Work-Life Balance: Does it exist in consulting?

Do you wonder about work-life balance in consulting? One person says it's amazing - eating for free at fine restaurants and jet-setting every weekend. Another says they just work, work, work! What's the truth? Can you build a sustainable lifestyle while working as a management consultant? Is it at least better than the banking work-life balance? Jenny Rae gives the inside look at what you can expect while working at McKinsey, Bain, BCG, Deloitte, or other top management consulting firms.
Timestamps:
00:35- The Truth of consulting work-life balance
00:46- Work-life balance in compared to banking
01:44- When consultants can expect to have work-life balance
02:17- Consulting work patterns
Subscribe to our channel: ruclips.net/user/managementcon...
Learn about our accelerated case interview prep program: managementconsulted.com/black...
Subscribe to our channel: ruclips.net/user/managementcon...
Great practical RUclips content from www.managementconsulted.com:
Case Interview Playlist: bit.ly/CaseInterviewPlaylist
Consulting Fit Interviews: bit.ly/FitInterviewsPlaylist
Consulting Resumes: bit.ly/ConsultingResumesPlaylist
Networking for Consulting: bit.ly/NetworkingForConsulting...
Great intro RUclips content from www.managementconsulted.com:
Consulting 101- All your basic consulting questions answered: bit.ly/Consulting101Playlist
Consulting Firms 101 Playlist: bit.ly/ConsultingFirmsPlaylist
Is Consulting Right For You Playlist: bit.ly/IsConsultingRightForYou
Here's a sneak peak at Work Life Balance: Does it exist in consulting? transcript:
Today I'm going to address a couple of myths about consulting work-life balance. This is something that consultants bring up all the time in their marketing pitch. Really, you have to understand the context
of where they believe their work-life balance comes from - in relation to whom do consultants have balanced work lives?
And then you also have to understand the lifecycle of a consulting project, in order to understand how to debunk the myth of consulting
work-life balance.
Here's the myth...

[@cosmodin1882]

Worked at a Big 4 for 3 years. Totally agree with your points. Also, I would add that working on multiple projects + trying to get more clients (through elaborating bid proposals) tends to lead you from a cyclical work-life balance to no balance whatsoever. I experienced it first hand.

[@johnzarr6590]

Work / life balance in consulting does exist, but you must have very strict personal guidelines.
My advice if you wish to break the vicious cycle of failure & burnout, improve your self esteem and increase your productivity in life is the following: Work hard all week long, but starting at 5 pm on Friday, you need to shut your cell phone and all your electronics off. Begin resting and relaxing at home. Don’t defeat the purpose of rest by continuing to work at home cooking complicated meals. Just eat cold leftovers and concentrate on resting and relaxing all day Saturday. Don’t turn your cell phone and other electronics back on until 9 pm on Saturday. Beginning on Sunday morning, go back to work all week long and start resting as previously described on Friday at 5 pm. This advice works as I have tried it myself. If you sincerely wish to continue a life of repeating a vicious cycle of failure & burnout & low self esteem, just ignore my advice & keep doing what you have been doing. Best wishes & Good luck.

[@Managementconsulted]

Rest is definitely important!

[@cocoarecords]

Love it

[@Frederick0220]

Fascinating stuff! What a crunk career!

[@30zoop]

So the life is very similar to that of an auditor

[@Managementconsulted]

I'd point out a few key differences (sister was an auditor at a Big 4, so basing it on that knowledge): 1. No universal busy season in consulting. Business is based on project schedules. 2. Very local travel for auditors (usually to the same client site, often driving) vs. flights anywhere globally based on multiple parts of business operations for consulting

[@30zoop]

@@Managementconsulted Being an big 4 auditor I agree to the above mentioned points.
Based on your sisters and your experience do you think it's good idea to shift to consulting from audit and start fresh?

[@danielwang2714]

Completely disagree that the beginning of projects are "chill". If anything, those are the most critical weeks as they help you quickly get up to speed. You will be way too buried under the sheer amount of client-provided data and information to have a "3 hour lunch" to catch up with a friend.