It’s been seen many times before. Salaried people – especially in specialist areas –make the transition to the Consulting profession. This is sometimes a planned career move or sometimes the result of an unplanned event, like a redundancy. Unplanned, by the employee, that is.
The benefits are attractive – one gets to apply specialist knowledge on a daily basis, work in a multitude of challenging and diverse corporate environments, and travel the world (or country). There is however a downside – applying specialist knowledge on a daily basis, working in a multitude of challenging and diverse environments, and travelling the world (or country).
Consulting is therefore the natural progression to make in one’s career. But what happens when one wants to make a move in the opposite direction? And more importantly, how does one know when it’s time to move? When is it time to hang up those consulting gloves, and swap them for a pair of 9-5 trainers?
One of the attractions of consulting is that when one gets customer or project burn, you move on – sometimes it’s easier said than done, but you move on to another customer or project. But what happens when you get consulting burn? Something like post-traumatic stress disorder – where do you move to and are you able to adjust to and live a normal civilian life?
I’d love to hear your stories about why, how, and where you moved.