Set boundaries: Make a rule that you will not check your email after 10 pm and slowly gather the courage to bring that deadline up to 7pm.

3. Create a off time : Make sure that you are actually engaging with your coworkers/friends/family during lunch/coffee breaks etc. Do not touch your smart phone during this time. Remember, world wars dint start because someone forgot to reply to an email.

Got more signs that indicate smartphone addiction? or pointers than can help cure this addiction?  Then leave them in the comment box below.

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Name: Saurav Srivastava

To be very specific I would like to know the exact job being performed by a management consultant. Is it a mixture of several tasks put together or very specific niche role.(I feel he wants to know whether consulting requires him to only have domain knowledge of one field or is he required to do multiple tasks like marketing, networking etc) What do I need to emphasize in my CV to be seen as a prospective candidate for a management consulting company.

Thanks
Saurav

Sulbha – Dear Saurav,
Companies are looking for different things for different roles but by and large few of the prerequisites of the many that consulting firms look out for in their new hires are that they have good domain knowledge, have understanding of the industry and various environments (socio, economic and political as well), have the ability to do multiple tasks at any given time. Good teaming skills and ability to adjust to new environment and people is also very important.
During an interview apart from displaying excellent communication skills and confidence, you it is important that you can think should be able to think on your feet. When a situation is given, you should be able to understand the problem given you should be able to think of couple of options that can be used to address it.
To have greater better idea about consulting industry and insights about it please follow the link

http://www.consultingnetwork.co.in/consulting-india/432/

In case you have any other specific question, please do let us know.

Name: Jackie
Message: I am a college senior graduating in the next couple months with a degree in Biology. I recently decided that professional school was not the right path/career for me and I have done some extensive research on different careers. Management consulting seemed like a perfect fit for me. However, it seems that most of the big consulting firms only hire at the top business schools. How do I get my foot in the door for this industry?

With a biology degree, I have extensive education background in analytical and technical courses. Are there any other courses I could take online to increase my chances of being hired by one of these firms? Do you have any recommendations on what organizations I can join to increase my network?

I appreciate any advice you can give me. Thank you for your time. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Sulbha – Dear Jackie,
Now a day there are many consulting firms that hire people with biology background. These firms hire people with specialization in fields like biotechnology, bioinformatics, agricultural biotechnology, molecular biotechnology etc. I am not sure about your specialization but in case it is any of the above mentioned, there are lot of opportunities.
In my view any online course can only give you guidance but not the practical experience. Organizations value on-job experience the most, and that can be gained only through on the job training. They will be more useful. As far as organizations are concerned you can look out for good pharma consultants, life science consulting firms etc. There is long list of consulting firms in your domain available. You can check out this link as well – > http://www.google.com/Top/Business/Biotechnology_and_Pharmaceuticals/Consulting/

Name: Paul McGovern
Message: Hi, I was recently accepted into a top 10 MBA program for the class of 2012 and want to do consulting for several years immediately after graduation. Do you know if any consulting firms offer pre-MBA internships? I’d really like to get a head start

Also, I’ll be 31 years old when I graduate. Will some firms consider me “too old” for an associate role?

Thanks,
Paul

Sulbha – Dear Paul,
Some firm do provide pre-MBA internship but that depends on the role they have on their requirements. You have not mentioned about your current employment status that would have helped in answering your question.
In case you are already employed but you are not in relevant field then you may try seeking employment for couple of years in any of the consulting firms. You may start from fresher level and can use this experience to know insights and work culture of these firms.
To answer your second question, yes some firms may consider you to be old for an associate level but if you can explain them the rationale behind the late start and are able to convince them then I don’t perceive this to be of any disadvantage to you.
All the best.

Name: Vivek Kumar
Message: Hi Sulbha, I’m an MBA with 8 yrs exp presently working in middle level position with a private
equity firm in India. I’m interested in entering into management consultancy industry.
I am more keen on a mid-market / boutique consultancy firm.

There are three challenges i’m facing :

• – my experience is largely in financial analysis which may not be very relevant to the management consultancy industry ( as I gather most seek consultancy experience for mid-level entries)
• I have limited contacts in the industry and finding it difficult to reach the relevant people
• how to assess the quality of work being done by the consulting firm and its standing in the industry.

Could you advice me.
Thanks & Regards
Vivek

Sulbha - Dear Vivek, One of the ways to understand quality of work of consulting firms is that you visit their websites and look for specific service offerings where you can add value. You will then be able to gather idea on the different types of consulting these firms provide and would be able to assess your experience as well. Evaluate these services and ask yourself “How can my experience help the client or add value to the existing service offering?”.
To enter on boutique firm at middle management in consulting firms requires relevant exp otherwiseexperience otherwise you would need to discount your experience and might gettry and enter entry aat a level below that your current one.
You should also use professional networking sites like Linkedin etc and try connecting with experienced professional in the target firms as they will be able to give you first hand information on their work and will be better able to assess your experience.

Regards,
Sulbha

Name: Manisha Jha
Message: Hi, Im a senior consultant in Financial services industry. I am aspiring to get into
Business consultancy job. have 9 years of experience. What is a salary range in India for
this band.

Sulbha – Dear Manish,
Compensation in consultancy varies from firm to firm. HR looks at education qualification, years of relevant experience, last compensation and peer group analysis while working on fitment. If a person is from a premier B school and has relevant exp, after 9 year he/she should be at Manager (higher band) or Senior Manager level. Though I would not like to mention any comp figure on this public portal but Senior Manager comps in Big 4s and premier consulting firms are very handsome in India.

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