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What are the perks of being locally staffed?

London New York San Francisco
New answer on Oct 19, 2023
11 Answers
1.5 k Views
Anonymous A asked on Dec 16, 2020

Hi everyone, plenty of good info in here.

Since a tiny fraction of consultants work in their home office city, do these consultants receive any of the perks that travelling consultants do?

Sorry for the silly question, but I can't seem to find info on this forum nor Reddit.

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Anonymous replied on Dec 16, 2020

Hi,

Based on my experience the perks of locally staffed are:

  • Meal allowance (Local staffing and fly-ins)
  • Transport allowance (Local staffing and fly-ins)
  • Party with your team (Local staffing and fly-ins)
  • No Sunday night / Monday morning airport rush (only for locally staffed)
  • Catch up with friends and family during weekdays (only for locally staffed)

The extra things that Fly-ins get are hotel and airline points :)

Note: Fly-ins are consultants assigned outside their home country

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Ken
Expert
replied on Dec 16, 2020
Ex-McKinsey final round interviewer | Executive Coach

Every firm and office have slightly different policies but generally the only financial perk is the meal allowance if you eat dinner at the office. However, once you have been travelling back to back for projects, sleeping in your own bed, working in the comfort of your home office where you can catch up with people and being able to make evening plans are major perks!

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Benjamin
Expert
Content Creator
replied on Oct 19, 2023
Ex-BCG Principal | 8+ years consulting experience in SEA | BCG top interviewer & top performer

Not having to wake up at 6am on Monday, or take a red-eye flight back on Friday evening :)

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Raj
Expert
Content Creator
replied on Feb 28, 2021
FREE 15MIN CONSULTATION | #1 Strategy& / OW coach | >70 5* reviews |90% offers ⇨ prep-success.super.site | MENA, DE, UK

Some of the pros are

  • Being able to have a social life during the week
  • No early Monday AM flights to wake up for
  • Comfort of living in your own home
  • Eating better quality food vs room service
  • Probably easier to maintain a fitness regime

If your question is whether the firm will offer any perks, then that would be

  • Dinner allowance
  • Taxi if working late
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Ian
Expert
Content Creator
replied on Dec 16, 2020
#1 BCG coach | MBB | Tier 2 | Digital, Tech, Platinion | 100% personal success rate (8/8) | 95% candidate success rate

Hi there,

Here are the perks (in my order of preference):

  1. Not having to leave Sunday at 4pm or wake up Monday at 5am to catch a flight
  2. Not returning at 11pm on Thursday night
  3. Being at home with friends and family
  4. Office perks (food, supplies, etc.)
  5. Evening meals (generally, if you work past 7pm you can expense dinner...per diem is obviously lower than if traveling)
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Vlad
Expert
replied on Dec 16, 2020
McKinsey / Accenture Alum / Got all BIG3 offers / Harvard Business School

Hi,

The upside is that you are staying at home. You don't waste time flying and no change of time zones.

There are two downsides:

  • Obviously, you don't earn points on hotels, flights. You can still earn them if you travel inside the country
  • Work-life balance is usually worse since in general, you work more if staffed locally

Best

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Clara
Expert
Content Creator
replied on Dec 16, 2020
McKinsey | Awarded professor at Master in Management @ IE | MBA at MIT |+180 students coached | Integrated FIT Guide aut

Hello!

In terms of perks as we know them, most of them are there when traveling:

  • Hotel points
  • Plane points
  • All transport and meals covered
  • etc.

However, being in the office offers many and even better ones:

  • Not having to travel Sunday night/Monday morning
  • Not having to travel back
  • Muuuuch less back ache for that
  • Plus, on top, some of the other perks:
    • Cafeteria in the office
    • Meals paid in the client
    • Transport paid when going to client

All in all, work-life balance usually is much better when you are in the home office, and people normally kill for those engagements.

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

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Gaurav
Expert
Content Creator
replied on Dec 16, 2020
Ex-Mckinsey|Certified Career Coach |Placed 500+ candidates at MBB & other consultancies

Hi there,

the main difference is the level of comfort of being closer to home, being able to see friends and family, to have a healthier lifestyle basically in comparison to the one of fly-ins. The perks travel consultants receive is the one of travelling :) but it's also stress.

Best

GB

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Francesco
Expert
Content Creator
replied on Dec 16, 2020
#1 Coach for Sessions (4.000+) | 1.500+ 5-Star Reviews | Proven Success (➡ InterviewOffers.com) | Ex BCG | 10Y+ Coaching

Hi there,

When I was staffed in my home office, I had two main perks:

  1. Late dinners if I stayed late in the office
  2. Free taxi ride at home if I stayed late in the office

As others mentioned, it was also great to be at home after so much traveling ;)

Best,

Francesco

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Adi
Expert
Content Creator
replied on Dec 16, 2020
Accenture, Deloitte | Precision Case Prep | Experienced Interviewer & Career Coach | 15 years professional experience

Agree with all the coaches- family & personal life perks outweigh the "financial" perks of out of town projects. One other advantage is opportunity to network quickly in the local office specially with senior people. So make the most of this before you get put on that plane every week- although unlikely its going to return to pre COVID days, travel most certainly will reduce.

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Henning
Expert
replied on Dec 16, 2020
Bain | passed >15 MBB interviews as a candidate

Speaking of experience here: Yes, we do - except the airline/hotel points. And we get an important perk that other don't get: We get to see our families during the week and can have dinner at home, which is a great driver of sustainability (for me at least).

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