On getting into boutique management consulting and deciding against working for large corporate consultancies.
During recruiting events, we always explain the advantages of working in a boutique consultancy compared to working for one of the big consultancies. For a book project, we were approached by Prof. Dr. Thomas Deelmann (thomas.deelmann@hspv.nrw.de; Twitter: @Ueber_Beratung) from the University of Police and Public Administration of North Rhine-Westphalia, who was looking for young management consultants to comment on this issue.
The following interview with Lea Mühlenschulte was published in October 2020 in "Consulting - Ein Lehr, Lern und Lesebuch zur Unternehmensberatung" (Prof. Dr. Thomas Deelmann & Prof Dr. Andreas Krämer, Erich Schmidt Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, available at https://esv.info/978-3-503-19516-9) on pp. 70 - 72.
You are still quite fresh in the consulting business. Therefore, first a double question: Why did you choose consulting and why a rather smaller house [and not, for example, Accenture or the consultants at the Big4]?
My degree program in international law and security policy is actually not predestined to switch to consulting, yet I decided to do so even before graduation in order to further improve my project management and negotiation skills. Working in consulting gives me the opportunity to fully utilize my legal and linguistic skills – I am trilingual – as well as my preferences for structured work and changing, exciting tasks. The reason I chose a smaller consulting firm is that it offers me better individual development opportunities, because I can actively participate in determining how I want to develop my projects. At my company, you are not "one of many", but have an active chance to help shape the future of the company and have a say in it. Since I spent a lot of time in Scandinavia, a flat hierarchy and a solid work-life balance were also very important to me in my choice of employer.
Would you describe what your first days or weeks were like? What was it like to get started in concrete terms?
In the first few days, I read up a lot on the different areas of our company and also received concrete 1:1 training from my colleagues. After just four weeks, I was on my first project assignment in the public sector, where I was able to support a specific project from start to finish. At the beginning, this direct "hands on" is of course a bit scary, but through the direct involvement, the opportunity to learn something from the experienced colleagues and the contact with the customers, I was able to deepen and apply my theoretical knowledge very quickly. In addition, the direct feedback from the customer is also a great opportunity to develop further. In general, we at Complion try to integrate new – young – employees directly into the daily business, because we believe that "hands on" experience is the best.
Were there any surprises, so was anything in "real consulting life" different from what you had imagined beforehand?
At the beginning, I expected to spend my life in hotel rooms from now on, working many hours a day for clients. However, my company pays a lot of attention to the personal work-life balance of the team, and we very often have the opportunity to work from the home office and schedule our work ourselves. Of course, long working days are also necessary if, for example, the project is close to completion, but attention is always paid to a (later) compensation. In addition, there is a constant exchange between the employees, so that it is ensured that one is always up to date, even if one is working on a project for a longer period of time or in the home office. In addition, we also try to meet every two months as a whole team to enable personal exchange.
Is there anything you could give as a tip to other people interested in consulting? [E.g. with regard to preparation (lectures, internships, ...), application or the entry phase].
Personally, I think it makes sense to work for a small consulting firm, because there each individual employee can be promoted more strongly, and you have the opportunity to have direct contact with many experienced colleagues. In my opinion, the most profound knowledge transfer comes from personal exchange, with a close relationship between colleagues. In addition, it can make sense to look for a niche and enter consulting there, because not everyone has to do management consulting in the end.
Going beyond these topics, what trends do you personally see in the consulting market?
In reality, at the moment it is still often the case that long working days are demanded of consultants; I think this will change in the future, as for my generation a balanced work and leisure schedule is very important. Furthermore, I see a trend towards smaller, more individualized and specialized consulting firms – like my company is. Among our clients, I increasingly encounter small companies that are displacing the large consulting firms.
Personal description
Lea Mühleschulte, born in the mid-90s in North Rhine-Westphalia, completed her studies in Denmark and wrote her master's thesis on the legal basis of resource extraction in the Arctic. Immediately after completing her master's degree in International Security and Law, she started working for Complion, contributing her legal expertise in the areas of cyber security and contract management as well as data protection.
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