A consultant's lifestyle can be tough at junior levels, largely because you have little control over your own workflow. I used to find that having lots of work and to some extent even long hours or travel isn't the problem... it's the lack of certainty over when you're going to have to do it which means you can't plan a social life. My best advice is as follows:1) Be assertive with your managers - if you want to leave early on a certain day, let them know. If practical, try also to get them to set you 'lumps' of work with deadlines so that you can manage when and where you do it, rather than being somebody's whipping boy. Sometimes people are too afraid to speak up. If you focus on breaking work up into tasks and getting responsibilities assigned, your manager may well respect you more for being organised/task-focused rather than drifting along in an ineffective team where nobody really takes ownership for anything.2) Get a decent mobile tariff - one which gives you unlimited inclusive calls to your bf and ideally your friends (Orange do a 'magic numbers' scheme). Be on the phone constantly! If you're working abroad, then use the office phones and SMS/e-mail (sometimes you can send a text via a web page for free - great if you're a junior analyst who 'isn't allowed' to leave his computer or tap away on his phone every half hour to make a call). Even in years gone by I used to constantly phone friends/family about trivia whilst working or in between meetings. Some bosses might not take too well to it, but there are usually ways of being discreet. Umlimited call plans rock!c) Stay away from loonies. You will quickly be able to identify the ones I'm talking about. They're the ones who laugh about having to 'pull an all nighter' or who arrive at 10am and leave at midnight every day. Or the ones who would rather talk about what needs to be done rather than actually rolling up their sleeves and getting on with it. If you hear someone say "we're going to have to work late because we have a deadline coming up", then avoid them like the plague - they invariably have poor time management skills, are lazy, or don't understand the concept of negotiating realistic deadlines with a client (external or otherwise).d) If you do land on a project where people are working silly hours for no real reason, and you're unable to assert yourself (e.g. because of an overbearing manager), then use the 'idle time' to get on with internet banking, sorting out personal issues, sending e-mails etc. Obviously it's a dire situation when it gets to this, but you need to recover some of the lost time so that you spend the weekends relaxing and enjoying yourself.e) Find a good mentor (someone at a mid-senior level who will take you under their wing) and stick to him/her like glue. f) Above all, remember that life is for living. At your level, you won't be getting paid much anyway - so be aware of the trade-off you're making between £££ and hours/social life/family. An employment contract is a two-way deal so it should benefit YOU as well as the company. If you can get a better deal elsewhere, then take it! Don't hop between jobs too often or it might mess up your CV, but a few times within the first 5 years of working is fine.
