This section will cover some of the high-level personalities you will find throughout your career. These are not meant as a stereotype and every person is different in some form or fashion, but the overall personality types should prepare you for what to expect at your clients’ site.

Personalities

The Go-Getter

The Go-Getter is the A-type personality who is an always-working, never-sleeping overachiever. This person is usually hardwired to push themselves and others around them to succeed. It can be in your favor to align yourself with people like this in the organization and cherry-pick some of their traits that will allow you to succeed. They will be great allies to have around and can have road blocks cleared in your work, hammer out items that are perceived to be difficult and keep the project and work moving forward. They have a hard time letting tasks stall out. Be careful, however, as A-types can be perceived to have a lack of empathy. They may push you and others around them a little too hard and cause some friction. Their goal of ultimate success may also lead them to push everyone out of their way and play a bit more of a political or cut-throat game in the work environment.

The Grouchy IT Guy

The grouchy IT guys exist in almost every organization. He usually lives in the IT organization, wears ironic pop culture t-shirts and seems to always be upset about something. Other departments are not safe either as there are equivalent counterparts everywhere in the organization. There is not much you can do when dealing with the grouchy IT guy. He is surly, loves to complain about everything wrong in the organization and usually enjoys crushing diet cokes all day. It will play in your favor to stay as much on their good side as possible, especially if they will play some role on your project, whether it is technical advisory or conducting code deployments. Do not let it get you down when you feel like you are not liked or appreciated by this person. Don’t worry, he does not like or appreciate anyone. If his attitude does actually become a hindrance on your work or creates a hostile environment which you are uncomfortable with, raise the concern with your project leadership and see if they are willing to talk to the client sponsor to help resolve the issue.

Remember, everyone goes through some sort of personal life problem from time to time, so don’t let it get under your skin and be patient where you can.

The Person that should Avoid Buses

Every company and client is going to have one or a few folks who others will tell you “we don’t know what we will do if he/she gets hit by a bus”. This person has a vast and profound knowledge of the business and is known as the subject matter expert. There is no type of documentation you can read to get the amount of comprehension this person has in their head. They are absolutely vital to the projects’ successes and usually will be happy to share their wisdom with you, if they feel like it will help them grow the organization they have invested so much in. Many times, they are just looking to help you offload some of the dependency on themselves which can be stressful for them.

You may also find the opposite attitude where the subject matter expert is standoffish, and feel threatened by the consultant as the work you are doing may appear to reduce the dependency their employer has on them and fear it may make them expendable. It is best to work in a partnership with folks like these and earn their trust over time. There usually is never enough project work to ever really replace people like these in the organization. Just make sure they avoid the 305 local bus if it doesn’t stop in time.

Chatty Kathy

Chatty Kathy takes water cooler talk to the extreme and then will continue to talk until the sun goes down. The topics will range from work related to weekend plans or to the life happenings of her cats. I am clearly stereotyping Kathy here, but this personality is found in men and women alike and the topics of discussion can vary from day to day or person to person. They usually have a hard time knowing when to end conversations and taking nonverbal cues for when the other person may be trying to exit the conversation. You may not even get in a single word or care to want to get a word in, but this person can often carry on a conversation with themselves for a very long time. Out of politeness, many of us will smile, nod and listen rather than end the conversation. This is all client time that is being wasted that could be used on more important things. As mentioned before, having some form of comradery with others is essential to your success, but spending hours a week having your ear talked off is not a good use of billable time. If you have a hard time ending these conversations, it is perfectly ok to kindly mention you have something you need to get back to at your desk. If you are cornered at your desk, a simple white lie of needing to prepare for an upcoming meeting or a restroom break, or a trip to the kitchen for some water can usually force the break in conversation that you may need to escape. Beware, if you end up with a stage five clinger, as they may even follow you to the restroom or kitchen. At this point, you will need to dance the fine line of being stern on ending the conversation but be sure to let them down easily.

Grinders

The term ‘grinders’ is used synonymously with the client from hell. They usually work their consultants really hard and for long hours. They are never appreciative and may even speak harshly and negatively to the team, no matter how good of a job they do. Nothing is ever good enough. Do not let grinders get you down or discouraged. In your career, you will have many engagements with a client on some level of the grinder spectrum and they cannot be avoided. Do your best and accept that you may be in an unwinnable situation and you should not be held accountable by your firm or your project manager. If you feel like the folks on your management team are unaware of the situation, do not hold your tongue. Send an email of your concerns early on and see if they can assist in easing the pain. If not, you will have documented evidence of acknowledging the situation and will not be held accountable if things do go south. Remember, not all projects last forever and for years on end. Hopefully, once you roll off the client from hell, the next project will be a lot better!

Unsure New Guy

Unsure new guy or gal never feels confident or sure of what they are doing. They will email you before making any decision, or walk over and ask you if it is acceptable to send you an email about being unsure about making a decision. You will be conflicted in wanting to be a helpful coach, mentor or subject matter expert, but the constant interruptions will take a toll on your focus and productivity. In the beginning it is best to show some patience. Give the support he or she needs and answer the questions they may have. Remember, at some point you were probably the one asking the questions and without others proving you answers and guidance, you would not be where you are. Try to set up touch points or meeting and bundle all their questions into those blocks of time to avoid the constant pings. If overtime, they do not get their feet under them and become self-supported or confident enough to take initiative, it may require some more hands on mentorship from leadership to get things going. There will be a point where you become more of a baby sitter then a mentor and at that point it would be best to have some harder conversations with the resource that maybe consulting may not be the right fit for them.

Are you interested in starting a career in consulting? Be sure to read the full book Jack of all Trades Master of Some; An Introduction to Consulting available on Amazon.

Please remember to be kind when travelling. Travelling will lose its charm at some point and long flight delays, odd eating pattern and lack of sleep will take its toll on you. You will be tempted to chew out the flight agent for not getting upgraded or the hotel service for taking too long to deliver your room service. Try to remember these items are out of the control of the staff member you are planning on berating. Everyone is just doing their job, and no one is going out of their way to specifically screw you over. The flight that is delayed for you is delayed for one hundred and fifty other people and yelling or cursing is not going to get the flight out of maintenance earlier. You accepted a job in consulting with travel expected and these delays will come with the territory, so please try to exercise some patience when things do not go perfectly.

A Little Kindness goes Along Way

Another classic consulting Thursday evening at the airport. A flight is delayed…flight delayed some more…flight finally cancelled. Passengers groaned as the flight cancellation was announced and began to line up at the customer service desk to determine their options on getting home. A large man who was visibly upset pushed his way through to the front of the line where he demanded a seat on the next flight out. The agent politely told him there was nothing she could do and the system would auto assign passengers based on availability. He continued to fume and mentioned his travel status with the airline while screaming at the poor agent. After a few minutes he finally gave in and stomped away, while still yelling curses at the agent, the airline and anyone in his way.

The gentlemen next inline walked up to the deflated agent and said “I guess there is no space on the next flight huh? It is, what it is. Sorry about that other guy”.

She looked up and replied, “one minute”.After a few moments of typing away on her computer she handed the gentleman a new boarding pass for the next flight out with a smile. It was the first I had seen anything like this occur but it really showed me in life that there are moments where “you catch more flies with honey”.

Are you interested in starting a career in consulting? Be sure to read the full book Jack of all Trades Master of Some; An Introduction to Consulting available on Amazon.

Since you will be on the road, you will be dining out. A lot. I’ve tried to get creative about bringing granola bars and other dry snacks with me on the road but most of the meals you eat will be at franchises and restaurants. The cost you incur by eating out can get high, but since you are traveling for work, all of your meals will be reimbursed. Each city you are staying in will have a different rate per diem (latin for “per day”)  for how much you can spend on food daily. Although it may feel nice to burn through that entire dollar amount, you do not necessarily need to if you are concerned about your health or waistline. Some clients will consider your per diem as a “use it or lose it” policy so if you were given sixty dollars a day, and you only used forty dollars that day on meals, then that was the end of that. Other clients will consider the per diem as the default amount you get that day. So, if you were given sixty dollars a day, and you only used forty dollars that day on meals, you can still expense the full sixty dollars and earn an extra twenty dollars untaxed for every day you were on the road. Be sure to verify with your project director before you complete your expense report for the month on what the policy in place is.

Eating out at restaurants usually comes with larger food portions than what is considered a normal healthy portion. Try to cut your meal in half if you can. It may seem wasteful since most hotels will not have a fridge to take the second half home. Even if it does, it can be difficult to take leftovers to a client on the road that may not have a microwave.

When you dine with clients, be sure you always pick up the tab. Even though you may be charging the amount right back to them in the end, it is still one of the major rules of consulting that a client should never pay for a meal. Try not to order the most expensive steak on the menu either, even if you see the client splurging a bit. Even though he may recognize the cost is not coming out of his pocket, it is coming from the company he represents and seeing you act carelessly outside the client office will reflect on your perception at the client office.

If you are out to dinner with your team and the client is not around, feel free to kick back a little. Traveling is hard and can be stressful. Dinner after long hours is a good time to relax and take a break from the work. It’s not unusual to head back to the hotel after dinner and do some more work, so give yourself the hour at dinner to watch the game or catch up with your coworkers socially, you deserve it.

Are you interested in starting a career in consulting? Be sure to read the full book Jack of all Trades Master of Some; An Introduction to Consulting available on Amazon.

A great way to travel in the modern age is to utilize a ride sharing app. A rental car can run you and your client around eighty dollars a day with taxes and airport fees. For a fraction of the cost you could just call a ride share from your phone to get where you are going. Besides being able to save the time of having to pick up a rental car and drop one off, you can save the time and cost of filling up the tank on return. Adding up the rides you require for lunch, hotel and other outings from the client site, the cost can be nearly half of what it would be to rent a car. If you share the cost with other teammates it can be even cheaper. You will save time and the client will save money. Another win-win.

Are you interested in starting a career in consulting? Be sure to read the full book Jack of all Trades Master of Some; An Introduction to Consulting available on Amazon.

Being able to quickly navigate an airport is one of the most critical skills you will need to have in order to be a traveling consultant. There are many unavoidable red tape and security protocols all airports have and they continue to grow more strenuous as time goes on, so you are going to want to take advantage of every tip and trick in the book to be able to get in and out as fast as you can, or you will be spending a lot of your life standing in line behind a family of four on their way to Florida who keep getting sent back through the metal detector.

1. Never check a bag. Your usual trip should be three nights and four days. There is no reason you should need more than a single carry-on size bag and your laptop bag. Checking a bag creates extra time overhead when getting to the airport and requires you to be there earlier. It means you have to deal with an extra kiosk which is one more additional line you could have avoided. Once you land, you will have to wait for your checked bag to arrive and you have to deal with the risk of the airlines possibly losing your bag. The time loss and risk is not worth checking a bag and should only be done so if you absolutely have to bring an item with you that is not allowed to fly. If you have a special type of shampoo you need, make a trip to your local superstore. You can purchase empty travel size containers for under a dollar which you can then transfer your liquids into prior to your trip.  Remember, if you are traveling with a team, you do not want to be the one everyone needs to wait for as you deal with your checked bag.

Other items that you will need to pack will be three days of business clothes (you should be wearing the first day’s clothes on the morning you leave). Things may get a bit creased in a small bag but hotels will have an iron waiting for you in your room. If you are rushed for time, giving creased clothes a good steaming in the bathroom shower always works well. You will probably need a few gym clothes and a pair of running shoes if you plan to work out. It helps to keep a few laundry bags as you will not want your stinky workout clothes mingling with your work clothes on the trip back home. I’ve survived many years of traveling with just these core basics. All my technology and books travel with me in my laptop bag.

• Pick an airline, stick with it and be loyal to it. Traveling with the same airline will not only earn you points for personal travel, but the higher loyalty status you earn, the easier and more comfortable traveling becomes. You will be allowed to board the plane earlier, pick better seats closer to the front with more leg room, be able to get off the plane sooner and, from time to time, score an upgrade to first-class. In the scenario your flight is cancelled, you usually end up getting bumped up higher in line for the next flight out which helps avoid getting stuck at the airport for hours on end or, even worse, over night!

• On a similar note, never book the last flight out on a Thursday night unless your client obligations absolutely require you to. In the case that your flight is cancelled, and it will happen from time to time, it gives you a few more flights later on to get bumped to without getting stuck at the airport overnight.

• Car loyalty have similar reward perks programs like the airlines. The most convenient of the rental car perk is getting notified directly to your phone as to where your car is waiting for you. Gone are the days of even needing to talk to someone at the counter. Just walk right to your car and head right out. On the way back in, there is no need to wait for a customer service rep to sign you back in. Just be sure to leave the keys in your car and your receipt will show up in your email as soon as they scan it, which usually happens before you reach your gate.

• Hotel loyalty also comes with a nifty app. You should be able to check in before you walk through the door and have a key card waiting for you. Newer apps on your phone may allow you to open your hotel door, so needing a key card might not be necessary. This is especially helpful on the long travel Mondays when you just want to get to your room and finally relax. Or in my case, change clothes and get a workout in before dinner.

• Airport pre-check and clearance is worth the cost. This program does come with an initial cost and an interview with security but usually lasts for five years. Ask your employer if this is something you can expense, or check with your credit card as some may allow you to credit the cost as a perk. This clearance allows you to go through security screening through a special fancy line which usually has significantly less people and is usually faster. Once you get to the metal detectors, they will often let you keep your shoes on as well as let you keep your laptop in your bag when it goes through the X-Ray machine, rather than have to take it out in its own bin, wasting time and risking damages.

Are you interested in starting a career in consulting? Be sure to read the full book Jack of all Trades Master of Some; An Introduction to Consulting available on Amazon.

If given the option to not use a corporate card, I would recommend getting your own. Credit cards usually give you thirty to sixty days to pay off the balance, so if you keep up with your expense reports, you should be able to keep a zero balance on the card. This will prevent you from racking up interest fees that would come out of your pocket. Go online and shop around for different credit cards. There are hundreds of cards, some that are free, some with different point structures and some that have an annual fee. Do not rule out annual fee cards right off the bat. A lot of these cards come with better perks. Try to use your consulting skills to create a spreadsheet of pros and cons. The goal is to maximize your net gain and there are many ways to gain on credit cards. Just want some extra cash? Get a card with higher cash back rewards. Want to travel for personal reasons and not just work? Get a card that gives 2x or 3x reward points on travel rewards. Be sure to review the entire guide of perks as well per card. Many offer purchase protection on electronics, flights, free concierge and lounge access at airports which is a must-have if you are prone to getting delayed a lot. All these perks can definitely make some of the longer travel days just a little less painful.

Double Hop Travel

If you want to save some cash on your personal travel and have some flexibility, try the weekend getaway trip while on the road. Instead of flying home, you can usually fly somewhere else as long as you fly back to your client on Monday and the cost difference is the same. If there is a cost difference, cover the difference out of pocket and only expense what it would have cost for you to fly home. This is a good way to save on the airfare of personal travel and get some cool experiences in. Remember to pack accordingly as you will not have a chance to go home and do laundry for about 11 days if you do this kind of trip.

Are you interested in starting a career in consulting? Be sure to read the full book Jack of all Trades Master of Some; An Introduction to Consulting available on Amazon.

At the end of each month, you will be required to fill out an expense report. This activity will be one of the more mundane and tedious job requirements you will have but you will want to be reimbursed for the large sums of money you put up for weeks of airfare, food and hotels. Make it a habit to keep receipts as you go. It helps to have a dedicated credit card for work travel so transactions may electronically get recorded in one place. Depending on how strict your auditing department is, you may also need to provide scans of physical receipts as well. There are many apps available to help make this easier or you can just take pictures on your phone as they come in and sort it out later. Most major hotels and airlines will email you a copy of your receipt so you should be able to dig those out of your email when you need the documentation. On the reports themselves, you will need to record the expense, the date, the service, the cost and possibly provide details in the notes.

Once submitted, there is usually an approval process by the payroll and invoicing team. Once approved, you will receive the dollar amount on your next paycheck. This amount should be untaxed and not paid as a bonus or your base pay.

Are you interested in starting a career in consulting? Be sure to read the full book Jack of all Trades Master of Some; An Introduction to Consulting available on Amazon.

While you travel, you will be expensing all costs you incur to the client. This is usually done at the end of the month when your firm invoices the client for billable time and expenses. The cadence can vary based on accounting and other agreements. Some firms will issue you a corporate credit card you can use for travel so you are not having to put up the cash yourself.

These costs should rarely be out of pocket. It is very difficult for someone to put up thousands of dollars a month to pay for travel and expenses outside of the home office of employment. In the odd case they are not immediately reimbursed, remember to keep a record of everything that you paid for as a business expense so that you will be able to claim those on your taxes at the end of the year. In general, if you are not able to float the travel cost and you are asked to do so without being given a corporate credit card, make your concern known early and see if you can have a manager or executive assistant help book your travel.

Are you interested in starting a career in consulting? Be sure to read the full book Jack of all Trades Master of Some; An Introduction to Consulting available on Amazon.

Everyone you meet and work with is a possible future client, coworker or friend. Keep this in mind as you wrap up client engagements. Even if a project was rocky or had you working long hours, be sure to leave on a good note with a good impression. When work pops up later, you want to be on the short list of people they call. It’s easy to give a bad client the bird as you walk out but that small moment of self-satisfaction is not worth the value of what may come later on. Your network is a spider’s web of potential. You never know who may know who or who went to school with someone else’s wife’s best friend that can lead to a project, job or opportunity ten years down the line.

Are you interested in starting a career in consulting? Be sure to read the full book Jack of all Trades Master of Some; An Introduction to Consulting available on Amazon.

One of the best parts of a young consulting career, especially early on, is the ability to hop on a plane to some cool new destination Monday to Thursday, live in a hotel, eat foods you could never afford in college and get to work in cool new places every few months or years. It is fun and exciting and the days do go by a lot faster. Most traveling projects will require you to wake up on Monday at 4:30 AM to catch the 6:00 AM flight to your destination so you can get in as much billable time as possible. On the other side of the week, you will probably be catching the Thursday evening flight out to maximize your day as well. Most projects do not require you to stay until Friday, but from time to time it may be expected. Fair warning, however, the travel can be mentally and physically exhausting at times and definitely does become harder to do as you get older and settle down in life.

Are you interested in starting a career in consulting? Be sure to read the full book Jack of all Trades Master of Some; An Introduction to Consulting available on Amazon.