Hi there,

First of all, congratulations on the offers from the two consulting companies!

I would be happy to share my thoughts on your question:

• First of all, the direct relation of working hours with personal growth and learning in a consulting role might not be significant. It is the quality and nature of the challenges in the work that counts, not merely the duration spent on it.
• Moreover, your observation about productivity not increasing in a linear manner with working hours is accurate. Longer work hours do not always equate to enhanced learning, especially if it results in burnout or low-quality work.
• Lastly, considering your specific interest in capability development and given that both firms offer sufficient formal training opportunities, I would advise you to consider other factors as well. This may include the kinds of projects you will be involved in, exposure to different sectors or global experience, and opportunities for mentorship within each firm.

If you would like a more detailed discussion on how to address your specific situation, please don't hesitate to contact me directly.

Best,

Hagen

Hello,

To purely answer your question, I don't think learning has a high correlation with abnormally high working hours. Your hypothesis that no one is productive for 11 hrs per day is spot on - in fact, you'll usually find yourself getting more productive when figuring out how to do the same amount of work in less time.

However, bear in mind that working for a bigger, more well-known company can bring additional advantages in terms of network, development, wider breadth of work, and future opportunities.

Hi there, 

You raise an interesting question. I actually wrote about this subject at length in terms of working hours and how you can control for them here:

• The Truth About Consulting Work Hours: What You Need to Know

But in short, no, more hours don't necessarily mean better development opportunities. 

I'd even change the question that you're asking. What is your end goal? Do you want to become a great consultant? Do you want to optimize for the brand? Do you want to optimize for compensation? What is it that you want to optimize for? What do you want out of the job? 

If you answer these questions upfront then it might become more obvious which one you should go for in the end. 

Best,
Cristian

Hi there,

Congratulations on the offers! In terms of your question:

Q: Does learning/personal development has a high correlation with working hours?

In general, if you want to achieve/learn something and be good at it, you need to put in the hours. Having said that, it also depends on how you use the hours.

Overall I would say that working hard is a necessary but not sufficient condition for strong learning. So in general there is correlation but not necessarily causation.

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Going a bit on a tangent: another interesting point is how useful it is to be marginally better with the specific skill where you are putting the hours. That’s because:

• The marginal amount of improvement decreases with the number of hours. Meaning, if you are starting from zero to learn a skill (think “learning to play the guitar”), you will probably get the most learning (in “absolute” terms) within the first 10-20 hours. With the following hours, the marginal learning for each hour will decrease. 
• At the same time, in some cases there is a huge gap between being the #1 with one skill and #2 (think about the #1 and #2 in the 100 meters at the Olympics). So it could make sense to become marginally better at something, even if the gain is minimal.

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In terms of the actual choice between two different offers, I would recommend the following:

▶ How to Compare Different Offers

Good luck!

Francesco

Hi there,

I appreciate that you have frame your question/objective very clearly along with assumptions/preferences….sometime often lacking in Q&As that really helps us give better advice!

I would say there is a correlation.

However, there are other factors that affect learning as well:

1. L&D program/suppport (trainings, resources, etc.)
2. Culture
3. Your boss
4. Your team
5. How happy you are

Boss and team trump all. (In my experience, personally)