The Field
In the business of renting out brains.
According to the Oxford Dictionary, consulting is giving expert advice to people working in a specific field. But consultants rarely use set definitions.
Marc P. Cosentino, author of Case in Point: Complete Case Interview Preparation, summarizes consulting like this:
“Consulting firms are in the business of renting out brains. Consultants get paid to synthesize massive quantities of foreign data, toss out the irrelevant information, structure an approach to a given client issue, and hypothesize logically and creatively before people of power and influence.”
How an engagement works
A structured semester, end to end.
Every project follows the same arc, roughly eight weeks from kickoff to final delivery.
Week 1
01
Scoping
Define the problem and success metrics with the client.
Weeks 2–3
02
Discovery
Research, stakeholder interviews, and data gathering.
Weeks 4–5
03
Analysis
Frameworks, modeling, and pulling it into findings.
Weeks 6–7
04
Strategy
Build the recommendation set and implementation roadmap.
Week 8
05
Delivery
Final presentation, deck, and handoff to the client.
What it takes
What traits does a consultant have?
Consulting is closer to studying at a university, where you are continuously learning something new. It takes strong functional skills to solve problems across many industries, and most of the work happens inside a team.
01
Strong communication
Clients span very different corporate cultures, so reading the room matters as much as the analysis does.
02
Leadership
Holding the scope, keeping the team moving, and presenting the recommendation at the end.
03
Drive and initiative
Eight weeks is a long time to hold momentum, and teams lean on the people who bring it.
04
A team player
Almost all of the work happens in a team, so how you work with people matters as much as the output.