What is your hour like as a consultant？

I worked in Financial Services for Kienbaum Mangement Consultants about 10 years ago (now Kienbaum Consutants International). 

Three parameters are relevant.

1. Working at the client. Travelling is obviously on top. Very often at this time first flight in on Monday, last or second last flight out on Friday). And yes, "face time" /"window dressing was and for sure is still a topic depending on the manager and or director ;-(  sad, but unfortunately usually true

2. Pitches. Pitches on top or even alone may be very time consuming, esp. for big tickets. 

3. Seniority level. The more senior, but usually only from principal onwards, the more you can decide over your time. 

Usually we were roughly from 9am to 9pm at the client. But hardly any work over the weekend.

Hope it helps, but it all depends on the firm, office and culture (of the acting people)...

Jasper

Hello!

Super difficult to answer this, since there was a +/- up to 100% difference between engagements. 

• The good ones were form 9 to 21h. 
• The bad ones are from 9 to 2-3h, including some times alltnighters and weekends. 

I was in Madrid, that is also supposed to be one of the worst offices arround the world

Hope it helps!

Cheers, 

Clara

55-60 hours. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Bain - Central Europe. Note though, that location and practice is probably a more relevant driver than firm. Client expectation is what's driving case scoping and team composition. And that is more driven by the market than by the firm. 

BCG Australia. 55-65 hours per week. 12 hours/day Mon-Thurs with 6-8 hours Friday. Travel ended up being pretty much 100%. Almost never worked weekends.

Hey there,

The typical week around 60-65ish, McK Austria (German office), staffed globally.

Usually, Monday to Wednesday is full throttle, Thursday is fly day and mostly no work after landing, Friday left office between 3 and 6 pm. No weekend work.

Cheers,

Florian

I would argue the other important nuance is the typical working hours in a day (e.g., 8:30am - 10:30pm). My personal challenge with consulting lifestyle was that although you can take time out during the day for meals, gym, personal things, etc. the working day is long and its difficult to mentally check out. Some firms/offices will have you consistently working until around midnight while some will be more structured and have you finish around 9pm.

Bain Germany, 70 hours, typically from 8:30am to 1 or 2 am at night. Work after landing on Thursday, leaving the office on Fridays 8pm or even later. Has been like that for the past 3 years working across multiple practices.

First, as every consultant will say, there is no such thing as average . It is completely dependent on a particular week, project, client, team etc.

Worst case - 23hrs on a DD including working on an overnight flight

Best case - 7hrs

Median case - 12hrs