Frequent flying as a consultant

[flyingfan]

I've been thinking about getting a job with one of the big consultancy firms and keen to learn about anyone's experiences with them especially as it relates to travel.

Were you (or someone you know) travelling to a client for 4 days and doing 1 day in the office for weeks on end? Was it a mix of domestic and international? Did you and everyone else there get LTP in record time?

And the surrounding issues... does the travel get so tiring that after a couple of years you'd pay to have some time at home with family? Do these firms make you work nights and weekends?

Interested in people's experiences, hopefully there will be some that can be shared.

 

[Happy Dude]

I'm not sure what field you're referring to (accounting, management etc) but I work for an enviro/engineering consultancy. Sometimes I travel a lot, sometimes I don't. I don't enjoy work-related travel, even if it's to far flung places. In my world clients generally won't pay a cent above the bare minimum (read Y travel only), and hate paying for travel time/expenses but these are captured in a fixed fee where necessary of course. Travel not related to a project (ie unbillable) is rare and generally the domain of high up managers.

Any business that bills by the hour is a consultancy. Time is money and I often work and get emails/calls outside of normal work hours (from clients and own team members), particularly when project deadlines are approaching. You do what's needed to do the job.

 

[RooFlyer]

I worked as a consultant to an Australian company with operations in Spain, USA and Canada for 10 years. At my busiest I was flying to Canada for 3 weeks on, 1 week back home for 4 months, else it was probably 6 trips to Canada and maybe 1 to Europe per year.

I got to Plat on QF and equivalent to Plat 1 on Air Canada for a couple of years, comfortable QF Plat and Air Canada Gold the rest of the time, via J travel. But I'm still a long way off QF LTP.

The company was very generous to me WRT travel arrangements. Basically I could book my own J routes through their travel agent. If, say, I wanted to come home from Vancouver via HKG or Japan and have a stop-over, I could book that (I'd pay for the hotels) - but the quid pro quo was that I was on-call 24/7, overseas and in Australia. I once interrupted a holiday in South America to fly to Canada on a day's notice to attend to some crisis that had developed. Another time I had taken myself to San Diego for a conference, but spent the entire time in my hotel room on a report that was needed urgently. That sort of stuff was rare, but I was able to accommodate them nearly all the time; if I had pre-paid an unmovable tour (such as a Galapagos cruise), they agreed beforehand that that time would be quarantined. At the work destination, they would rent an apartment for me and all living expenses paid. As I worked 7 days a week while overseas, I was occasionally able to get away for 4-5 days and go to places such as the Bahamas, at my expense of course. These arrangements were never documented, they just evolved as I worked closely with the MD.

They paid me the day for my travel, but I only charged them a standard 9 hour day, not the 23 hours or whatever it took me to get from Hobart to Calgary. or Hobart to Madrid.

I enjoyed it a lot - and they were satisfied in having someone as flexible as I could be.

 

[VPS]

I think it would be wise to know what the travel policy is before you sign anything and also check that they can't change it - it may be the client that dictates the travel rather than your employer but if you make it clear that you expect J for anything over X hours and you will not accept a flea bag hotel because it's $10 a night cheaper. Good luck and let us know what you decide.

Travelling for work does get very tiring and if you're like me you didn't want to see the inside of a plane or a hotel room for several months but there were also lots of upsides. As Rooflyer said - your life may not be your own for a while but as long as it's give and take you're OK. I was fine until we had a new GM that was a micro manager and I didn't last long with him

 

[Lynda2475]

The thing with the big consultancy firms like Acecnture or PWC is that they are global and unless you are a very rare expert they will likely have a resource in the region they need someone (or someone closer) rather than fly someone from Australia half way across the world.

When I worked for PWC, I found that US and European staff found it easier to get a transfer to Australia, than the Aussies did to get a placement in North America or Europe. The only travel I got to do was to regional areas which were supported out of Sydney office i.e. clients in Albury or Port Macquarie, some of my colleagues go to go to Darwin or Mt Isa.

When I worked for MMC, I got to go to NZ, Melbourne, Adelaide, Albury, Brisbane and Perth. If a multi-client visit, company dictated which airline I could fly and where I was allowed to stay. When client specific, if the client booked my travel for me I could often influence the flight choice. I took the MMC job because the division I worked in was based out of NYC (and then Philadelphia after 911), hoping Id get to do international travel, but this never eventuated. The travel policy was you had to fly economy unless the flight was over 9 hours which means even a trip to asia ends up being economy.

Over the past 3 years Ive engaged Accenture, PWC, KPMG, InFoSys amongst others to do consultancy work. Our main offices were in Sydney and Melbourne, and except for the lead consultant who did some domestic travel, Accenture always assigned Melbourne or Sydney based resources if they needed to be on our site, and arranged video conferences for offshore experts when needed. Only once did they fly people in from the US and Europe; and speaking with the onsite staff none of them had been further than NZ.

Im job hunting atm and would love a new role with enough travel (domestic or international) to see me comfortably at Gold, to make my personal travel easier, but given restrictions international will be off the table for the next year at least, and covid-19 has shown many companies just how effective VC can be, im sure travel budgets will be even tighter going forward.

 

[flyingfan]

Thanks for the input everyone. It would be painful to do long haul in Y, especially with COVID measures - think I'd rather not get locked into that.

I enjoy a good work-life balance at the moment and I'd be happy to work more. I'm less enthusiastic about surrendering my personal life wholesale for the job though. Maybe when I was younger it would have been more palatable.

Maybe I just need to get a promotion in my current job and remain an SFSC

 

[kookaburra75]

I've worked with a range of middle sized consulting companies, and most recently got an Australian arm of a UK business established. All of it has involved a lot of travel, and as mentioned up thread, a lot gets dictated by the Client and Company travel policies. I never got J travel, unless I used my own points to upgrade from Y to J. Usual rule was Y unless the flight was in excess of 8 hours, where you could travel in PE.
What I did find that having to travel just got added to your normal 'day' of work, with evenings in hotels working on deliverables or sales reports. In fact, many Govt policies actually state you can't bill them for travel time. There are also a lot of other odd rules around how much you can charge for hotels etc, that for some reason don't apply to their employees. I can relate many questionable decisions about allowable travel on some contracts.
Although, with all that sitting on flights, I only reached the lofty hights of WP five years ago, as I was doing 3-4 trips to the UK per year. I have enjoyed it, or more to the point MrsK has enjoyed the 1st class lounges and Bus Class flights on points.
On the plus side, being able to travel to a lot of new locations and experience new things was good. I have been able to go back for holidays with the family and at least I know my way around.
It does come down to work/life balance as you mentioned. As I've aged, going from being single, married with a family and now just MrsK and I, my view of travel has changed along the way. It wasn't so much that I didn't enjoy the travel, it was just something I had to do.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

The thing with the big consultancy firms like Acecnture or PWC is that they are global and unless you are a very rare expert they will likely have a resource in the region they need someone (or someone closer) rather than fly someone from Australia half way across the world.

Good point.

I had a friend based in Europe for one of the large firms. They travelled every week, usually to one Euro city for a few weeks/months then to the next Euro city. As happy dude points out, time is money.... it wasn't the leisurely 10am departure to Frankfurt or Geneva or Milan... they had to be at the client by 830am... so it was always the 6am departure, meaning up at 4am. And coming back it was 9.30 or 10pm by the time the got in the front door. Oddly, one of the most annoying things for them was missing rubbish night each week!

They had high status on the airlines, but did it matter? They checked in on line, only had hand luggage, and everyone on the flight had status, so very little benefits in terms of seating (and Euro seating is all the same anyway). They could use the lounge, sometimes, to grab a bite to eat on a Friday night before coming home to an empty fridge

Did they love it? No. But it did set them up for a great career later on.

 

[pauleg]

Good point.

I had a friend based in Europe for one of the large firms. They travelled every week, usually to one Euro city for a few weeks/months then to the next Euro city. As happy dude points out, time is money.... it wasn't the leisurely 10am departure to Frankfurt or Geneva or Milan... they had to be at the client by 830am... so it was always the 6am departure, meaning up at 4am. And coming back it was 9.30 or 10pm by the time the got in the front door. Oddly, one of the most annoying things for them was missing rubbish night each week!

They had high status on the airlines, but did it matter? They checked in on line, only had hand luggage, and everyone on the flight had status, so very little benefits in terms of seating (and Euro seating is all the same anyway). They could use the lounge, sometimes, to grab a bite to eat on a Friday night before coming home to an empty fridge

Did they love it? No. But it did set them up for a great career later on.

Excellent points!!! Status means nothing when everyone has the same. I can recall boarding flights when the "Elite" queue was longer than the plebs. And years later one of my children still recall my 4 am taxis from home - even though I crept out. You've got to make the most of the positives and tolerate the other.

 

[Beano]

I've done enough business travel to achieve LTG, but mostly QP in the last few years. This year my drive (flight) to retain QP has been stalled as no intentional travel. I remember 4 am starts from NZ to be at a meeting in Sydney for 9 am, then return the same evening to get home at 1:00 am. Lounge access is great at time like those. I would travel accross Australia from NZ two weeks out of every month spending a week at a time in OZ. I am now suffering withdrawal symptoms and watch every airline programme on TV, even Border Security the second time round, and wishing I were there. When international travel starts up I could be in OZ three weeks in every month; I do need some family time at home.

 

[flyingfan]

Excellent points!!! Status means nothing when everyone has the same. I can recall boarding flights when the "Elite" queue was longer than the plebs. And years later one of my children still recall my 4 am taxis from home - even though I crept out. You've got to make the most of the positives and tolerate the other.

Agreed both! Many of my flights involve MEL, SYD and CBR and the last two are status heavy, probably normal to have the first ten rows of those first 0600 or 0720 flights solid WP with a few CLs.

Sometimes I can fly up the night before but often I'd choose to spend an extra night with family, meaning it is a 4am Monday start. That would get old quickly...

 

[pauleg]

Agreed both! Many of my flights involve MEL, SYD and CBR and the last two are status heavy, probably normal to have the first ten rows of those first 0600 or 0720 flights solid WP with a few CLs.

Sometimes I can fly up the night before but often I'd choose to spend an extra night with family, meaning it is a 4am Monday start. That would get old quickly...

Yes - its a tough choice - with no real right answer. I found mixing it up was a good circuit breaker, just for the variation. The Points may provide some compensation - but not if you can't fly!!!

 

[UP4014]

If you are looking at it to enjoy a bit of travel, check their travel policy or have your contract written to suit. I have worked in consulting and cheapest airline is often the case. I got around by saying I would fly in my own time if where possible, say in the evenings if domestic, in exchange for flying QF. It was seen as a win as more billable hours available during the day.

 

[Beano]

If you are looking at it to enjoy a bit of travel, check their travel policy or have your contract written to suit. I have worked in consulting and cheapest airline is often the case. I got around by saying I would fly in my own time if where possible, say in the evenings if domestic, in exchange for flying QF. It was seen as a win as more billable hours available during the day.

I agree. Early evening or late afternoon flights, but I get to chose the airline anyway, usually QF, or at least when prices are similar. One conditions is not to arrive in a city later than say 10pm because I start at 6 am the next day.

Post automatically merged: Nov 9, 2020

Yes - its a tough choice - with no real right answer. I found mixing it up was a good circuit breaker, just for the variation. The Points may provide some compensation - but not if you can't fly!!!

Check out boarding queues. I'm sure there is a forum on priority boarding, or lack thereof.

 

[NM]

I think a lot of large organisations have learned over the last 6-9 months that business can continue to operate via on-line collaboration tools. I think a lot of tasks that once required or justified a interstate or international trip for face-to-face meetings will be performed remotely from now on. COVID-19 has proven to many organisations that travel and physical presence in a specific location are less important than previously perceived. The bigger and more global the organisation, the more they have seen the ability to operate without the need for travel. Many companies are measuring the cost savings in 6/7 figure numbers and have no plans to return to the previous era of putting staff on a plane to attend a meeting even when COVID-19 related travel restrictions diminish.

 

[Flashback]

To answer the OP's question, they will extract every last little piece of life out of you. I haven't worked for the big 4, but have worked for 2 very large multi national technology companies and that is how it's been; especially when you typically work on projects / consulting engagements.

Early starts, late finishes, rarely time to grab lunch.

As noted by others the 4am starts to get to the airport and up to the client office in time wears thin pretty quickly, I don't miss that, especially during a UK winter! It was good though to be able to be closer to the core group you're working with and be able to socialise a bit etc. so I do miss that.

Business travel is still happening right now for the company I'm providing services to, it looks like I'm back in the seat come January so looking forward to that. Policy is J for > 3 hours, so sorted on that one.

The 2 multi nationals I worked for though, was Y (I could get away with Y+ as I was a 3rd party contractor to them so was able to book things myself outside of Concur, their travel tool) and as others have noted, even when the client has J travel for their own staff.... their policy for 3rd parties was Y; what buggers! Obviously it will differ from company to company and it's just the luck as to what you end up having to deal with.

I know people that work for the big 4 and travel every week, and have done for 10+ years; even if it's just SYD-MEL and vv. because the SYD office doesn't have the right resources for SYD projects and the same for MEL. So the 2 offices almost end up doing a swapsies type thing.

 

[Beano]

If you are an independent contractor you should be able to make your own rules. J at least, car hire, 4*+ hotel, AYCE & D (work that one out) etc as long as you bring in the money. One client asked me to go to the Philippines at short notice in December which was is a difficult to arrange cheaply so it was J all the way. Another one to UAE also in J. The clients were happy to pay so no problems with my company. It depends what you can negotiate and how eager your company is for the business despite any up front travel policy. I must admit that even though I work for a small local company airline club membership of the airline of your choice was available, subject to you needing to travel a lot. Not necessary any more as it comes with my status.

 

[flyingfan]

J at least

Are there consultants or anyone outside C-suites and celebs who can get F written into their contract?

I'm under no illusions as to my indispensability, I wouldn't play hard ball with a contract... and someone who's indispensable is also irreplaceable and that limits career movement IMHO!

 

[Beano]

Some people regard travel for work as a perk, however it is done. If you can get a good deal then go for it, but best not to push too hard, and hope to keep your air miles (point, dollars).

 

[kookaburra75]

Are there consultants or anyone outside C-suites and celebs who can get F written into their contract?

I'm under no illusions as to my indispensability, I wouldn't play hard ball with a contract... and someone who's indispensable is also irreplaceable and that limits career movement IMHO!

I doubt very much you could get that written into a contract. Your value to the organisation is based on the level of profit you can generate (as compared to revenue you can bring in), which the Partner you report to gets a cut under the partnership profit sharing agreement. Higher costs for F travel means less profit. When you see Partners travelling up in F, it it generally comes out of their own pocket. Usually I only see the senior bureaucrats and the politicians up in F, or the C-suite for the luxury related companies, where it goes with their image.

And as there is more and more pressure on the big consulting companies from boutique companies I think you'll find any employment package you are offered will be fairly tight on what is included, and certainly they won't be offering anything beyond the norm.

Boutique consulting thrives on promise of better value

Smaller, cheaper consulting firms are growing as they manage to keep their overheads low while offering the services of experienced professionals.

www.afr.com

And in the consulting game, no one is indispensable - anyone who acts like that IMHO gets moved on before they become a liability