| Ever wonder what's like to be a consultant? A Day in | | | | eight other Analysts working together on this project |
| the Life of a Strategy Consultant from Deloitte | | | | who are all a similar age and graduated in the same |
| Consulting should give you a good idea of | | | | year from university. Often I'll grab a sandwich and |
| management consultant's life style. | | | | take it back to my desk. No-one is watching you |
| 10:30 am. The plus side of signing up for evening shifts | | | | clocking in your hours and it still surprises but impresses |
| is that I can come in a bit later which on a Monday is | | | | me how much we are left to manage our own time |
| always very welcome. I work for Accenture and am | | | | and responsibilities. Every two weeks I provide a |
| currently based in south London, working on a project | | | | status report to my immediate supervisor so she |
| for one of the largest UK food retailers. The contract | | | | knows where I am and what I'm doing. |
| we have will last for a number of years. I am currently | | | | 12:30 to 1:00 pm. I have a meeting with one of the |
| working on one of their most high profile projects | | | | Consultants on the team to discuss the problems we |
| involving the deployment of RePos (Replatforming | | | | have been having with the disposal of kit from |
| Electronic Point of Sale) and new Desktop 4 PCs, a | | | | conversions. We have decided to go and meet our |
| network upgrade, a new Infrastructure server and | | | | main contact at the warehouse in an attempt to |
| Customer Contact Management System into all of | | | | improve relations and thus get faster results. This will |
| their 469 stores. The project started in June 2002 and | | | | mean going to Essex first thing Thursday morning and I |
| will run to the end of July 2003. I joined in October | | | | have been asked to organise the meeting, take |
| 2002 and I am responsible for the allocation of new | | | | minutes and as preparation familiarise myself with the |
| Desktop 4 PCs and printers. | | | | contract that was signed so that I'm up to date. |
| In the morning the first thing I will usually do is spend | | | | 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm. If I have not yet had a reply from |
| half an hour reading, answering and sorting my emails. I | | | | my morning emails, I will chase them with a call to |
| have two separate email accounts - one is used for | | | | make sure they are being actioned. Experience has |
| store specific correspondence and the other is used | | | | taught me that it is better to be polite and pushy in |
| for my general business admin. My email accounts will | | | | order to get results - the store personnel have a million |
| be open and checked throughout the day as it is | | | | and one things to do every day and are often grateful |
| usually my first method of contacting store personnel. | | | | for the reminder. When a store's allocation has been |
| Sometimes replying and chasing emails can take up | | | | agreed, there are a number of processes I have to |
| the majority of the day; sometimes I barely have a | | | | follow to ensure that each store is tracked correctly |
| chance to glance over them. Every day is dramatically | | | | and the correct information is entered in our database. |
| different, which can be hectic but is the main reason | | | | I'll usually have quite an extensive 'to do' list on the go |
| why I looked for a career in consulting. | | | | which often includes chasing up issues from the |
| 11:00 am to 12:00 pm. At the moment we are deploying | | | | overnight conversions and preparing and updating |
| the new system to eighteen stores every week, so I | | | | documentation on what I've been doing. |
| need to make sure that each of the stores have | | | | 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm. Coffee, check my email, |
| agreed to their allocation of PCs and printers. Every | | | | chocolate! Read through the contract I had been given |
| Thursday there is a deadline to send our contractors a | | | | after lunch and try and get approval for holiday in June |
| list of the computers they need to build for each store. | | | | from my supervisor. |
| Attention to detail is critical as each store has different | | | | 4:00 pm to 8:00 pm. Mission Control shift. Mission |
| requirements. Sometimes the work can be quite | | | | Control manages the technical deployment of the |
| monotonous so I will try and break it up with some of | | | | conversions and is a single point of contact for the |
| my other responsibilities; including managing the revisits | | | | engineers on site who will call in with updates, queries |
| that certain stores require and overseeing the | | | | and issues. Before Christmas, I was working an |
| refurbishment and disposal of old kit that is removed | | | | overnight once every two weeks but now we have |
| from the stores when we convert them to this new | | | | been asked to cover a day shift every week and one |
| system. The phone is always ringing with store | | | | weekend day shift every two weeks. Shift times vary |
| personnel and our third party vendors wanting updates | | | | from 6am to 4pm to the more preferable 4pm to 8pm. |
| and raising issues. | | | | We are allowed to take time off in lieu so it is up to us |
| 12:00 to 12:30pm. Lunch time! One of the great things | | | | to manage and organize our work hours; sometimes I'll |
| about working for a large company and a big project | | | | come in late, leave early or get approval for a day off. |
| is the number of people you meet, so there is always | | | | The hours can be frustrating but working in Mission |
| someone to catch up with over lunch. I actually work | | | | Control certainly adds diversity to my role - I miss the |
| opposite a girl who also read History at Edinburgh | | | | rush hour as I go home and if I've had a bad day, I |
| University but we had never met before. There are | | | | know that tomorrow will be totally different. |